I think the points being that are being tried to be made is this: 1. Dell sells more pc's at different price points than Lenovo, IBM, or HP and has support contracts at different levels for different types of users. Home users\small business users, usually only look at the $ price and don't want to pay for support, which is why Dell's offers them with just the basic support. They then offer Gold support of customers that recognize the value in having a strong support line to call, so it's just an option to them.
2. While you do have to pay extra for Gold support a Dell laptop with Gold support is usually cheaper or on par with a comparable Lenovo laptop, and has comparable support. Lenovo really just bundles in their "gold" support with the product line and you pay for it either way. Also, if your ordering more than 5 pc's at a time, you can get them to throw in the Gold support usually for either free or next to free (under 5.00). That said, there both good companies, and ymmv with either. But, if you've only ever called Dell's basic support line, I can see where you would be frustrated as it can being a less than pleasant experience. Call the Gold support line, and it's night and day literally. Also, it's a funny thing about older pc parts, they tend to go up in price for things like server mb's as they get older, as they are rare parts, and keeping them in stock does have a cost. But it's cool that if you "must" for some reason repair that old 4 year old server, Dell, IBM, or HP will usually have the part available, but it will cost you. It just comes down to when is too much to repair that older unit, as the new stuff, is faster\cheaper, but puts a project on your plate that you may or may not have time to deal with. -----Original Message----- From: Vincent Medina [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 11:25 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Lenovo? Wow, Is your real name Michael Dell? I am only stating my experience. Your statements will not change those facts. If you call spending 2795.00 on IBM x61t CHEAP tablets then... I guess you are right.. how about the 3 T61s for 2480.00 I ordered today.. are they cheap too? Tyan Boards are VERY expensive.... $500... Because it is a Quad core Xeon Main Board... I am talking about a Xeon Board that is almost 4 years old... Come on Michael... arghhh I Mean Ben. Don't get hurt feelings... I still recommend my cheapie clients to go to Walmart to buy their Dells. At least Walmart will take them back withing 30 days. -----Original Message----- From: Ben Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 1:24 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Lenovo? On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 11:27 PM, Vincent Medina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I do not have Dell's GOLD support status, so I would not know their support > response times.. Is this something you must pay for or buy 1 million dollars > worth of their crap in order to achieve. Gold Support is/was a line item on the "Service and support" page of their configurator. It's been renamed to "ProSupport" recently. Adding it to the standard 1-year warranty cost < $50 for most user systems. I think it comes standard with servers. > No thanks - I'd rather stay with a company that stands behind their > standard warranty without paying for GOLD support.. As I mentioned, Dell is happy to sell you cheap crap if that's what you want.. It sounds like you went the cheap crap route, and got exactly what you paid for. Why is this a surprise to you? > Also... I thought I clearly indicated the server was out of warranty ... You did. But your stated complaint was that Dell's support is inferior to IBM's. I fail to see how a refusal to send you a free part on an out-of-warranty system reflects poorly on Dell. I'm pretty sure IBM won't send you free parts on out-of-warranty system, either. > my point was their parts are overpriced. I can get dual Xeon Processor boards > for well under $200.00. Then why didn't you? Let me answer that for you: You wanted a board *for that server*. Most big-name servers use proprietary parts, which carry a higher price. As someone else noted, IBM server parts aren't cheap, either. And even generic server motherboards tend to be expensive. A quick spot check shows that the Tyan S5397 server board streets for around $500. So $200 is actually pretty cheap. -- Ben ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
