What is Digg?30 Comments
- ZPWeeks, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Hmm.... Considering Apple's growth last quarter, and Dell's, um... "progress," I'd say that Dell should close shop and give its money back to the shareholders.
...oh, wait... - espyrian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It's just a flesh wound.
- cbiz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Battery recall, Dell Stores that don't sell stuff, Tv's and mp3 players that don't sell. HP and Apple will give them a run this Christmas.
- h2d2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Couldn't resist naming Apple in a Dell thread... could you?
- dartmanx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Up until this, I always wanted a Dell notebook. But, the crummy customer service (Mujibar in Mumbai) and the batteries were the final straw.
I honestly don't know what to look for now. I had considered a Vaio, but Sony made the bad batteries too. - rolfeman02, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yea....I never did understand the Dell kiosk. You go to them to buy some RAM, and they sit there in front of you and go to Dell.com and order it online and have it sent to your house. How is this ANY different from what I could have done at home??
- cliffzdude, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I said to myself "Dell, that means Apple will be mentioned within 10 posts".
Currently the first Apple post is #5. - dattaway, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2what will they do with all those batteries?
- LiterateWolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Was that sword dull and rusty?
- optikschmoptik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"what will they do with all those batteries?"
My battery was recalled, and I just filled out a form online to have them send me a new one. It seems like sending back the old one is optional. They mentioned that they will send me packaging material to return the old battery for 'proper disposal', but it didn't sound like they really wanted it back.
If I had to guess, 'proper disposal' means giving/selling the batteries to a recycling or disposal company and being done with it. I would be surprised if Dell tried to maintain ownership and recycle their own supply of Li-Ion battery materials. Dell buys stuff and sells stuff. They keep as little as possible on their own shelves.
With that in mind, I don't think they're eager to deal with a bunch of faulty batteries arriving in their mailbox. The real imperative is just that they cover their asses by sending out the new ones to look good to their customers. Turn the PR around and get people to talk about how nice it is to get a shiny new $100 replacement battery in the mail, and how quick and painlessly Dell handled the problem (never mind the rumor that they knew it for so many months), once it became publicly known. - merm, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Agreed. Hmm let's see... SEC probe, irregular insider options activity, and your product explodes. I'm not too apt to trust company spokesman these days. Thank you Enron for that.
- MasterDwarf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I think they're fooling themselves by being so blase. There's more trouble on the horizon, and blowing it off as regular days in a publicly-traded company is not going to solve Dell's problems.
- klbclem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@weareglass
I think you're right, with cheaper manufacturers on the horizon, stores with better customer service and warranties, and companies like newegg for the DIY market Dell really has no place in the world anymore. - fohat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3In the company that I work for, out of the 3000 laptops we have 10% of them were affected by the recall. It was a larger number than I had originally guessed. Dell has gone through these types of recalls before. I don't have a clue what the margin on those batteries is, but my thought is that Sony will have to eat a lot of the loss since it's their fault.
- CBTF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I dunno my dealings w/ dell tech support always went well.. they had no problem mailing me new drives, etc.
- lonnieh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Surprising enough, Apple laptops explode as well... http://wcco.com/consumer/local_story_148150249.html
- fohat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Every computer company has a skeleton in the closet. I learned a long time ago that when shopping for a computer it's the best features at the best price for the most part. We rarely have issues with our Dell laptops, I have an Inspiron 5150 that's given me no problems for over 2 years. Good luck with your shopping :)
- weareglass, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I think Dell has some much, much bigger problems than that. Like their razor-thin margins. Dell has been historically smart at cutting costs down very low and being the cheapest at everything, but with the rise of companies like Lenovo with access to cheap labor, I don't see Dell surviving on being a low cost PC manufacturer for more than 5 - 10 years tops. That's why they're purchasing companies like Alienware and marketing high-cost high-margin PCs and those nice big beautiful monitors.
My thought is that Dell is going to have a pickle of a problem convincing people that their stuff is worth paying a premium for after all these years, but only time will tell. - oldlaptops, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dell most likely muscled Sony to try to get the cheapest price possible for their batteries. As a result I suspect Sony may have cut corners to get the business. Dell traditionally tries to squeeze their suppliers. This combined with their mediocre customer service, all Dell for support and you wind up in one of their overseas call centers or transferred to multiple people before getting a problem resolved (sometimes).
Hopefully, Dell a fine, large great company will take this blackeye to heart and change their ways. We shall see. Spending millions on advertising won't erase bad PR and crummy customer service. This will take a change at the top.
Looking for a refurbished laptop, check out www.usedlaptops.com. We believe in Dell and have been regularly purchasing refurbished laptops from their Leasing Group. - kohno214, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"All is well" - Kevin Bacon in Animal House
- weareglass, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm sorry but let's be realistic here. Ok Sony's made lots of mistakes recently. But if you look at their past, historically they've always made quite a lot of mistakes (Betamax, Minidisc, Memory Stick). Sony is far from dying. Their market encompasses all electronics, and lots of people, when they look for TVs for example, still think of Sony as the premium brand and pay an Apple-like premium for it. It's their cash cow just like Windows is Microsoft's.
Sony is like an octopus, and maybe on or two of the tentacles have been damaged lately, but the rest ain't going anywhere for a long time, for better or for worse. - JohnnySoftware, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe Dell will want to become a Mac vendor.
They had their chance, back in the mid-1990s, before Steve Jobs came back, to be a Mac "clone" maker.
Should have taken it.
Maybe Steve will let Michael market re-branded Apple iPods as Dell iPods. Apparently, there is a lot of money in that.
Once Mike gets the consumer in the store, he could sell them a price-slashed Alienware computer running a vintage OS and throw in a couple pop CDs that play in iTunes any any CD-player.
There are probably some creative ways to eek some profits out of really old product lines.
And if Vista ever does ship, Dell sales should get an okay "bump" the next quarter.
Oh, well not as good as if Apple did not happen to be selling its newest, newer, new operating system that quarter - but okay maybe, after you allow for that!! - thedead, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2http://digg.com/hardware/HP_NOTEBOOK_CATCHES_FIRE_PICTURES
HP has the same problems - Murdats, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1so far I havent had my laptop explode, and the computing common room at my uni would wipe out the city with all the dell laptops in there if there was any problem
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2You know, I wouldn't be so quick to blame Dell and Apple. Sony is the problem here. They're dying a slow and painful death. And let me say I am happy to see them go.
- VSKBadCRC, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"What until Sony and Dell get into it in court over who and how much the battery recall will cost... Current estimates are running between 200 and 400 million."
Sony just can't cut a break, can they? If they're not putting a bullet in their foot themselves then it seems like there's someone standing right there ready to do it for them. - scottmoss, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1What until Sony and Dell get into it in court over who and how much the battery recall will cost... Current estimates are running between 200 and 400 million. This may not even cover the cost of Dell's administrative fees...
- LiterateWolf, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Sony didn't force Dell to buy and resell the batteries as part of the notebooks. Dell did that. Sony nor anyne should be held accountable other than Dell. Personal responsibility. Only commies try to weasel out of it.
- mcalbucci, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Here is my take on it:
http://marcelo.sampasite.com/brave-tech-world/e/How-to-screw-up-in-8-easy-step-b.htm - vynl65, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Dell needs to replace its old Pentium-M and Centrino model line with all new Intel Core 2 duos. It needs to become the standard. And with the announcement of Dell using AMD processors I wonder if they are doing to use them only for the desktops or for the laptops as well. AMD do not usually make the best portable chips.
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