My Experience: Purchasing a Dell Desktop Online
It was December 2009, my exams were still going on and I was restless in finding a good configuration for my next best PC!
My plan was: If I order the Computer now, it will be processed, built and sent to me by the time my vacations start. Nice plan. But nothing happened as I expected.
It was December 26th 2009, and I called up Dell Customer care to place my order. Someone luckily picked up the call(after trying 3 times) and talked to me. I was very happy, but they told me to hold the phone until they transfer my call to Dell Sales person. I was hearing some instructions, recorded sales pitch and the call got disconnected.
Same thing went on for the next 3 days. Finally I was connected to a Dell Sales Manager in Delhi – and he answered my call quite satisfactorily. He called me the next day, but I was writing my exams and couldn’t respond the call.
After my exams finished(02/01/2010) I took some more time to review the configuration and decided to purchase a high configure, costly computer. So I went on to mail some of my friends for help and finally settled with this configuration:
Dell Studio XPS 8000
8GB RAM
i7 process 2.8GHz
1GB nVidia GTS 240
24″ monitor
Win 7 etc(which comes with the XPS 8000 package).
Finally I called up Dell on 08/01/2010 and placed my final order. And on 09/01/2010 I sent them the DD[Demand Draft].
It wasn’t a surprise that the delivery will be slightly delayed, so I was mentally prepared. On 19/01/2010 I got an email confirming the payment, and I got my Order Number and Customer Code to track my product status.
I was checking the status daily and one fine day(after a week of waiting) I got a call from the same sales manager and he told me that Studio XPS 8000 is out of stock and I need to wait until Studio XPS 8100 comes to India(within 4 days), orelse I can get my money back. But since I had already waited so long, I decided to wait for 4 more days. After waiting for 4 more days, he called me and I sent him my final quotation:
Dell Studio XPS 8100
Processor i7 860 2.8GHz 8MB Cache
Dell ST2410 24″ Full HD Widescreen Monitor.
8GB(4x2GB) DDR3 SDRAM
500GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s Hard Drive
Wireless mouse and Keyboard
Windows 7 Home Premium
Blu-ray disk drive
nVidia GeForce GTS240 1024MB
Dell 2.1 Multimedia Desktop Speaker System
and a bunch of added legal software packages.
There was a little difference in the amount for XPS 8000 and XPS 8100 and I sent the remaining amount the next day. On 21/01/2010 the new order was placed.
Estimated delivery date was 03/02/2010 and there was further delay due to key board and mouse shortage and then finally on Feb 01 I got a mail and I thought it was another excuse – but it was not. Dell had already handed over my system to BlueDart. By 04/02/2010 my computer was in my home. But had to wait for 2 more days, as the product needs to be opened and installed by a dell representative only.
Everything went well, except for the multiple delays, which I can forgive and forget, as I am still satisfied with the system performance.
What I want to tell is: I had read a lot of bad review about Dell, and almost decided not to go with Dell. And started searching other PC vendors, but I found similar reviews about most of the companies, so I decided to give Dell a try and it was all a happy ending.
I am not saying that, there will be no problem if you order Dell computers online, it all depends on the circumstances – but I appreciate the honest efforts of Dell to serve its customers. In most of the bad reviews I read that, at the end they were able to replace their damaged product.
Have you ever purchased a Branded Computer? Please share your experience with all of us.
I will review Dell Studio XPS 8100 shortly.
I placed an order for laptop(not online):
Inspiron
14 inch screen
4GB RAM
512 mb graphics card
320 hard disk
on feb 23rd..
Online buying takes time in delivery. So, simply go to local store and buy directly.
Recently I bought Dell Inspiron 560ST (S241203IN8)from the Local store. Thinking buy online will take time. The system cost me Rs 30500/- including 15 month antivirus subscription. I went for this model because of 512MB ATI Radeon(TM) HD 4350 Vedio card. The local reps can and installed the system, But when I asked for the vedio card then they told me that I have to purcahse it and it cost Rs. 3000/-. I don’t know how get the Vedio card. In the dell site it say 512MB ATI Radeon(TM) HD 4350 Vedio card come alone with the system.
I am not happy with the local store.
@Neel Patel, @Sisen, Buying online takes lot more time, but at the end I am happy as I got exactly what I wanted. So I think waiting finally paid off.
I don’t think 15 months antivirus subscription is an attractive offer. I am using Avast for my personal computer. Its free for personal use. You have to register it once in a year, and everything will be fine.
Just goto the same local store and ask for the Video Card rate and for the details. I don’t think Dell sells spare parts separately on their website. They only sell Desktops and laptops as a package.
OMG! I placed my NoteBooks order in Amazon US from India and everything went fine
it was shipped to my brothers home and he took that with him here!
I placed an order for more that 1000 bucks in amazon no problem!
But it seems dell is good and better when compared to HP right?
Thanks
@sathish: i placed an order for a dell studio 15 laptop on august 4th, and the estimated delivery date says 24th of august, but even today, (23rd) the laptop seems stuck on manufacturing and build complete…. i have a doubt, did you send just the dd to dell or something else along with it?
@Navneeth, I just sent the DD nothing else.
You can call the sales manager and inquire. This usually happens due to shortage of some key components.
As I said in above article, my desktop delivery was also delayed due to shortage of keyboard and mouse!
But at the end my main concern was shipping. I was worried that, my huge desktop may get damaged while shipping, but it had an excellent package and thus I forgive the delay!
No matter what, you must call their toll free number and inquire, have your “Service Tag” handy, because they will ask it whenever you call them.
I hate Dell’s advance payment system. They must introduce a better way for purchase.
@Shereen, I don’t think advance payment is a big issue.(I maybe wrong)
But what could be a better solution? As a company, if 10 people in every 500 orders don’t purchase after assembling the PC, it would be huge lose for the company.
So advance payments makes sure that the customer is actually committed to purchase.
But What is the price of this configuration…
pls…let me know..
as i m too going to buy this configuration desktop
@N.Dash, It cost me a total of Rs. 81,000 when I purchased it a year and a half back. Not sure what it costs now.
But it’s easy to know: Just head to dell.co.in and add the things you want, i.e., the configuration. and the online tool will tell you exactly how much to pay. and simultaneously you can even submit your details and the configuration and a representative will call you back immediately.