Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!sunquest!whm
From: whm@sunquest.UUCP (Bill Mitchell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Dell and Dell 386SX feedback sought
Message-ID: <2146@sunquest.UUCP>
Date: 1 Mar 90 07:17:09 GMT
References: <670004@hpfcmgw.HP.COM>
Organization: Sunquest Information Systems, Tucson
Lines: 83

stevek@hpfcmgw.UUCP writes:

>I'm ready to bite (or byte) the bullet and get a PC clone.  I've
>been considering a Dell.  The magazines rave over them.  So, there
>are two questions for anyone to answer.

>    First, have you had any experiences with Dell you would
>    relate?

Ooh!  I've been waiting for someone to ask a question like that.

My wife set up a home office to do some accounting work and she needed a PC.
I'd always thought it would be fun to have a UNIX system at home, so I killed
two birds with one stone and got a Dell 325 and Dell UNIX.  Unfortunately, I
think I must have bought it from the wrong Dell or something.

The first bad experience I had was in simply getting the system shipped.  When
shopping around for a vendor, I was told it took about a week to make a 325.
When I placed the order, I was told it would take a little under two weeks.
It actually took about three weeks.  This wouldn't usually have been bad, but
for income tax purposes, we wanted to have system in hand by 12/31/89.  It
wasn't uncommon to get conflicting information about the order status.  For
example, I called one day and they said the system was ready to ship and the
following day they said the system was still in production.

The second bad experience I had involved vp/ix.  Before buying the system, I
asked the sales rep how good vp/ix was.  Her initial response was basically 
"it runs every DOS program with no problems".  I was astounded by this and I
asked her to check further and verify this.  She checked further and replied
that "Well, you might have some problems with programs that use a bunch of
memory, like 1-2-3r3, but that's about it."  When I got the machine, I tried
some DOS programs on it and about the only thing that worked well enough to
use was a demo using Bricklin's(?) package.  I called up technical support and
they said, "Well, vp/ix really doesn't work too good.  If you want to do
anything serious, you'd better just use DOS."

The third bad experience I had was with Dell's X windows.  I can't remember a
session using X that hasn't required a reboot (or N) to cure occurrences of
catatonia.

The fourth bad experience and my favorite one to relate regarded the tape drive.
Here's the way I explained it to Dell technical suport: "I just purchased a
Dell 325 with Dell's 150Mb tape.  The tape works fine under Dell UNIX, but
under DOS, the tape software says 'No tape controller present'."  The first
response I got out of technical support was "If the tape wasn't written under
DOS, the system thinks the tape controller is dead."  I was given a sequence
of commands to reformat the tape for DOS.  I was skeptical about this, but
I didn't know much about PCs, so I went home that night and tried it.  Same
problem: 'No tape controller present'.  I called back the following day and
described the problem again.  One thing led to another and for two and one-half
hours, I followed Dell's over-the-phone instructions to try track down the
problem.  I forget the final approach and landing, but the problem turned out
to be that I just needed to configure the DOS tape software to use interrupt
address 338, not 300.

So, for a question who's answer was "In the tape program, use address 338
instead of 300", Dell jerked me around on the phone for over two hours.  If
that's industry leading technical support, I hate to think what industry
trailing technical support must be like.  I have to admit that I made one
mistake in the middle of the ordeal: I inverted the reading of a DIP switch,
but I'd like to think that a company with expertise in dealing with novice
PC maintainers would be on the lookout for that type of mistake.

I guess I could go on, but the problems I've had have been hardware
independent; the system itself seems pretty solid.  Dell UNIX, which is
apparently Interactive UNIX, only cost me $800 and for that price, I don't
guess I can complain about it too much.  (Not to mention that the file system
is really a humper!)  But if I need any technical support, I'll think I'll use
a ten-minute time limit with the Dell experts and then post to comp.unix.i386.

So would buy a Dell again?  I was pretty close to sending the thing back
under the 30-day NQA refund policy just on the grounds of pure infuriation,
but I kept it.  I have to believe that my sales and support experiences are the
exception rather than the rule and most likely due to Dell's inexperience with
UNIX.  They probably do a great job when they stick with DOS; they've certainly
got surveys that say so.  So, yeah, I'd get a Dell again.  As a matter of fact,
I recently recommended one to a friend (that I'm not trying to get rid of).
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Mitchell				whm@sunquest.com
(and my opinions are not necessarily shared by)
Sunquest Information Systems		sunquest!whm@arizona.edu
930 N. Finance Center Dr.               {arizona,uunet}!sunquest!whm
Tucson, AZ, 85710                       602-885-7700