Customer Reviews

Dell Dimension 8400, Intel P4 3.2GHz HT, 1GB RAM, DVD Writer, RAID 0 Dual SATA 160GB Disks

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

2 year old Dell 8400, ...paid top dollars, ... nothing but trouble, ..now I can not get the thing to work, ... Did everything Tech support asked me to do, ..nothing. I get that solid amber light on the power button, and I am not sure if mobo is out or cpu is out. Try to get tech people to help is almost impossible, ..that's if you can get anyone to talk to you first. It is frustrating as this was my first Dell, and my previous computers were never a problem. I know Dell people know about this problem as I see lot of people with similar prolbem trying to fix their Dell without much success (sometimes cpu, sometimes mobo). They keep this up, they will lose customers and become like Tandy, Commadore or one of those, .... I am not a happy customer Dell!

I would give this product negative stars if I could. My advice, buy an Apple, their customer service is unmatched by any other I have experienced.

I have 3 Dells, nearly all the same system. My problems started with the last one purchased. From the moment of setting it up, it NEVER worked properly. We called the tech support - and the nightmare began!!

Now I have issue with any company who makes a majority of their money in an American market, whose entire sales staff is all American, or at least speaks without accents, and then suddenly when you call tech support with your valid issues you are only speaking to foreigners with such heavy accents and very little regard for American customs and ways of life.

Dell out-sources all of their tech support to India and now the Philippines, which are two countries that are far more economically depressed than ours. This becomes an apparent issue when you are trying to solve a serious tech problem and you are met with the attitude of being a spoiled and ungrateful American, and treated as if your valid problem is trivial. I chalk this up to the fact that what you spend on your computer as one purchase takes them a huge amount of time to earn. I could be wrong, but after dealing with the tech support for over two years, I feel as if I am experienced enough to make that call.

Another issue that is painfully apparent when dealing with the out-sourced tech support is that the accents are so heavy that it is very hard to understand what they want you to do, and when you repeatedly ask them to repeat themselves, they take offense. I often find myself telling them my phone has an awful connection and to please spell what they are saying. I never want to offend anyone, and usually on the phone with tech support I often feel as if my valid requests of speaking slowly and loudly and spelling do indeed offend them, and thus the quality of service dramatically decreases. I become frustrated, as do they. I don't blame the innocent support staff, they are just doing their job to the best of their ability and are human. I blame Dell for not providing the proper training for these people, if they are to troubleshoot the American market, perhaps not only computer classes are relevant, but to ease the stress of their staff, accent reducing classes would be appropriate. I have heard they may have begun that, but for this product loyal consumer it is a bit too late.

Honestly, that is just the tip of the iceberg, more a point of frustration. And if you purchase a Dell and it has any sort of issue, you will end up feeling as if you are on the Titanic and are slowly sinking to the demise of your pocketbook and sanity.

To make an extremely long story short, we bought a Dell that never worked properly, and were told that if trouble-shooting did not work that we could return it. While talking to tech support we were treated as if we didn't know how to turn it on, and were talked down to on well over 100 phone calls with tech support. Out drama began on the first day of setup and has not ended, and our warranty expired 3 months ago with the same case number as the first day of setup. Ridiculous. We were lied to, made false promises, told a million different things, insulted, and we spent about $1500 for the privilege.

We were told that there was nothing wrong with it, that it was us, 4 months and 30 phone calls later it was diagnosed with a bad motherboard. Still didn't work, again we were told firmly that it was not the computer but rather the user, 2 more months and at least 30 more phone calls it was diagnosed as a bad hard drive. Still never worked properly and ever since they replaced the hard drive they will not do anything else, claiming that the motherboard and hard drive are the computer and that there couldn't be anything else wrong - except for the user. I reminded them that they repeatedly told us that if the troubleshooting was not successful we could return the unit - and they had the audacity to tell us we were over our time and that returns need to be within the first 14 days, when we made the original complaint we were well within it!! Talk about pissed off!! We gave them the benefit of the doubt and did as they asked, we were treated as if our heads were firmly planted up our rear ends, we were told that someone would get back to us - and they never did (we heard this at least 75 times). We escalated the case - twice and were met with worse service.

Having the same case number since before my warranty expired allows the warranty to continue coverage - but no one will call back, as our issue is so great that they send us to several different departments. As soon as the warranty expired on all other issues, they stopped responding to the same one we have had since the very first day. The last week of October I left no less than 20 messages via email and voice mail with 3 different people and to date have still not received a phone call back, and most were with the people that the case had been escalated to, who are supposed to be professional and extremely qualified. My warranty expired on October 26th while actively dealing with the original issue. I have written letters, I have made phone calls, I have done as much as I have he time to do - and they have never replied. AWFUL!!

If you purchase a Dell and it has any kind of issue, you are in for a world of frustration. Like I said, we have 3, and the last one was a horrible experience, the first two never had a problem. I would never purchase another product by Dell. If I could afford to take out a full page ad in the New York Times for a year, I would do it to warn others of this horrible company.

If I had been paid a modest wage for the time I wasted dealing with tech support over this computer, I could have easily afforded to purchase a brand new, fully loaded, all the bells and whistles, wonderful customer service with an Apple computer, and still had money left over for a spa day and shopping spree. Plus I wouldn't have pissed away the original $1500 on the doorstop that Dell provided me.

RUN! RUN! RUN!

Honestly, the worst experience with any company ever.

My daughter-in-law bought this computer and the hard drive crashed in a few days! Not taking a clue, I bought one and my hard drive crashed in 9 months. Dell techs came to the house and replaced the drives, but it shouldn't have happened to new machines!

Dell sold me a system that was incompatible. After an attempt at replacement that didn't work, and took longer than 21 days to accomplish, they gave me a very hard time about returning and charged me a penalty of 10% restocking and I had to pay for return shipping. Take my advice and don't buy a Dell product.

I WROTE 1 STAR BECAUSE YOU CANT GO ANY LOWER. I WISH I HAD READ YOUR REVIEWS BEFOR I BOUGHT FROM WHAT IS COMMONLY CALLED DELL ELL. IF I HAD I WOULD NOT HAVE WENT THROUGH 4 MONTHS OF BEING ON THE PHONE NUMEROUS, NUMEROUS HOURS TRYING TO GET THIS FIXED AND I STILL HAVE NOT GOT THROUGH TO ANY ONE WITHOUT GETTING TRANSFERRED, DISONNECTED, AND GIVEN EXT. NO. THAT DON'T EXIST. THE LAST TIME I WAS IN TEARS, BECAUSE THEY SAID THEY WOULD NOT TAKE IT BACK. I HAVE OWNED THIS COMPUTER 7 MONTHS. BUYER BEWARE

For a system that I have owned for almost 2 years, it is still speedy and totally reliable. (OK a lightening strike took out the built in NIC, but you can't blame the system for that).

Initial fault with video not always starting up properly was cured with a driver update from ATI.

I configured my 8400 with Raid 1 rather than Raid 0, it slows the hard drive access down a bit but gives you fault tolerance. Even so never had a failure. The CD/DVD drives work great. RAID technology on a home computer (once only available to corporate servers) is amazing. I can't believe others here are disappointed.

Inserting a USB drive into the front USB slot access is awkward at best. The case design in this regard is stupid. The 9200's are much better.

Best home computer I have had. Never needed to call for help or support.

I may upgrade to a newer system once Vista comes out, but no reason to do so otherwise, it has plenty of life left in it. This system checks out as OK with the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, but buying a new system would make more sense than upgrading the OS IMO.

I purchased this computer on August 5th and it came in on August 11th. It did not work. I contacted Dell and they told me I needed more memory, even though this computer should have had enough memory. They refused to send it to me and I was forced to purchase more memory on my own. The computer still did not work correctly I was hit by Hurricane Charley and was without power for a week, followed in six weeks' time by Hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. These hurricanes left me without power and internet connection for a total of almost four weeks. When I finally got to the point where I could deal with this computer again, I contacted Dell to return it. They refused to allow me to return it because I hadn't returned it within their 15-day time period. I explained what happened with the hurricanes and they still refused to grant an exception. I am now stuck with a computer that does not work. Please do not purchase a Dell computer. You will have nothing but headaches.

Dude, don't buy a Dell. I bought Dell's years ago and they purred along for years. When I upgraded the computers in my office this time, I bought Dells - against the advice of my computer consultant.

When they came, they didn't work. I bought the deluxe service package - the one where they come on site if they need to. Here's how that works:

1. If you call, 3 of 4 times you're on hold for 15 minutes, then there is a click and you're disconnected. 45 minutes on hold, then someone picks up the receiver and hangs up on you. If you call 40 times this will happen 30 of the 40.

2. Once you get them, they will say it's a software problem and it's not their responsibility - call Microsoft. If you call Microsoft, they tell you that, since you bought it from Dell, they are the reseller, and you need to deal with them on all operating system issues.

3. You call back to Dell, and they try to sell you more support and refuse to address the issue (after hanging up on you three times first).

4. I finally called Geeks on Call - they looked at the machines - said it was a 'bad build' and that it was a Dell problem. I paid another $500 to them to get the machines running.

5. I asked Dell for the money back for the service contract - they refuse.

I bought a Dell dimension about 2 years ago. When I purchased they mentioned that it included a 3 year ON-SITE service. The computer has become ridiculously slow and when I have called for support the representatives have made me run tons of diagnostic tests which show nothing abnormal. When I mentioned the ON-SITE service they send me an e-mail with a long legal document which contains my coverage and they will not give me additional support. I would recommend potential buyers to avoid this product.

I purchased my Dell 3 yrs. ago. From the beginning I have received ill treatment from the Dell staff, plus the computer is a big piece of excrement. The salesman hooked me in by stating that they honored a 6 month same as cash purchase, when actually it was a 3 MONTH SAME AS CASH! I, too, like others on this post went all the way to the top to Michael Dell. He never responded to me either. Not even an acknowledgement. Once they have your money you're screwed. (Guess that's how they make their money.) I spent almost $3,000 on this computer (specifically for the graphics) - it can't even play a complete Half-Life game without freezing up. The CD/DVD-R had to be replaced because IT NEVER WORKED! People, if you take heed to any advice please listen to what we tell you here and STAY AWAY FROM DELL!!!!!!!