Dell notebooks

[Andy008]

Has anyone bought a notebook from Dell recently?

Given that the sales/service centre is based in India, what is the procedure for repairs and warranty cover should something go wrong?

[LeMarchand]

The school that I work at has mainly Dell desk and laptops. Very rarely had to use Dell support, the few times I have called them (last was before the summer hols) I would never have guessed that the call centre is in India - the guys on the phone spoke perfect English - though maybe the business/educational accounts are handled differently.

Anyway, one time a drive needed replacing and it was with me the next morning, and another time they sorted out the problem over the phone (the sensor on the lid was bent out of shape). The two times an engineer was needed, he was there and resolved the problem the next day. Never had a problem with any of the desktops (that was an equipment fault!). The teachers aren't particularly careful with their laptops, and I suspect that all but the first of the problems above were down to rough handling, as well.

All in all, very impressed with Dell's service (I can't understand why they went for a different manufacturer through a third party seller for subsequent purchases), though things may be different for personal accounts.

[stoo_pid]

We've got a Dell laptop & we had to use the support service just once, a couple of weeks after we bought it. It was very obvious that the call centre was in India but they were very helpful and there weren't any major language obstacles. Our problem was taking a while to resolve so they offered to call me back, which they did immediately. In the end it was clear the fault was with the keyboard itself. They arranged an engineer to collect it from me at my work address the next day, fixed the problem & returned the laptop back to me a little over 36 hours after I reported the fault.

Compared to other so-called 'help'lines I've used in the past I thought Dell were excellent & just as importantly, we've never had a problem with the laptop since (about 3 years now). Our next PC will definitely be a Dell.