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Buying a UK computer


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I know several forum members have bought UK computers from Dell in the past, in fact I did it myself a few years ago. However, has anyone done it recently?

I have tried ringing the dreadful, India based order line and they are telling me I need a UK address to buy a Dell with UK keyboard etc.

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Hi

I've recently bought a new Dell tower, but I rung the French number - which I'm quite sure was also in India - the guy I spoke to was very helpful.  I stipulated that I needed the OS and the pre-installed software in English and a QWERTY keyboard.  No problems at all - in fact the delivery came from Ireland!

Hope this helps

 

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[quote user="LyndaandRichard"]Phone this number:
Isha Singhal
Sr Sales Expert
DHS CONSUMER SALES
0870-907-5128 extn.74206
Fax-0870-353-1312
[email protected]
Bought a lappy last year through her and almost another this year. Excellent service. Better than the sales plebs under her who know nothing.
[/quote]

Thanks, I've sent her an e-mail, I'll let you know how I get on.

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[quote user="LyndaandRichard"]Phone this number:
Isha Singhal
Sr Sales Expert
DHS CONSUMER SALES
0870-907-5128 extn.74206
Fax-0870-353-1312
[email protected]
Bought a lappy last year through her and almost another this year. Excellent service. Better than the sales plebs under her who know nothing.
[/quote]

I e-mailed Isha at 21:47 last night, at 21:52 I received a reply from her saying that if I gave her my telephone number she would phone me back, I asked her to phone me at 2pm on Saturday.

At exactly 2pm she phoned me and although I declined the French delivery of the £279 Netbook which I thought was a bit pricey (£75) she has arranged for the computer to be sent to my mother in laws address in the UK (£20).

I have to say that I was very impressed with her, she is friendly, helpful and knowledgeable, thanks for the recommendation.

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We have also bought from Dell.FR & UK this year. We used the on-line chat and specified through this that we wanted UK keyboard and software. The rep then emailed the completed order form to us for verification and then finally rang us for the payment formalities. It was very efficient and I was quite impressed with the service and delivery.

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  • 1 year later...

Sorry to resume this old thread, but I am planning to buy a new thin and light lap top for travelling from Dell, and I want a UK keyboard and software.

I have read this thread, and I wonder if there have been any changes in the ordering process over the last 15 months.  I was thinking of Dell UK because I want to pay in pounds from a UK bank account.

Thanks,

David

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Hi David

I'd suggest contacting the lady I mentioned on page 1 of this thread. She was very helpful when I bought through Dell UK.

My Dell has given up the ghost since then (2.5 years out of a laptop isn't bad I suppose) and have a French one now. Took me a week or so to get used to it, but now I'm up to speed, it's fine and I don't even notice the os is in French now either.

Might be a cheaper option by going French.

Your software will still be in English, it's only the os that will be in French, unless you get a higher version of vista or win7 then you can choose English.

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Two things, the people in general at Dell have no problem shipping a UK machine to France, my wife did just that for a desktop with screen etc, not exactly a small machine.

You can also look at Amazon (UK) as they now ship to France and currently have some interesting 'branded' machines (Toshiba, Acer etc) in their sale. Click on THIS to view. For printers look at the German version of Amazon, much cheaper than either the UK or France for many things.

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[quote user="Richard"] 2.5 years out of a laptop isn't bad I suppose[/quote]My but you're easy to please, I'd be very upset if I only got that long !

I currently use a Samsung NC10 Netbook whilst travelling but before that I lugged around an Acer Ferrari which is coming up to 5 years old and is now my main home machine and hasn't missed a beat. Prior to that I had a Hi-Grade Notino which was nearly 8 years old and was still going strong - until it got nicked [:@]

Sure the Acer battery isn't up to much anymore but in it's current static role it doesn't need to be. The battery on the Hi-Grade incredibly was damn near as good when it got nicked as it had been on day 1 !

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[quote user="AnOther"][quote user="Richard"] 2.5 years out of a laptop isn't bad I suppose[/quote]My but you're easy to please, I'd be very upset if I only got that long ![/quote]

Me too!

OH's laptop - a Toshiba - is 5 and 3/4 years and my Tosh is 3 1/2 years old. Fingers crossed that they continue to flourish for a while yet. Though I must confess that I am prone to an almost-drool over the specs of the most recent versions! [:)]

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Actually to back up what Another says I have a Toshiba Libretto running Windows 98 which is 14 or more years old, a Dell Latitude 660 which is 10 years old, a Dell fileserver (the latter two were 'gifts' from Dell to encourage me to recommend them to my clients) about 10 years old, a Sony Vaio about 12 years old and a Compaq mini tower which must be 15 or 16 years old and has only just gone bang (memory problem and can't get memory for it anymore). The only problem with the portables is batteries but like Another its not that important. So 2.5 years for a laptop, unless accidentally damaged, as Another said is pretty poor.
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Well, I guess it depends how much you use them. Mine has been on pretty much 24/7 for the majority of that time, plus I always buy bottom of the range cheap ones.

I do have an old Compaq that has lasted, although I have had to replace the screen, hard drive and dvd drive in that time, but the actual nuts and bolts of the computer, the motherboard is still going.

The average life span of a laptop is apparently only 2 to 3 years from what I've read.
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Richard, I am not sure where you got those figures from but they are wrong.

As you have pointed out your old Compaq is quite old but you have had to change both the HDD and the DVD drives which is not uncommon. This is because they are mechanical devices and therefore wear out or fail. The motherboard has a life expectancy of around 1000 years but in reality we know they don't. The reason they don't is not actually down to the board failing in its own right. The most common cause of motherboard failure is a secondary device i.e. overheating due to fan failure (mostly caused by dirt) or something like the HDD failing which in turn takes out the HDD controller.

Laptop screens have an average MTBF of between 50,000 and 60,000 hours. There are 8,760 hours in a year so if you had it on all the time it should last around six to seven years. Its usually the 'back-light' that fails but unfortunately the screen accounts for the major cost of a laptop so once it fails you usually bin the laptop.

Hard drives (since early 2000) have a much longer MTBF of anywhere between 500,000 and 1.4M hours. If you just use the lowest figure that would give you around 57 years of continuous use. You can check that out by Googling "average MTBF for XXX (replace XXX with device i.e. HDD etc)".

My fileserver has RAID installed and only one out of three drives has failed in all its life. Currently it has run for over 400 days without being powered off (its Novell 6.5, lucky its not Microsoft else it would be up and down like a yoyo) and thats because I powered it down.

The other thing to take in to account is that many machines are company owned and therefore have a financial 'write down' life of three years so if they had a life expectancy of only two the old 'bean counters' would be up in arms.

The most common form of failure of laptops is self inflicted damage caused by pens being left on the keyboard and the lid/screen being closed. I know this because Toshiba used to be one of my clients.

The most common reason for laptops being 'thrown out' is technology i.e. new ones come along with a higher spec and people want the latest model. This is mainly to do with disk space, as MS programs get bigger and bigger leaving less space for document storage you need more disk space. Ten years ago a 10 or 20MB HDD was considered big now some manufacturers are already putting 1TB drives in their machines as standard. Same with memory when you think about it, to get a decent speed out of Windows 7 you need 2GB of memory but better with 4GB.

A laptop failing at 2.5 years is a good example of why you should look at machines with three years warranty or get extended warranty to three or more years.

Hope that helps.

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I used the online chat with Dell UK yesterday and they said they definitely don't deliver to France. I'm not sure my French is up to technical details to request one from Dell France yet ... unless there's an English speaking rep there. But I definitely want a UK keyboard and UK software ... any advice or contacts in Dell that I could talk this through?
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From another thread:

Try this lady at Dell.
Isha Singhal
Sr Sales Expert
DHS CONSUMER SALES
0870-907-5128 extn.74206
Fax-0870-353-1312
[email protected]
She sold me my laptop a year ago and almost sold another to us earlier this year. Everyone else at Dell says no, this lady says yes. Note that shipping will be around £80.

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/2/1461311/ShowPost.aspx#1461311

Note that if you do buy via this route the warranty will be UK based, read the whole thread for more details.

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