Christopher Harris

Bristol UK

Health & Safety Adviser

Never mind laptop batteries, a Dell Dimension 5150 home PC purchased in Jan 2006 became electrically unsafe in June probably due to an internal design fault where the mains cable enters the PC. It arced & fizzed turning the PC on & off just by moving the cable. We have been exposed to the risk of electrocution & fire but Dell can't care less. 2 months & 13 e mails later we are still waiting for a Dell engineer to deliver & fit a pre paid for & much promised 512MB memory, which was lacking in the replacement PC supplied by Dell.
While waiting all theses weeks I checked out the Dell website where refurbished PCs are for sale. Lo & behold, stacks of Dimension 5150 PCs for sale, all probably returned from domestic users like me who, unlike business users haven't the clout & voice to flag up a potential mass problem.
Its no surprise that by now I will never contemplate another Dell purchase of any description, nor will my friends, colleagues (who use about 1,000PCs) & associates.
Good marketing or what!