Dissing Dell

[ChingChang]

<looks for a place to post this>

Hey all, I am just wondering if I am allowed to explain the reasons why companies like Dell, Gateway Alienware, ect. are sucky without them getting pissed and suing me and crap. Going to put it on my website and flyer in hopes of getting more customers.

was thinking of talking about how they use generic components, lower quality parts to save more money, and some of the ways they try to rip you off.

 

[dandragonrage]

They can sue you if you are completely right. It will cost you money, but you will win. But that usually happens when the company (*coughinfiniumcough*) is small and someone takes it personally. There are so many sites "dissing" Dell out there that nobody pays much attention to them, anyway.

Just try to keep the wording acceptable. Explain why others are better more than why most factory builts suck.

 

[primea]

Are you planning on building machine only? In my opinion ... there is not much money in it. And a lot can go wrong ... you're better off in providing services ... people who have these OEM machines will be your biggest clients ...

A lot of people just need the basic configurations that Dell's and the likes provide ...

 

[JSClark]

<looks for a place to post this>

Hey all, I am just wondering if I am allowed to explain the reasons why companies like Dell, Gateway Alienware, ect. are sucky without them getting pissed and suing me and crap. Going to put it on my website and flyer in hopes of getting more customers.

was thinking of talking about how they use generic components, lower quality parts to save more money, and some of the ways they try to rip you off.

Sounds like your dissing all these companies just so you can profit off of it. I do believe that any of those companies that find your website and see that they are being wrongfully accused of whatever it is you plan to "diss" them on can probably file for a defamation of character lawsuit.

Like everyone else said thus far, why not just incorporate troubleshooting of OEM equipment?

 

[Fark_Maniac]

before you make a statement like that...be sure you are correct. I happen to know for a fact that Dell does not use generic parts in their newer machines.

I've seen one recently that has an integrated FX5200 vid card as well as having a blower fan on the cpu heatsink (which had heatpipes). Hardly what I'd call generic. On the flipside...that model of Dell was having horrible reliability problems. I can go further into Dell tech support retardedness...but I'll sit on that for now.

 

[ChingChang]

Sounds like your dissing all these companies just so you can profit off of it. I do believe that any of those companies that find your website and see that they are being wrongfully accused of whatever it is you plan to "diss" them on can probably file for a defamation of character lawsuit.

Like everyone else said thus far, why not just incorporate troubleshooting of OEM equipment?

Yes, the plan was to diss the companies so they would buy from me instead.

I wouldn't be lying or anything. Just like state some of the companies use some of their own parts which perform worse than name brand ones. I am not making much money off my computers, but I know that a lot of people would think that buying a computer from a well known distributor would perform better than from a very small starting business. I really just want to get the customers to know that they really aren't faster.

I know that any computer I can build will be better than Alienware, Compaq, ect so it isn't false advertising. If I try not to be too harsh on them, and focus on saying more good things about me than the bad qualities of known distributors, you think it would be alright?

EDIT:

I've seen one recently that has an integrated FX5200 vid card...

I also was going to point out that they might use integrated graphics with their systems which performs worse than a quality video card. and an FX5200 integrated.. I don't think I would ever use the FX5200 without clearly stating its downsides, as opposed to DELL who just wants to make money. I always let the buyer know exactly what to expect with their purchase.

EDIT:
one more thing, I just want to let you know I am not in this for the money. I just love doing this as a hobby and want to get more PC's to work on/build, and I like to have a good reputation.

 

[jacuzz1]

Customers are only interested it what you can offer not what your competitors cant. They are smart enought to infer from your properly worded company description as to what they may not get elsewhere.

You need to show a little class to beat the big guys. Find a niche. Perhaps the customer that wants the custom look and advantages that posses the knowledge but not the ability or time to build there own. Believe it or not there are people like that and whom are willing to pay a premium. A premium in fact that you will need in order to survive as a low volume hardware business.

Suppliement your business with low cost repair services, that willl bring additional customers thus increasing your marketable base. Finaly demonstrate good business practices. I happy customer tells 7 people a pissed off one tells 40.


Goood luck

 

[stumpy]

I don't think you can "diss Dell " while at the same time persuading customers to buy from you. If you wanted to professionaly explain the differences between factory-built computers and DIY or whatever you're doing, and the positives and negatives of each, as long as your argument in that perspective is valid you will have a much better shot at winning some customers.

 

[LadyJaqie]

. . . was thinking of talking about how they use generic components, lower quality parts to save more money, and some of the ways they try to rip you off.

Ive seen lots of 'mom and pop' computer stores just as bad, if not worse.

 

[BillLeeLee]

Dell doesn't really use generic parts; their RAM is I think Samsung or Crucial (I had a dell with Sammy chips); motherboards are contracted out to several makers. The thing is they use a proprietary PSU. But yes, they are horribly overpriced - but people will pay the price because they don't know better.

Alienware, as far as I know, still uses off the shelf parts (Corsair RAM, nVidia/ATi cards, Abit/Asus mobos and the like).

Instead of dissing, just offer your reasons as to why you would be the better deal; but seriously, strictly building is not really a very profitable venture in most cases. A lot of people still have notions of the OEMs building awesome computers and are more likely to trust some big name company than some small town builder.

 

[ChingChang]

guess you're right. Thanks for replies

 

[burningrave101]

Ive seen lots of 'mom and pop' computer stores just as bad, if not worse.

I would take a Dell or HP any day of the week over one of the PC's that get put togethor in 90% of the local computer shops out there. They are total nOObs and put togethor a system half assed while chargine 3x what its worth. At least you can get something fairly cheap through Dell or HP and it still be descent.

 

[djnes]

I would take a Dell or HP any day of the week over one of the PC's that get put togethor in 90% of the local computer shops out there. They are total nOObs and put togethor a system half assed while chargine 3x what its worth. At least you can get something fairly cheap through Dell or HP and it still be descent.

Absolutely agreed. I can say for a fact our HP systems are cheap because of the buying power we have. Little mom and pop places usually don't have the purchasing power to go cheap, and don't have the knowledge to build a truly kick ass system.

On a side note, I would like to see people stop comparing OEM machines to the ones we build ourselves. OEMs are out to make a profit. I know we don't use generic mobos or ram, but sometimes the PSUs are generic brands. Dell is having a lot of problems because they use generic, non standard mobos right now. But, it's not going to ever compare to our DIY systems. If we have a budget of $1000, we try to fit as much as possible into it. If Dell, HP, Gateway etc is going to sell a PC for $1000, they are going to try and make as much profit on it. It's too different types of thinking, for two different types of audiences. I have no problem recommending our HP systems to the majority of people I know. I want them to have a support contract, instead of calling me for everything little things. Or systems run great, usually are a good price, and use pretty nice parts inside. I'll never have one as my main machine, simply because I'll always build something better.

 

[4keatimj]

If you're looking for reasons to diss Dell, i've got a few:
- Scrimping on components: Quite simply they choose cheap parts. Example: sticking integrated video in a "performance' system. Not to mention putting Celerons in as well, as well as cheap slow RAM
- Stability issues: my friend has an old Dell (P3 733, 256MB RAM, TNT2), and it has real stability issues. Locks up playing mp3's. Serious! He's had to reformat it too many times (he's lost count), and it really is not a good computer. He plans on giving it a ritual burial (think fire, death of Dell, etc.).

Just two reasons. They might not make too much sense, but I have an opinion. Just don't sue me *cough*infinium*cough*

 

[stumpy]

The main reason I wouldn't let my parents buy is Dell is because of their integrated graphics. They ended up getting a similar priced ABS computer, but with an AMD processor and Nvidia *real* graphics card. Much better for the money.

 

[jpmkm]

Advertising that your products are better than a competitor's is one thing(which is pretty low in itself; it shows that you can't sell your products based on their own merits), but it is another thing to just outright badmouth the competitors. Are the people you advertise to even going to understand what you are talking about? You could write a book detailing why a video card is better than onboard video but how does that affect the customer? If you put a normal, ignorant user in front of two computers, an oem and one you built, with comparable specifications, I doubt the user would be able to tell which one had onboard video and which one had a brand new radeon card. Same reason so many people shop at walmart and buy kias. They want cheap crap. So go ahead and tell them all the reasons why your computers are better than the oems and see if they care.

 

[jacuzz1]

The main reason I wouldn't let my parents buy is Dell is because of their integrated graphics. They ended up getting a similar priced ABS computer, but with an AMD processor and Nvidia *real* graphics card. Much better for the money.

I am not fan of Dell but that statement is not accurate. Their machines come with integrated graphics if you order it that way. The reality is you can have your machine equipped with an very power agp card if you so desire. I will always build my own but like the gentleman from HP said, there are some people whos needs are met quite nicely by the OEMS.

 

[JSClark]

I don't understand what the whole Dell bashing thing is about. I used to work solely with Dell at a former IT job, and I have not had one single problem with any of their computers. If anything, I had more trouble with Gateways, or a couple DIY PCs that were around the office.

Plus, I don't see anything to be overpriced. I have seen decent computers for no more than 900 bucks with monitor from there. Thats about 300 more than an E-machine you can find at wal-mart, which I'm not sure of their quality, for I have never worked with them.

I'm not taking sides, just stating my opinion.

 

[djnes]

The main reason I wouldn't let my parents buy is Dell is because of their integrated graphics. They ended up getting a similar priced ABS computer, but with an AMD processor and Nvidia *real* graphics card. Much better for the money.

Far be it from me to say anything nice about Dell, but honestly, you'd have a hard time finding a regular tower that couldn't accept an add-in video card. They have some SFF machines that can't be upgaded, but their towers can be.

Besides, unless they were going to be doing any gaming, onboard video is just fine. One of my other machines is running the Intel Extreme Graphics 2 chip, and it handles anything I need to do, even DVD playback, just fine.

 

[primea]

I don't understand what the whole Dell bashing thing is about. I used to work solely with Dell at a former IT job, and I have not had one single problem with any of their computers. If anything, I had more trouble with Gateways, or a couple DIY PCs that were around the office.

Plus, I don't see anything to be overpriced. I have seen decent computers for no more than 900 bucks with monitor from there. Thats about 300 more than an E-machine you can find at wal-mart, which I'm not sure of their quality, for I have never worked with them.

I'm not taking sides, just stating my opinion.

a lot of people get really personally emotional about their hardware choice ... w/c is why we have a lot of ATi vs Nvidia, Intel vs AMD threads here. This is just extended to the OEM's vs Custom. A PC is a tool, and as long as it works for it's intended purpose, I have no problem with a Dell or an HP ... in fact I have 3 HP servers here at work ... and close to 200 Dells on computer labsand office desks ... they all work perfectly ... and do their jobs ...

 

[ChingChang]

I don't understand what the whole Dell bashing thing is about. I used to work solely with Dell at a former IT job, and I have not had one single problem with any of their computers. If anything, I had more trouble with Gateways, or a couple DIY PCs that were around the office.

I didn't start this to specifically bash Dell. Just used the name Dell Dissing because both words started with a D

My only real experience with Dell, is from when they sold one to my brother. It was some crappy 2.2 ghz (probably celeron) with 512 rdtam, and a geforce FXxxxx (not sure exactly which one), and this was one of their "gaming systems" which costed around $800 and no monitor last year. They packed so much unneeded software into the system that brought it down to a crawl. I also don't like their cases and how they use their own PSU and mobo

 

[zone_86]

this threads a winner!