[lug] Who sells good Linux computers?

[Jeff Schroeder]

Ferdinand wrote:

> Pre-loaded with Linux or not - their support is horrible if you
> purchase as a lonely end user.
> (snip)
> Their business support is better but still far from great.
>
> So - if you want good all around I would stay away from Dell - no
> matter what OS they install.

I concur.  For years I built my own systems, and two months ago when I 
needed some serious rack-mount servers I decided to go with Dell 
because it seems like everyone uses their servers.  I bought three of 
them, installed them at my co-location facility, and within a week two 
were offline.  One had a bad power supply; the other had a bad 
motherboard (!!).

It was nightmarish getting my "next day premium support" service (yes, I 
had bought these as a business, not an individual) and in the end it 
took *six days* for them to dispatch a tech... and he brought 
refurbished parts!  Part of the reason I bought new boxes from Dell and 
not used ones from Ebay was because I wanted *new* components.  So much 
for that.

After the whole experience, I called Dell support to complain-- not so 
much to demand my money back or anything; just to let them know that as 
a first-time business customer I was extremely unhappy.  It turns out 
there's no one who handles complaints (???) and I would have to write a 
physical letter to their Legal Department to voice my concerns.  Even 
the classic "Well, can I speak to your manager?" failed-- they refused 
to allow me to do so.

As you can tell, I'm very disgruntled about the whole thing and won't be 
ordering from Dell again.  I understand that things break sometimes, 
but the way the process was handled bordered on incompetence.

$0.02,
Jeff