Buying a PC with Dell: My journey into hell | Hacker News Reader

Buying a PC with Dell: My journey into hell

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Author of the Twitter Thread is a Computer Illiterate but bought a BTO business machine and was surprised that you have to click the wifi and ssd drop down menus if you want your desktop machine to come supplied with an ssd and wifi. They vented their anger at a company that sells computers „without Internet“ (Ethernet Cables seem to no longer exist). They then used their Twitter following to put pressure on Dell who immediately offered a refund. I don‘t like Dell, but I like this idiocracy themed version of reality even less. People on hn sometimes criticize Apple for infantilizing their users. It’s easy to forget that most users have no Clue what a Computer is and don‘t want to be bothered by those pesky details.

My view exactly, he bought something way out of his skill to know how it works. He expects Dell to baby sit and pander to his illiteracy.

> It’s easy to forget that most users have no Clue what a Computer is and don‘t want to be bothered by those pesky details.

For people who dont know anything about computer. Definitely yes.

Except these group of people on twitter wont buy a Mac. Because they think they know a lot about PC, and Mac is overpriced.

They assume a lot about their known known. Knows little about their known unknown. So when you try to explain how Mac is better, they think you are ripping him/her off.

For some strange reason I think these group of people are also growing. I am wondering if it had something to do with people could google up an answer in 5 seconds without thinking through it.

And what's worst, instead of having gratitude for Dell coming to fix his own mistake, apologise to his followers for all the drama ( although modern day social media is all about dramas ), and Thanks Dell publicly. He is making a big fuss out of it.

This whole story is a testament to how/why Apple workstations exist.

How this got on the front page is a mistery.

Person orders wrong Dell, wastes Dell's time with support, a motherboard replacement (and a refund?).

All as a business expense (who want to pay taxes, right?)

The proceeds to lyric about it in 50 tweets.

That was quite a ride.

I recently purchased a Dell workstation with an Intel I9, 128GB (may be 96GB, it’s late here) RAM and a 5GB GPU for a client. This was the first Dell I’ve seen with no onboard video, and for some reason the monitor doesn’t fire up until a minute into the boot process on a cold start.

It also has a metal handle and some proprietary drive mounts…and no onboard NVME slots…and isn’t fast to boot at all…and the wireless is a bit sluggish. Let’s say it has a lot in common with the OP link.

See also Linus Tech Tips recent Secret Shopper Special were Dell came in dead last and even scammed them with unwanted warranty extentions etc:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Go5tLO6ipxw

Probably the most important part of the whole saga: https://twitter.com/EyePatchWolf/status/1385280782034427905

Too long; didn't click: the Twitter thread blew up, Dell sent someone with significantly more executive power than their rank-and-file customer support team to do damage control and offer OP a credit for their order.

The person ordered an expensive Dell System but didn't check all the drop down menu when he was buying his Desktop / Workstation. So he ends up buying a Dell that doesn't have any WiFi and came with a HDD.

Tldr; Nothing really wrong with Dell. Basically all his own fault.

Edit: Not sure why the downvote without explanation. I am guessing some fat fingers.

I would argue that charging 430 Euro for their proprietary disk cables is Dell's fault.

They literally admit that: "so I am partially (well… mostly) to blame for the nightmare that follows"

I agree.

I literally have never owned a workstation with a wifi card, so it's totally reasonable for Dell to not put them in by default.

The author refers to that as being without the internet.

People who don't know about cars ask people who do for advice before buying one. Maybe this person should do the same when buying a computer? Particularly an expensive, custom configured one?

Quite a saga, and entertaining writing; but all of this was easily avoidable with a little bit of research.

The entire saga was almost entirely "research".

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