Customer Reviews

Pre-owned Dell Latitude C610 1.2 GHz Pentium III Notebook PC with 256 MB RAM, 20 GB Hard Drive, and DVD/CD-ROM Drive

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

 

 

Run, my friends, run from Dell's line of laptop computers. I've owned two of them -- one fromt he Latitude series and another from the Inspiron series. They've all had the same problems -- motherboard issues. As you may or may not know, motherboards are expensive, and in my case, the motherboard went TWICE in each computer.

My usage was light -- simply for business applications -- no gaming, no mega streaming audio or video -- just applications. And I see in the case of this model that you're getting 256 MB RAM -- you'll need at least 512 MB, or your computer will crawl between applications.

I know laptops will run hot -- but Dell laptops seem to run exceptionally hot. So hot that I had to park mine in front of an open window in January to cool down after 30 minutes of use. Perhaps this is why the motherboards in so many of their units bite the dust.

I've been twice disappointed with Dell products. As you can tell from the ratings on the Dell computers that show up here on Amazon, users don't have a very high opinion of them. And I won't get started on the whole Dell customer service aspect. It's well known that it's abysmal at best.

After the second laptop motherboard issue, I've learned my lesson -- and it cost me quite a few dollars. Hopefully they go back to the drawing board and redesign these things. Just be wary when purchasing a Dell product.

I was wary of buying a preowned computer, but I felt the price was right for taking the chance. It's a great durable unit and my wife and I use it every day. The DVD drive works great and it's like having a television with you wherever you go. We've used it to do business on, write letters and emails, and watch movies as well as connect to the internet. Probably the only downfall is we all want more hard drive space. For what we use this one for though it's still worth every penny!

First off , I could not register it in my name, per Dell, it is still registered under the business that leased it, I thought it was a new unit, it was used, in good condition but used, secondly, on doing some research on the Dell website, I found that the ac adapter was on recall, per Dell they do not manufacture these anymore, and thirdly, it did not come with a back up cd or any paper work, manual or information, I called the company who sold it to Amazon and they said they would send me an accessory kit, it was supposed to come with it, I was told by Dell that the unit is useless without it. I returned the unit to Amazon with no problem, they were great, but, let the buyer beware, your better off buying brand new then getting an outdated used model. There are plenty of great deals out there!

These units are in the original condition the day these were first purchased. They have been tested and working out of the box, just plug and play. Drivers were loaded and modem and network drivers loaded!

I sent this as a gift for a friend in Arizona. It came without any instructions for use, no operating system and the wrong cables. I am absolutely mortified and upset. I will never again buy any electronics from Amazon.com. You should be ashamed of yourself and so should Dell.

I do not know how to fix this problem since I am in NY and the giftee is in Arizona.

Yours truly,
Judie Schwartz

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.

I have one of these LT's but with more memory & larger Hard Drive. Also an extra battery which gives me almost 8 hours of "off the mains" time. Great machine, I use it for "field servicing" of clients and find it reliable and easy to use.

We have a small business here in Modesto California, called Comtronics Systems and Multimedia. A few months ago, we purchased a "lot" (13) of C610s online and personally refurbished them here in our shop/office. They sold fast and had no calls with tech issues. We offer free tech support and limited warantees for all units we sell, but our Dell unit customers have not had to use it. We can't vouch for the tech support over at Dell Corp., so that is why we offer our own. We love the Dells we've sold and use them a bunch for ourselves here in the office.
- Cheers! Jeanie and Scott at Comtronics Syst. http://comtronics-sys.com

I got the laptop previous to do date, with out AC adapter, power cord, user's manual. Furthermore, when I recieved this PC Laptop, not only does the outside of it look like it survived a nuclear war fare, but also the plugin where the adaptor goes, is beyond chewed up, the rechargable battery does not lock into place, the latch under the lap top is broken.

Furthermore, I went to a used computer store to see if they could help me, they tried to get an adaptor in the laptop, upon doing that, we were able to open the lap top, and upon finding a "CLEAN MODEM," we found downloaded SPY SWEEPER programs, that you can only download from the net. Computer games such as "Forever Winters Night 2", and store baught programs such as Kodak film processor, and Adobe Acrobat, Moxilla Firefox.

I Am very unhappy with this laptop. I also called up the original makers "DELL" and had them run the ID number labeled under the notebook. This notebook was not listed under the seller "Alec Formberg" whom sold it to me, but this laptop is still registered under a corportation name. THATS A RED FLAG!

I also had tried to call the sender and tell them whats up and down, I have left a message, I have tried getting a hold of the sending via yahoo messenger, While he was logged on, and he logged off right away. I am very unhappy with this notebook.

This item came very soon after I ordered it. It's got great graphics for your dvd's, and the sound is excellent. It's very easy to maneuver with. All it needed was a few modern updates and that was that.