Why I will never get a Dell again

This is going to be one of those bitchy rants right now. I'm in a rut. Dell sucks.

We've owned a total of 7 Dells in my family and have always had more or less good luck and they used to be quality. Quality now is a joke.

I got my new Dell- it is refurbished because my old Dell laptop could not be fixed. There was a problem with the motherboard and cooling on my old laptop that couldn't be fixed after 5 times and a few threats Dell sent me this piece of junk I have now.

So what are the problems I've experienced in the past year with this Dell?
- Motherboard had to be replaced because one of the USB ports on the computer came broken.
Time spent: about an hour convincing the woman on the phone the USB was broken, then another hour with the at home technician.
- Video card software issues- games like NFS wouldn't run on the computer. Dell never actually acknowledged the problem and everytime I would turn on the computer I got a video card error message that they had never heard of. Took it to a computer shop and they were able to mask the problem, but the games wouldn't work on the computer.
Time spent: 10 hours or so
- Keyboard keys have lost the "umph" and little rubber piece that make it so you can type. I have been through 2 keyboards. The keyboards are so cheap that within 2 months the keys all lost the shiny coating on them. I need a new keyboard right now since the caps lock key has lost one of those rubber things. No- I'm not rough with the computer. I've owned other laptops in the past and never had a problem. The woman who helped me with this problem the first time spent an hour dealing with it because she wanted to run a diagnostic to make sure it was the key board and wouldn't believe me.
Time spent: 1+ hour
- The video card problems I had this summer that carried over up until a few weeks ago resulted in me spending almost 25 hours on the phone with Dell. Wiped out my computer and installed clean copies of Windows. Each time Dell sent me new XP CDs and blamed the problem each time on a bad copy of XP. After 5 times I'm sorry, that's not the case. Ran diagnostic tests at least 10 times. Even the computer shop I took it to said that it is a bad video card. Lived with the problem 6 months. Finally after getting a new hard drive 3 weeks or so ago I convinced them to give me a video card.
Total time spent on this issue: about 25 hours (+2 hours or so with at home technician who spoke no good English)
- Computer would not install automatic updates. The updates would say they would install and would not. An idiot woman I spoke to at Dell in India said they installed, but the message that there were automatic updates kept reappearing because it does it every morning at 3:00a.m. NO. The updates are set to install every morning at 3a.m., but they are not installing, which is why the little bubble kept appearing at the bottom of the screen saying there were updates to install.
- Hard drive failed suddenly about 3 weeks ago and the guy in India insisted on spending 2-3 hours on the phone with me running diagnostic tests.
Time spent: about 4 hours including with at home technician
- The screen began flickering black on Tuesday about every 10 minutes. The guy in India said that he would send out a new LCD monitor and a power cord. Wouldn't send a technician for the monitor though, and that was a tough thing to install (hence, The Guy helped me and we both had a hard time). Spent an hour on the phone with him and ran a diagnostic test- still the problem ensued, but the diagnostic test wouldn't pick it up.
Time spent: 1 hour + an hour or so at The Guy's
- This morning I spent 75 minutes on the phone because the screen is flickering again- even though I have a new video card, new hard drive, fresh copy of XP on the computer, new LCD monitor. After 75 minutes of their run around decided they would send an at home technican this coming Tuesday with a new video card, ne LCD monitor, and a new motherboard. All of these things have been replaced before!!!
Time spent 75 minutes + probably an hour or more this Tuesday

Other qualms-
- Don't transfer me to India
- Don't tell me you have never heard of my problem.
- Don't play the diagnostic game in an order to save money. I am pretty tech saavy and so when I've called you I've already ran the diagnostics, troubleshooted the best I could, asked others who are knowledgable.
- They have used my precious time to play their games. This part bothers me more than anything. I USE MY COMPUTER FOR EVERYTHING!!! I use it to take notes at school, almost all of my homework has to be done on the computer, stay in touch with friends and family, and much more. I use it for a calendar, to update my phone address book and other random stuff... if it can be done on the computer I probably do it to stay organized etc.
- I have lost documents, important e-mails, and other stuff in the process of wiping out my computer so many times.
- They don't listen to the customer.
- Customer service where I have called to complain has always said that the technicians have handled the issue and so they can't do anything.
- With all the money they have poured into this POS it would have been much cheaper I'm sure to send a new computer.

I'll be stuck with my Dell until at least January 1, 2009 when the warranty expires unless I request a computer for graduating from college, or unless I break down and buy a computer myself. HMMMMMMM...

Don't get a Dell... haha... ok... so that's today's lesson. Consider it a lesson as opposed to a rant.

I am seriously considering a Mac. My sis just got one so I am somewhat familiar. I don't really want to go through and learn a new OS. I think Macs can do some really cool stuff and have seen it. I am not sure I'd be as able to troubleshoot a problem with a Mac because I've never really used one before. I do know however in talking with The Guy and his experiences with Mac tech support, they would have never played these games and probably would have replaced the computer by now.