Gateway vs. Dell

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Anyone out there have some input on the two forementioned systems? We have gateways and they have been pretty good. Recently purchased a Dell laptop. We need to purchase more systems for our office and are looking at Dell and Gateway. Advice???

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I’ve gone with Dell for one reason… a friend works for UPS and told me that Gateway is one of its biggest customers… At first I thought this was encouraging because so many people were buying them (this was before they had actual stores), then he told me that it was because they were sending broken and fixed parts back and forth so much.

I also find Dell’s phone support pretty helpful… although I never really needed it that much and I’ve never had to deal with Gateway support.
hope that helps… I’m sure someone else has some advice with sturdier legs…
have fun

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I am looking at Dell. I figure if it is good enough for Woody it is good enough for me.

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Thanks to you who replied. Meanwhile I did some research of my own. After speaking with some other techs from different companies, it was unanimous to go with Dell. The main reason was support and service. They said Gateway was awful in this area. So Dell it is for us here too!

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Just goes to show how experiences differ. I have had nothing but bad experiences with Dell, to the point where I threatened to walk if the company bought another one. The bad news was both with the boxes and support.

OTOH, I haven’t heard a good word about Gateway, either.

Just my

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I am in charge of the hardware for four plants. Three use only Dell and one Gateway. Gateway service has been horrid for us here and the people that bought them that work for us, including myself. Dell’s service has fallen flat too. In the last 18 months I have has more runarounds and defective laptops than you want to know. As a matter of fact the laptops are coming in a at 50 % defective rate and are requiring an average of FOUR yes that is four trips out by Dell “techs”. Because they are under warranty I let Dell deal with them. However, I have always been right as to the problem the 1st time. Dell argues wiht me on the phone, sends someone out and installs what ever they think is the problem. All computers with a problem come through me before I call on warranty issues.
Now as for hardware stability if you must go Dell go Optiplex. I have minimal problems with them and maximum run time.

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We have found the Latitudes to have lots of problems and the Inspirons to be much more solid. Dell’s phone support seems to have deteriorated significantly, even if you are willing to spend 45-90 minutes on hold to get it. I noticed recently you do not get the option buy only “warranty and mail in service” any more, you have to buy on-site service, at least in the small/medium business segment. Not sure if this is good value for the money or not.

Still, switching bac to Macs doesn’t appear to be an option…

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I’ve had an Inspiron 7500 for 2 1/2 years. I bought it fully loaded with what was available at the time. I added Dell’s best on-site service. Total cost was around $5600. In my limited exposure to users of other systems,this system and its support bt Dell has been severely lacking. Dell has either been very slow to respond or has not responded at all. I am absolutely blown away by Dell’s lack of integrity and responsibility. I had a battery failure and was exceedingly patient in waiting for their response. When, ultimately, their diagnostics showed the battery to need replacement, I contacted them and they refused to honor the warranty by saying that I didn’t contact them until after the one year warranty on batteries. First, I contacted them about the failure well before the one year limit. Because of a virus inspired system crash, I couldn’t provide documentation of my initial report before I absolutely needed to replace the $249.00 battery on my own. Secondly, I purchased the system by phone so when Dell pitched me on their superb service record and super deluxe on-site 3 year warranty, they never mentioned any exclusions from complete coverage.
I’ve written about many issues in the last 2+ years and Dell Tech Support is lacks knowledge and responsiveness. Additionally, they do not support a sytem that has been modified … Dell supports only the precise original configuration. This includes a refusal or denial of responsibility for the touchpad/keyboard drivers under anything other than the original OS. I have to use an external keyboard on my system or use many additional keystrokes to override the imbedded numeric keypad on my internal keyboard.
There have been times when they did attempt to provide answers … they instructed me to install drivers that worked only with W98 when they had been advised that I was using XP Pro.
Mark

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Although it may not matter to most, we refuse to purchase Dell products because of their anti-gun stance. We will not support any business who attempts to place restrictions on our 2nd. amendment rights through any means.

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This does matter! Is there somewhere I can verify this information? So what systems does your company buy?

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I’m probably overly sensitive to these issues but…

Here’s a link that has a politically correct statement by the NRA concerning it – http://www.nraila.org/ActionAlerts.asp?For…e=Detail&ID=101

It got bigger press on some of the gun boards – http://www.ar15.com and http://www.biggerhammer.net/barrett/wwwboard. Kind of old news now so you might have to search.

We’re using Gateways – I expect we have some five hundred in-house. They just replaced mine with a new 2GB machine. It rocks!

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I read this and also spoke with a rep at Dell. I personally believe that Dell did the appropriate thing in this incident. As a nation at war, we have to be cautious. They had several “disguised” customers try to buy systems from them in the past few months and after further screening, found out they were from Iraq. As a U.S. citizen, I applaud them for refusing to sell to that nation!

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That’s the feeling I have as well (now). The NRA posting seems to have separated the fiction from the facts. The original report of the incident had been replaced with the NRA quote and I had also just read it, Just a little paranoid when it comes to all the recent attacks on the 2nd amendment.

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Our Company unfortuantely buys Dell laptops. Last year we received a shipment of 91 L400s. We are now losing them to hard drive failures at the rate of one a week. And Dell says there is no known issue with the hard drives.

Hmmmmm.

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