Direct2Dell

Sir,

Since there are rumours here in Karnataka-India regarding

poor service set up for Dell range of Desktops and Laptops

especially Vostro Laptops we would like to request yourself to

kindly arrange to send immediately the documentary proof for the same.

We are the Volume Core Partners for Dell-Commercial range of Products here in Karnatak upcountry. During the finalisation

of deals at corporate levels and the issue raised by our competitiors reg poor service structure of Dell is effecting the closure of the deals badly.

Kindly to over come the present situation arrange to send the documetary evidence for the same to circulate to all our channel partners and to corporate sectors along with our quote.

Since the matter is very serious kindly do the needful immediately

thanks and regards

ramesh Kallapur

Proprietor

Amogha Enterprises

@sanjay

You may want to repost your question to our Dell Community Forum.   You would probably receive quicker responses there than here on the blogs.

You can access the forums at this link.

hi,

i own vastro 1000 which provides OS vista so i had chaged it to XP but the problem is that my internal graphics is not working please suggest me

The lack of a DVI output is a huge problem.  I just bought a 30" monitor and was astounded to discover my old Inspiron 9400 will hook up to it, but not the newer Vistro 1700.

It's pretty sad when the latest and greatest is using old technology.  I will not recommend any Vostro's anymore.

== John ==

My new dell vastro 1500 does not restart

Bought Vostro 1500 and delivered last week.

Great machine.  Most of reviews over CNET, etc fairly reflected, eg. machine getting heated easily.

Quite unhappy that Dell's site (Malaysia) do not supply accessories for this - particularly the power adapter and battery.  I had to order my spare adapter through making phone call to Dell's call centre and got a faxed order to purchase, rather than online.  Now considering a secondary battery but it is nowhere to be found online.

Is Vostro brand not fully supported by Dell?

During delivery time, (over last weekend), I could no longer track the delivery online - Dell (Malaysia)'s website had gone 'mad'.  Called and left voice message on Friday (before the work day ends) with the sales staff who attended my purchase but got no reply and finally delivery came on Monday 5pm.  In between, was totally kept in the dark by Dell.

Please improve your website & delivery system, Dell.

Alex Chan

owner of some Dell products:

Vostro 1500, 19" LCD monitor, Axim 51v

(but will hesitate to buy again if this persist - albeit the product is great and reliable)

I've got a Vostro 1500 with a WXGA+ Display and this is "grainy", not as bright as Dell confirmes on the Vostro Page and the overall image quality is not good (white is more a grey)!

Its an AUO 2077 from 1/2006 and i found out, that every AUO 2077 from 1/2006 has that problem
.

So, is it true, that all new Vostro 15000 with a WXGA+ display wont be a AUO 2077?

Dell tried to change my display, but come over with the same bad AUO 2077 - so what can i do, to get a good LG 7 Philips display?

Thanks for an answer

Gero


 

I have a Vostro 1500 and the missing DVI port was something I didn't really think I cared about until I bought a 22" widescreen LCD monitor.  The video doesn't look very good on this monitor -- particularly with a full screen white window.  There are variances in the white depending on where you look on the screen and the colors are a bit washed out.

Initially, I thought it was a bad monitor and was going to return it.  Then, I tried hooking it up to my older desktop computer using the DVI connector (since it had one) instead of the VGA.  Night and day difference.  I always thought digital would be better, but not THAT much better.  It might be something to do with the 1680x1050 resolution being carried over an analog connection too.  Or, maybe the monitor I purchased just doesn't handle the VGA as well as it does the digital...  Either way, I wish I could hook it up digitally to my Vostro.

 I thought there was still hope the other day when I learned that I could buy a docking station for my HP laptop that I use at work that actually had a DVI output on it.  That's when I learned there were no docking stations or port replicators available for the Vostro -- Upon looking behind and beneath my Vostro, there isn't even a dock connector anywhere for future support.

Anyway, the Vostro is a great machine overall, but I'm really wishing it had some means of getting digital video output.

My next laptop would most probably be a Dell. So just want to know you guys out there that have bought this baby Vostro. Is it good or up to the standard? Besides that, can we change the color for our vostro? Black is a little dull u know! ^^

Cheers peeps. Oh yeah, in Malaysia Dell has one of the best services. Thumbs up for that. 

i now own a 17" Vostro for work. it's a nice little machine, but people are right here about a few weaknesses.

no DVI port is a serious flaw of Dell's lineup right now. if you offer video options like the 8400gs, you should add a DVI port to match. monitors these days come with DVI standard and look FAR better with it. to not offer it is falling behind the times.

the placement of the inputs/outputs is terrible. for example: the right side is no place for your VGA(should be DVI) connection, and having to plug in speakers all the way at the front of the machine where the cable sits in front of the optical drive's tray is poorly planned. the back of a notebook is there for a reason!!!!

all this makes me want a dock - which, of course, it doesn't have. despite the unwashed above freaking out about docks, they are supremely useful for work, where i don't need to be mobile. when i'm at home or away, i'll deal. i just hope the docks are coming. it is a small business machine, after all, right?

outside of those items, however, this is a nice clean machine that will do me well. 

one last suggestion....

 I own multiple Dells and each new generation of Dell notebooks uses a different power adapter.

 Can Dell have all of its Inspiron/Vostro computers use the same adapter (such as the PA-12 )?  Especially since I've had many power adapters fray....it would be nice to swap the power adapters from one computer to another, even if Inspiron B is 3 years older than Inspiron A. 

I believe on the Thinkpad T-series all of the computers from the T23 to the current T61 use the same power adapter.  Can someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Thanks again.

where's the fingerprint reader?  I guess that cost too much to include in the design.

For a Thinkpad T61, the fingerprint reader is a $30 option.  However, like the Mastercard commercials....fingerprint reader, $30; not having your data compromised even if your computer is stolen; priceless.

 Sorry Dell.  No Vostro 1400 for me.  Which takes us to the Latitude D-Series....but unfortunately, for me the T61 beats any Latitude D, hands down, especially when the price difference between a T61 and D630 or D830 is only a couple of hundred dollars.

 Come on....I want to root for Dell, but you guys need to get your act together.  Can't you reverse-engineer a Thinkpad and sell it for 90% of the cost of a comparable Thinkpad?

If Microsoft can plagarize OS X, can't Dell plagarize the Thinkpad?

So I went to the nearest Dell Direct Kiosk (20+ miles away) to check out the Vostro 1400 + matte/anti-glare screen.

 Unfortunately, no Vostros.  Only the Inspiron 1420/1520/1720 with the glossy screen. 

 Understandably, the kiosks aren't meant to be like the Apple stores or the SonyStyle stores.  However, it is very lame and half-buttocked to have only part of your product line at the Dell Direct store. 

What is the point of having a retail outlet (and since you have the retail outlet, that triggers the application of sales tax to the Dell.com purchases) if you don't have your whole product line?

If you are so committed to small businesses, why don't you provide your products for review beforehand at the retail stores which are the only way to experience a Dell without buying one sight unseen?

 So it seems that since the $699 Vostro 1400 is the price leader, I'll buy it and if I don't like it, I'll return the Vostro.  However, it would have been easier for Dell and me if your kiosk just had the Vostro.  It's a hassle to buy something and then return it...and of course returns incur costs upon Dell as well. 

Whose in charge of your brick and mortar division, a 5 year old?

Thank you.

got vostro xp version yesterday, good system and easy to expand,

nice design and also rather quite works well with pro tools.

i can recommend this computer!

Dear Dell,

I've owned 3 notebooks (Inspiron 3200, Latitude CsX Inspiron 700m).  To replace my 700m, I've bought a Thinkpad T61.

Let me explain why:

1.  Your power adapters fray too easily (ever since the Inspiron 3200 debuted.  I've been through one every 18 months).  Yes, all I need to do is buy a new adapter, but it's the little things that can sour a whole experience.  It's a hassle to buy a new adapter and arguably, if Dell cuts corners with the power adapter, it implies that it cuts corners with build quality. 

 2.  My 700m (bought Jan/2005) hasn't aged well.  The cooling fan grinds.  The surface of the palmrests have worn away, leaving an unsightly dark stain which can't be cleaned. 

 3.  My media card reader can't read high-density SD cards.  (even after trying Dell's new driver that was designed to fix that problem).

4.  Aesthetically Thinkpads look nicer, and hold up better after years of constant use.

 5.  I can't completely tell as I haven't had the time to see the Vostro in person, but the Vostro seems to have that "shiny finish" that is easily smudged.

6.  Pros: Dell is the value leader and a new Vostro 1400 @ $699 is dirt cheap.  However, cheap doesn't necessarily mean value (see shopping at Wal-Mart).  

7.  I'm afraid that in the effort to make the Vostro dirt cheap, Dell has cut corners on build quality and long-term durability.  Mind you, this is merely a perception, given my experience with the 700m, I don't equate Dell with long-term durability.  On the other hand, my old Latitude CsX was built like a tank....though that computer was $2000+ when new in 1999 (if I recall correctly).

 8.  My wi-fi adapter (Intel 2100 3A) cuts own constantly...even with the new, updated drivers from Dell.

 Bottom line:  I want to buy a Dell as Dell has aggressively priced the Vostro 1400.  But given my disappointment with the 700m, I'd rather try something different and cough up the $400 to buy an equally configured Thinkpad T61.  I may be overpaying with the Thinkpad, but I don't want to be disappointed again. 

And even though I'm a small fry, I've owned Dell computers since 1998.  It would be nice if I got some sort of loyalty incentive or something.  How about a free hard drive upgrade to 7200rpm or something?   Throw me a bone!

 Thanks for letting me share.  Cheers.

I'm not sure about this "not business" crap, but I have found the inspiron and now the vostro to look and function well.  I am an EE and use my inspiron to design hardware, write software and device drivers for many products.  My inspiron gets taken from one location to another every day (as several others I am aware of) without failure.  I think these days docking stations are pricy gimicks.  USB and power and were done. 

I maintain IT for my church (about 40 pc's) and just received the vostro 1700 - wow great value.  I could not get dell to downgrade it to XP to fit our security mode (I did speak with the manager on duty and they verified that it would downgrade - but I would have to track down drivers etc.), but I have done so myself with only the modem left dangling (who cares).  The screen and graphics look great super drive capacity and lots of ram. Can I take out the optical drive or do other small things like that, WHO CARES!  It was cost effective and I purchased the 4 year complete care warranty (NBD).  I'm very pleased and I think most SB owners will be happy with this also. 

On a happy note, Bluetooth is now an option again for the 1500 with WinXP.

I'd prefer the machine offer a 7200 rpm HDD and gigabit Ethernet.  But there's no telling when or even if it ever will, and I need a notebook for work - my old one is completely shot.  So with the return of Bluetooth, I'll be placing an order later today.

We'll see how it goes from there.  I've had a good experience with Dell in the past, but that was a year ago - before the recent spate of delivery issues.

Crossing my fingers ...

I ordered a dell vostro 200MT on the 9th August, and its estimated delivery date is 31st! Longest I have ever had to wait for a dell, but the price cannot be beaten, so its worth being patient. Anyone know why there is such a delay.

Further adding to the madness: I've been waiting to order a 1500 laptop until Dell answered our questions as to whether the Vostro laptop line in general would offer gigabit Ethernet - duh, it's a business machine - and whether the 1500 in particular would offer the 7200 rpm drive, like the smaller 1400.

Until today, when I've been checking the 1500 options, I could choose XP and also order built-in Bluetooth.  As of today, if I choose XP, and I try to later select Bluetooth, the configurator won't let me: It pops a compatibility error box that says I must have Vista to get built-in Bluetooth!

Of course, still no gigabit and still no 7200 rpm drive on the 1500.

Between this and the overall delivery fiascoes - is Dell trying to drive down its online profit centers as an excuse to ramp up its brick-and-mortar presence???

If I get the option of 3 gigs of memory, can I share that memory with the video card since it only has 128K of memory/  Please advise.

Although I have read a lot from the forums about Dell's support, today I really got a feel of it. I always though it as a good idea to choose what we want and vice versa, today I came to know that it comes with a price now.. time !!!! I am currently in Germany and I was very happy to see some of the laptop models on dell website. I have ordered a dell vostro laptop on 20th July. I had at least 10 mails with dell support asking about the delivery date. They promised me that I will get my laptop on 6th of August. (Nowadays cars are delivered on the next day, maybe dell can argue that it is personalized, but is it really required to have 15 days? ) In order to avoid the delay, I have paid with credit card and I thought that Dell will deliver on the same date as premised. After all I got the promise from a fortune 500 company, not from a company with 25 employees.

Just randomly I checked my order status today to find that my order date has been modified to 28th of August. To get a laptop, I have to wait for 1 month 08 days after   making the payment!!! WOW. That's crazy. Is Dell going to start the design of my laptop? Enough is enough. I have cancelled my order and I am planning to go for some other brands. Goodbye Dell.. (Yours ???? )
Mathew

RM719: Appreciate the response. I actually ended up dealing with the escalation managers and somehow managed to have it shipped TODAY! Finally, lol :)

But you're absolutely right about the shortage of LCD's, and has supposedly affected many other companies as well. Seems as though they're back on track and everyone can expect to see normal production times again.

I actually had lots of informative help from a Dell employee by the name of Robert through Dell's online Small Biz Support Forum. I highly recommend that anyone experiencing similar frustrations or delays seek answers from Dell's support forums. They were very helpful in providing the detailed customer service one would expect to receive over the phone (although we all know that's just not the case). He explained to me about the shortage of LCD screens and how they were working endlessly with their manufacturers in Malaysia to rev up production.

Well I look forward to receiving the new Vostro 1700 tomorrow and I'll be happy to let you guys know how it turns out. Good luck to everyone else! :)
 

I am just a normal basic student.Rather excited as i just purchased my dell vostro 1500.I havent received it yet.How ever there is one rumour i have heard about the vostro series that i would like to confirm with you guys.

a) Is it true the Vostro series is actually a renamed Dimension series.

Rather scared that this is a new series.Hope that its really a good build.

Aris in paris,

Ordered my Vostro 1500 on the 14th of July and got the estimated delivery date of the 1st of August, I thought that the estimated date was very far away but that it wasnt going to be that long based on my desktop(came 3 days after I ordered it even though it had a long date...). Anyways, was talking to my Customer Account Manager and he said that there is a shortage of glass...

Where is the Vista Home Premium option for the Vostro line??  I understand that this is for businesses, but many micro business owners may only have one or 2 computers, have no need for the business OS, and would like something more than the watered down Vista Basic.  I have lost 2 sales already due to this problem (I'm a Dell reseller).

Also, will the Vostro 200 be offered with AMD CPU's?  The laptops are, and many customers prefer the cost savings.

If you need Windows XP pro, one possible solution is to order Vostro PC with Wista Business and then downgrade it to XP pro.

That is legal way and microsoft can confirm it ;)

What you need is XP Pro cd and key from existing system.

UPDATE!!!!

Still in production :(

New estimated ship date of August 1st!! And the best response my Dell "Case Manager" could give is that "we don't know when the parts will arrive. We're hoping sooner than later, and while we've changed your estimated ship date to August 1st, we'll update you this Friday on the production status."

Well that freaking blows.  Does anyone at Dell have a clue? What's up the shortage of parts, and what *exact* part don't you have?? Is it that difficult to communicate this to your customers? OR... are you waiting to take thousands more orders until the cost of those "parts" go down to the point where you've basically ripped off every initial customer?

I'm really NOT impressed. My company was planning to buy over 50 if the first turned out to work well. So far I've received nothing but vague presidential responses and very shady customer service practices and now 3 changes to my order status. Can somebody please respond if you know what's going on?

I'll be happy to provide my customer order number and case number if necessary.

When is 64bit Vista Ultimate going to be available on the new Vosotro desktop computers?

PLEASE OFFER WINDOWS XP

To sum it all, Vostro indeed is black painted inpsirons.

Now that being said and have purchased couple Latitude-L laptops in the past, black plastics did take more abuse and have shown less wear and tear.

Since Latitude price has come down a lot, I think small business should have no problem acquiring Latitude laptops.

As far as desktops go, I don't think small business is willing to go with Optiplex because similarly equipped Inspirons sell at a much lower price. Small businesses does not have Intel VPro or TPM running therefore there is no reason for them to get Optiplex.

Would Vostro make a difference for Small Business customers? I don't find lineup itself is very appealing. I'd rather see low end Optiplex and latitude customized for Small Business needs. Those Optiplex 320 should be fine for that purpose.
 

Too bad I couldn't order a whole new office full of these. The website crashed out during the Dell financing and crashed again when I tried to finance it personally.  Sunday nights there isn't a live person available in the whole company.

Maybe I can get it ordered tomorrow or maybe the prices will have changed and I'll give up on Dell computers in the future.

Dell is definitely NOT trying harder.
 

Windows Vista Ultimate is an option on the Vostro 1500 but NOT on the Vostro 1700.  What's the deal?  I only have a single computer and use it both for Business and at Home.

Also, what about the option for purchasing an extra power cord?  It is an option with the new Inspiron 17xx models.  And, it shows up when the Vostro 1700 configuration is printed.  Yet, the option is NOT available when configuring the laptop.

What are you talking Craig?

Even the basic Vostro laptops and desktops comes with X3100 or X3000 Intel  GMA which is more than sufficient for any video and power point presentation use.

I think by far the biggest concern for a small business is cost, a nicely equiped Vostro 1400 with 1.6 C2D CPU, 8400M GS GPU, 120GB HD,1GB RAM and a battery that can power the laptop for 4-5 hours in a single charge costs $599. That seems likea  pretty good deal to me.

As a small business why would we even care about cooling or heat reduction? we don't maintain large server rooms that have to constantly air conditioned. 

Oh, for crying out loud... The Vostro line is released as a small business solution. But half of the models (1000 and 1500) are available with a choice of Windows XP and the other half (1400 and 1700) are not.

My boss would buy a Vostro 1700 today if he could get it with XP Pro.

Is there any rationel at all to this strategy, or is Dell just trying to annoy small business customers until they go away?

When and where is the London event?

@ Steve.

 I was not able to post a screenshot of the problem initially (I tried) - but trust me, I looked at all of the models and all the desktops had Norton 90day trial installed and unable to chose a "no security software" link.  I would not post otherwise.  I would not compare to laptops unless it was missing the link.  I'm very glad they now fixed the problem - but it is this disjoint from product creation to actual sales that bothers me most about some companies.  Marketing and management is touting all sorts of things, but Sales division is still looking ONLY at the bottom line (sme ol' same old) and cutting off their noses to spite their face. 

 I even understand that web division may have just made a simple mistake... but when it is one of your HUGE selling points, then why even allow it to be on the list ?  Why are ANY trialware options available if they are now in print and radio ads touting there is none ? 

Crymore....

Maybe you should go to the site, spec out one of the machines and see for yourself.  If you don't see the Vostro line as a black version of the Inspiron (which is not a business class machine) then it is safe to assume you are an amateur in the IT field.  The full details are on the site...all of the comments I made about the specs for the Vostro product line are available on the Dell site.  If the basic specs don't fit the bill, why bother reading detailed specs.

The end of my last post was missed when I was copying and pasting it to this site.  My main point was that customers aren't asking for more product lines to get confused with.  They are asking for energy efficiency, and SMB server and desktop efficiency improvements.  Designing/promoting an efficient cooling solution to the SMB market can help with 2 of those 3 things.  I feel (as well as several of my peers) that cooling/heat reduction across all IT equipment is more important than a new product line that takes a step back in efficiency.

Lionel...I realize this is not your doing, and someone probably came to your office and said we want to use Direct2Dell to help announce a new product line that we are going to start offering.  That happens to all of us one way or another.

-Craig

Overall, I like the  concept of a PC line focused on the needs of small companies.

That said, Dell does need to fine-tune its service offerings. For example, Dell DataSafe online backup backups all the files each time it runs, not just the files that changed or are new. Dell Network Assistant is a great tool, but its benefits are not apparant to a web buyer.

Likewise for a small company equipping an office Dell's online ordering should have an easy way to order multiple PCs.

@ John:

 Look again, it does have the option on the desktops to remove the Norton trial (as well as all the other software).  Same as it did when these new Vostro systems were first customizable online. 

I just noticed Vostro systems. Well, it looks like those cheap latitude L laptops we had before. They weren't D dock compatible, CD-rom's non-removable and looked just like Inspiron laptops. It almost looks like Vostro models are black plastic covered Inspirons.

 
Anyway, I think it is better to sell Inspirons to small businesses (who cannot afford / go with ) latitudes. It would work better if you sell customized support plans with regular inspirons instead of trying to create another line up like this. Just a suggestion for the future. 

They're good lookin'. That's for sure.

Too bad you can't get them in Home and Home Office.

Its good to hear that Windows XP will still be available.  My question is how long?  I need to know if I need to place orders immediately or if I can over the next few weeks/months.

"NO Trialware"  ... go ahead and spec out a Vostro 200 Mini Tower, or Slim Tower.

 Norton Anti-virus 90 day Trial  installed.  No way to remove it!!!

 The laptops let you remove it, but it is installed by default.

 I was so impressed when I read the press release... this is what we and many others are looking for in business pc's ... to bad reality is NOT the same as a press release.

 -JG

New equipment is a wonderful thing. But will my legacy software run on the new model(s)? My software is 5 years old and works great with our commercial embroidery machines under XP.

 Will Dell provide tools to transfer my existing data to the newer system?

Well, when I first read this article I was excited.  Now after looking at the product I am disappointed.  The new Vostro desktop is nothing more than the Dimension..oops sorry..."Inspiron" desktop that Dell already offers for home users, and the laptops...well are the same...just instead of having a silver case like on the Inspiron's you have a black case.

The funniest thing this that when I price out one of the new Vostro 200 Slim towers, it actually comes out to cost me more than a new Optiplex 745.  Thats odd...I would think that in order for this product line to really appeal to small businesses it would have to have a lower price point.  Hmm.

It also appears that Dell has given the small business owner the option to add a bunch of bloatware...good thing they don't have an IT person to teach them or they would see through this.  Now they have a better chance of crapping up their computer before they get it.

Am I reading this right???  The Vostro's product line is not Energy Star certified?  http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/desktops?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~ck=mn  How does that fit into Dell's goal to reduce carbon output?  Let me guess...your going to throw in the 'plant a tree for me' option for free with every system...yeah I didn't think so.

The Vostro's laptops don't have a Best-in-class graphics for 2D, 3D and graphics-intensive applications...hmm...hope you don't need to watch any video or do any nice power point with good animation.  No docking station???  Really??  How does that help promote a mobile work force?

Did anyone notice that the Vostro's line doesn't come with "Standard North American-based technical phone support"?  I think we have been down that road before, and it didn't bode well for Dell that time either.

Whew...I'm done discouraging people from purchasing this product line for now and would like to thank Dell for listening to all of their customers at Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm.  I can tell that the Vostro group has taken what they have been reading seriously, and whats that they completely ignored it.  Well thats okay...you must know what we need/want better than we do.

Lionel...sorry to blast off on this post like this, but I have sent you two topic suggestions (SMB cooling solutions and about Dell's partnership with Emerson) over the last week, and have not gotten a response on either.

The rumour has finally come true but one question are the vostro brand going to be available in the UK? will it have more choices available than the new Inspiron range such as different operating system, screen size, no bloated trialware products. This seems ideal the vostro range even though in appearance it is exactly the same as Inspiron. i like the black colour makes it look very professional and the magnesium alloy casing with no flex makes it more business type for the professionals rather than the small businesses. i hope it is available in the UK sometime soon.