I think Dell just passed Apple as my best customer service experience

[GoodBytes]

A 700$ system is a pice of shit. Computers are expensive. That is the reality of things.

Parts are expensive, R&D is expensive, after sale service is expensive, and good material design and the material itself, is expensive. Not to mention general engineering to make it all happen and well.

 

I mean, sure if you don't mind working for free, it will help a lot in dropping prices, but low-end system margins are extremely thin.

Assuming you don't get an extended warranty or any accessory with a laptop, and pick up the phone and call Dell, and ask for a price, the most you'll get is 15% on that Dell XPS, if you are lucky. That is basically the retail store margins.

 

When you go at the dollar store, and buy that cable for 1-3$, the actual retail cost is 0.05 to 0.10$ depending on the cable. THAT is what is called profits. And the price won't drop until consumers goes "WOW this HDMI Monster cable is ONLY 300$ for 1 meter! DEAAAALL! I'll buy 10!"

 

However, on computers, things are expensive, and yes, consumers demand the lowest price for the highest specs (which contradict the logic of overpriced HDMI cable, or any cable, but oh well), and so you have the race at the bottom, like we had in 2011-2013, where all laptops where TN displays, 1376x768 (Windows minimum screen resolution), slow as crap RAM, and and very slow 5400RPM HDD you would think they it runs at 3RPM. This is where HP and Toshiba jam packed their system with advertisement junk software (to reduce the price further), and Dell rebought his company, no longer with the need to please shareholders, and focus keeping its name clean.

 

Was it on this forum? Anyway, I have asked back in 2012-2013, iirc, Give me a ~13-14inch laptop with a dedicated GPU and a screen resolution higher than 1376x768, I am ready to spend 3000$ on it. No 1 suggestion came... and why? Because there was none. I have looked, people looked. You want performance? Buy a MacBook Pro, that was the only choice. And no wonder why people where jumping on Apple at the time, while everyone was calling the death of PCs, the future is tablets and smartphones, and for productivity you had laptops. You may disagree with me, and that is fine, as this is my opinion only. When the Surface Pro came and started to sale and profits where shown to Microsoft as people jump on it, mostly just for a quality Windows powered PC. This is when manufactures, including ones that called the Surface concept a failure, to actually make decent hardware. And hold and behold: You have Dell making its super impressive XPS series, you have Razer coming in with their own line of laptops. ASUS and MSI actually put effort in their system design, build quality, and so on.

 

Yes, margins are higher on premium systems. And as always, companies makes the most out of its accessories. Hence why your dock station for your laptop/convertible tablet costs 150-200 or even 300$. And why the Razor Core cost 700$ and uses crappy fans (granted a large part is R&D, but still).

 

But on low-end system, margins are nothing. Honestly, I doubt it is even 15% for retailers, that is why they shove in your face all these silly services and extended warranties, and financing options, and won't leave you alone, and then simply go "Why did I even step in this store.. I should have ordered it online"

[LordLeewee]

i guess after paying apple prices for normal consumer products i hadnt realised i had  business grade product, even though ive used both companies products for business purposes 

[ALwin]

13 hours ago, LordLeewee said:

Ive got an XPS 15 laptop, had it a couple of months and have been getting quite regular crashes due to a hardware fault. as ive needed the laptop for work and the crashes usually give me a a bit of warning to save work ive waited until a convenient time to contact Dell for a repair since i ddint want to be without the laptop.

 

Well, ive given them my crash logs, ran a diagnostic over the phone and theyre sending a tech out on monday to swap the motherboard! no rma nonsense, Brilliant!

Has Dell or any other company done a hardware replacement that costs over $700 on an out of warranty part for free?  Apple has done it for me, even though the damage was my fault.

[JoeCoke]

2 hours ago, ShadowCaptain said:

 

I agree

 

but they have to make money

I'm not an expert, but I think they could still make money if they just balanced things out more. Take some power away and spend the extra cash saved on higher build quality.

 

Maybe I'm just naive and that's not how it works, but that's how I see it.

[NumLock21]

You do get what you pay for. So don't cheap out. Some even have global warranty instead of limited to the region you bought it from.

[JoeCoke]

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

A 700$ system is a pice of shit. Computers are expensive. That is the reality of things.

Parts are expensive, R&D is expensive, after sale service is expensive, and good material design and the material itself, is expensive. Not to mention general engineering to make it all happen and well.

 

I mean, sure if you don't mind working for free, it will help a lot in dropping prices, but low-end system margins are extremely thin.

Assuming you don't get an extended warranty or any accessory with a laptop, and pick up the phone and call Dell, and ask for a price, the most you'll get is 15% on that Dell XPS, if you are lucky. That is basically the retail store margins.

 

When you go at the dollar store, and buy that cable for 1-3$, the actual retail cost is 0.05 to 0.10$ depending on the cable. THAT is what is called profits. And the price won't drop until consumers goes "WOW this HDMI Monster cable is ONLY 300$ for 1 meter! DEAAAALL! I'll buy 10!"

 

However, on computers, things are expensive, and yes, consumers demand the lowest price for the highest specs (which contradict the logic of overpriced HDMI cable, or any cable, but oh well), and so you have the race at the bottom, like we had in 2011-2013, where all laptops where TN displays, 1376x768 (Windows minimum screen resolution), slow as crap RAM, and and very slow 5400RPM HDD you would think they it runs at 3RPM. This is where HP and Toshiba jam packed their system with advertisement junk software (to reduce the price further), and Dell rebought his company, no longer with the need to please shareholders, and focus keeping its name clean.

 

Was it on this forum? Anyway, I have asked back in 2012-2013, iirc, Give me a ~13-14inch laptop with a dedicated GPU and a screen resolution higher than 1376x768, I am ready to spend 3000$ on it. No 1 suggestion came... and why? Because there was none. I have looked, people looked. You want performance? Buy a MacBook Pro, that was the only choice. And no wonder why people where jumping on Apple at the time, while everyone was calling the death of PCs, the future is tablets and smartphones, and for productivity you had laptops. You may disagree with me, and that is fine, as this is my opinion only. When the Surface Pro came and started to sale and profits where shown to Microsoft as people jump on it, mostly just for a quality Windows powered PC. This is when manufactures, including ones that called the Surface concept a failure, to actually make decent hardware. And hold and behold: You have Dell making its super impressive XPS series, you have Razer coming in with their own line of laptops. ASUS and MSI actually put effort in their system design, build quality, and so on.

 

Yes, margins are higher on premium systems. And as always, companies makes the most out of its accessories. Hence why your dock station for your laptop/convertible tablet costs 150-200 or even 300$. And why the Razor Core cost 700$ and uses crappy fans (granted a large part is R&D, but still).

 

But on low-end system, margins are nothing. Honestly, I doubt it is even 15% for retailers, that is why they shove in your face all these silly services and extended warranties, and financing options, and won't leave you alone, and then simply go "Why did I even step in this store.. I should have ordered it online"

I don't expect a 700$ laptop to magically be quality. I think they should sacrifice specs and use the extra money saved for better build quality. I'd take a weaker laptop that will last me for years over a stronger one that'll shit the bed in a year.

 

Just my two cents. :I

[Kimmers]

Dell's customer service for their higher end stuff is great. Dell got a bad rap when it was making run of the mill items but I know my next set of monitors will be from Dell.