[RESOLVED] Who does your company order computers from?

[stanav]

Hello all,

I'm working in the IT dept for a small company (less than 500 employees). We had chosen Gateway as our primary supplier for computers for years (and we had very good relationship with Gateway) until Gateway passed its customer support to MPC Professional Support and that's when all hell broke loose. For example, one of our orders for laptop computers took over 6 months and still was not shipped, we finally had to cancel that order. One thing that I need to mention is that all systems we buy from Gateway, we also buy the extended warannty. Since MPC took over Gateway's customer support, we've been having a hard time getting replacement parts for those system when they failed.
Today, I have a less than 1 yr old system that has a bad motherboard. I called MPC for a replacement of the motherboard, and after going thru the usual talk/diagnostic stuff, the MPC tech finally agreed with me that the motherboard is bad. However, he said that the company is filling for bankruptcy (I'm not supprised at all, with that kind of service, sooner or later they will go bankrupt) and they will NOT send any warranty replacement parts...
So my question is, with a company of our size, who should be a reliable supplier of computers we can buy from? In other words, who are your company buying computer equipment from?

[Lord Orwell]

Have you considered using a local computer reseller? Any system they build for you they will warranty in-house and you won't have to worry about any kind of huge turn-around waiting on parts. Plus this has the added benefit of having a place capable of fixing it if it breaks out of warranty.

[vbcode1980]

We're a small company (25 employees) and we use Dell as our supplier.
Never had any problems with them.
Their pc's, servers and laptops are good, and so is their service.
They deliver very quickly.
And, IMHO, they're not very expensive.

[mendhak]

Same here - Dell. We're a very large organization (really, very large). Good service.

[CyberSurfer]

Dell as well. They give us great discount, and I've never had a problem with their support teams. Their account managers all have cute irish accents too

[Hack]

One more for Dell....that is the company the company I'm actually employeed by uses.

The company I'm under contract to uses HP for both laptops and desktops.

[stanav]

@Lord Orwell: Yes, we have considered local suppliers. However, since we're in a tiny state (RI), there are not too many local computer shops out there that is reliable enough so that we can depend on (company size, years in business, number of customers, quality of service... are the things we take into consideration when looking for a supplier). Most local companies we found around here is kind of family-owned small business serving mainly home users. And my boss said the last thing we would want is to turn to BestBuy or Circuit City (or any similar retailer chain).

@VbCode1980, Mendhak, CyberSurfer: Yes, we had tried to buy from Dell before before we picked Gateway, but at that time, Dell saw us as a too small customer (buying less than 50 systems/year) and they did not want to open a business account for us. But that was years ago. Perhaps things has have changed now... Only if I can persuade my boss to look at Dell again (he felt offended when Dell rejected to open an business account for us back then and sweared that he would not deal with Dell again, ever!).

Right now we're buying from IBM/Lenovo, but their delivery time takes too long (over a month), and that's the reason why we're looking into other potential suppliers. We need someone that can ship out orders within 2 weeks.

[Jenner]

Dell, we're also a small company. "Small Business" is the current buzzword for computer suppliers since in this economy, the big businesses they've relied on in the past aren't buying much new capital equipment and small businesses seem to be staying afloat better. We have like 18 office employees and had no problem opening a business account with Dell.

Dell even has their new Vostro line targeted at small businesses and their service is top-notch.

[Lord Orwell]

we currently have three name-brand systems. A dell, a hp/compaq (it actually says both on it), and an e-machines that was given to us. I frankly wouldn't try to work on any of the three. The e-machine is completely worthless and doesn't even have a video card slot. The dell is a nice solid system that is easy to get into (it's an older pentium-d) and the hp/compaq is pretty fast and my gaming system. I would recommend either of the latter but i've heard horror stories lately about dell's customer support. Supposedly they outsourced it and it's getting horrible ratings. Knowing this, i would go with compaq. That and the fact dell uses non-standard hardware configurations (wierd pin-out arrangements on power supply, slotted instead of screwed motherboards, etc).

[Jenner]

I would recommend either of the latter but i've heard horror stories lately about dell's customer support. Supposedly they outsourced it and it's getting horrible ratings.

That's absolutely true. With standard tech support, you get sent to call centers in India. A combination of lousy phone wiring and possibly thick accents makes listening a painful experience. Add to the fact that the call center workers aren't trained on the specifics of Dell equipment and most aren't even trained in basic computer technology and are going off a bunch of lists and websites for their info... something most of us computer hacks have already gone through, and it's downright infuriating.

The plus side, for an extra couple hundred you can get Dell "premium" support which routes you to American call centers with good phone wiring to speak to people with native accents who are pretty knowledgeable about the specifics of Dell equipment and know their way around computers pretty well, including the esoteric settings and configurations in Windows Server.

It's worth it 1000%.


---Story time---
The flip side of this whole story, recently, I had a Dell Vostro problem. The monitor suddenly went dead (as in no-signal, monitor still functioned). No POST, no Windows, nothing. Can't be a driver or software issue if I can't see the POST. I figured "possible monitor burnout" and tried a different monitor. Nothing. I check the pins on the video cable; they look fine. Now I'm thinking "possible video card burnout" and I tried a new video card. Nothing. Now I'm thinking... damn... PSU? I hook up a different power supply. Nothing.

This whole time, the computer is acting like it's booting to Windows! It merrily starts up, pauses as it POSTs, beeps once, small pause, hard drive starts grinding like mad for 3 minutes, eventually dying down as Windows comes up. I just can't see any of it on the screen. No beeps about no video adapter, no dead activity, the hardware is behaving normally.

Now I'm thinking... wow... maybe it's the motherboard?! Something on the PCIx slot blew and it can't detect the fault? I call Dell, I get "standard" tech support. The guy's accent is fine, I really don't mind call centers in India, what I mind are brainless techs trying to diagnose a problem and running me down paths I know are pointless.

The next 2 hours, I'm swapping RAM, unplugging components, playing POST beeps over the phone... all of these tests pointless from everything I know about computers. The tech doesn't care, he wants me to push on, I humor him. Finally, after two hours, he tells me he'll send out a Dell tech with a new motherboard the next day. I tell him fine, and proceed to set up my coworker with a laptop on our wireless, piped through our VPN and running Remote Desktop to his handicapped PC. The machine seems to be running perfectly fine over Remote Desktop. I'm stumped as to what is causing the monitor blackout.

The tech comes out. tests the system for 20 minutes repeating the tests I did before I caled customer service. He agrees it's gotta be the motherboard. He swaps it. STILL NOTHING. Now, we're totally stumped. Then he does the one thing I didn't do, replaced the video cable. VIOLA! It works. For god knows whatever reason, the video cable went bad. The machine wasn't moved, bumped or anything, it was fine one minute, my coworker leaves his office for 20 minutes, power-save shuts off the monitor, he returns, and somewhere in there, the video cable went bad.
---End Story---

Weirdest hardware bug I ever had, but also the worst tech call I ever had. Most of our machines are bought with the premium support, and I've never had that kind of tail-chasing with them. The premium call centers would have maybe had me do a BIOS clear test, but after that, immediately sent out the tech because they understand when I tell them "the computer seems like it's booting, I hear no abnormal beeps and the hard drive is grinding like it's booting Windows", that it's not the RAM, CPU or Video Card not in the slot.

[stanav]

Good story, Jenner. I would never thought that a video cable could go bad since I've never seen one. Most video cables are fixed to the monitor on one end, how did the tech manage to replace it?

[Jenner]

It was a flat-panel monitor. The cord was detachable. It was a standard male-male DVI cable. Yea, I've never seen a video cable "go bad" either unless it was damaged trying to plug it in wrong/upside down and smashing some pins. I wouldn't have believed it if the computer didn't suddenly work again.

[Lord Orwell]

i have a silicon graphics monitor with multiple inputs. I bent a pin on it one day. Funny story: I actually bent an ide pin on a hard drive once plugging the wire in. It worked for three weeks without the pin hooked up and suddenly the bios didn't know what kind of drive it was anymore.

[stanav]

Most of you are recommending either Dell or HP/Compaq... I will try to persuade my boss to re-consider Dell or go with HP. In the mean time, I will go ahead and mark this thread as resolved.

Again, thanks every one for your valuable inputs.