Click here for more information about Totally Awesome Computers going out of business. Otherwise, feel free to read the following post about my negative experiences with TAC.
By the way, if you don’t read all the comments on this post you are really missing out. Trust me, they’re worth it. Some of the comments are from SuperDell Shanze himself and they’re pretty choice.
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Super Dell is flying over my office at this very moment. I kid you not. I came in to do some work on a Saturday, and suddenly I hear this noise like an airplane from outside. I go out to look and see someone with a big fan strapped to his back and one of those paraglider things that says “totallyawesome.com” on it. I’m pretty sure it’s Dell Schanze himself, because he’s pretty low and I can see the guy and it looks like him, only with goggles, ear protection, and some sort of suit. By the way, did you hear that Super Dell is selling his gun range? But that’s another topic altogether.
We’ve got a fun park called Boondocks next door to our office, so I’m guessing he’s trying to do some guerilla marketing, or get killed when the volcano spouts out flame, or something.
This serves as a nice way for me to talk about my bad experiences with Totally Awesome Computers.
As a disclaimer I’ll say that these experiences happened a few years ago and TAC may have cleaned up its act. I wouldn’t know because I’ll never buy anything from them again.
For those of you who are outside of Utah or don’t have a TV, radio, and are unable to communicate with the outside world, SuperDell is the owner of Totally Awesome Computers. Simply by his moniker and the name of the company you should already have an good idea of what this guy is like. But wait, there’s more.
SD has made TAC successful through the use of in-your-face, annoying advertising. As opposed to Overstock.com’s advertising, however, this is good advertising. It’s good advertising not just because it works, but because it’s clear, to the point, and has a good hook that doesn’t depend on cheap sex to sell product. I have just one problem with TAC’s advertising–much of it is false.
TAC makes several claims in their advertising. Here are some of them:
1. All other computers are junk.
2. TAC has wonderful computers.
3. Our customer service is great!
4. Other computer companies have bad customer service.
My experience buying two computers from TAC and 20-30 from Dell have proved, at least to me, that these claims are completely backwards. Here’s how it all went down…
Having heard TAC’s advertising for a while, I decided to try them out. The idea of having somebody local was appealing to me since I depend on my computer to make money and can’t afford for it to be out of commission for very long.
So I went in and bought a computer. I also convinced my dad to buy one around the same time.
Then I took it home and installed Windows 2000 on it. Windows 2000 is a pretty common desktop OS, right? I mean, before XP came along. Well, I immediately had problems. The computer would basically just turn itself off randomly, and you couldn’t reboot it unless you actually turned off the switch on the power supply. So I called TAC and asked them about the problems. Their response was “We only support Windows 98.” I was dumbfounded. Windows 98 was already a bit old, and Windows 2000 was much more common. What surprised me more was that they weren’t even willing to look at my computer or consider answering my questions. As soon as they found out I was running Win2k they refused to talk to me about my problems. Their suggestion was that I reformat my machine with Windows 98 on it. Noooo thank you.
Three months after I bought the machine, the power supply went out. For those of you with any experience buying computers, you know that power supplies will sometimes go out, but it’s not super common. I’ve only had one other computer have a power supply go bad out of over 30 computers I’ve owned. And that was on a computer that was over two years old. Three months means there is definitely a defect.
So I had been sold on TAC’s great customer support, right? They stand behind their machines, right? I figured it would be a no-brainer that I could walk in, tell them my power supply went bad, and they would simply pop a new one in.
I took my machine in, and I was told that the power supply had gone bad because of “dust” and that TAC didn’t cover power supplies that go bad because of dust. This is their store in Orem, by the way. Again, I was almost speechless. Are you kidding me? They thought my power supply went bad because of dust in three months? I’ve had computer run for five years without having any dust problems, and it’s not as though I was using this computer in a high school wood shop classroom. It was sitting at my house in a normal room that didn’t have any more dust than any other house might.
I argued with them about it, but they refused to fix it. I asked them how much it would cost me to replace it. “Ten dollars” was the response. So I paid $10 and walked out of TAC for the last time. I was even more stupefied now. As a business owner, I sometimes give my clients things they ask for, even when they have no right to ask. I almost always do this if it’s something small, just to maintain goodwill. TAC chose to ruin a customer relationship over something that took $10 and five minutes to fix, which they should have fixed anyway since they make promises about their machines in all their advertising.
To make a long story short, my dad had many other problems with his computer, and when he talked to TAC he was met with the same “Your cause is just, but we can do nothing to help you” type of attitude. He ended up taking the machine to other computer stores to get it serviced because TAC couldn’t/wouldn’t help him with it.
If it were an isolated instance, I wouldn’t tell everyone I meet to not buy TAC computers or write about it here on my blog.
Oh, and all those Dell computers I’ve bought? Not only did they cost me a lot less money, but I’ve only had two problems with them, ever. One time a CD-ROM drive went bad. I made a 1-minute phone call to Dell, gave them the ID of the computer, and they had a new drive shipped to me within 48 hours (I think it might have been within 24 hours) at no charge. The other problem was with a power supply, ironically. We were able to take a spare one in the office and fix that ourselves, so I haven’t actually taken the time to test Dell’s customer service a second time. But suffice it to say, I’ve got more faith in that issue being fixed if I ever feel like fixing it.
After two bad computers from Totally Awesome Computers, what do I do now? I buy Dells. They’re reliable, inexpensive, and their customer service is some of the best I’ve ever experienced.
I agree, Dell has always been wonderful to me. They’ve replaced things without a care in the world if it was my fault or not and I can easily drop them an e-mail so I don’t have to worry about phone calls, esspecially if I get a foreign speaking one. Dell is a perfect choice when choosing computers for a business.
http://www.superdellsucks.com/
What are you talking about? The Orem store is the only TAC store I’ve ever associated with, and they’ve never been anything but angels from heaven when it comes to fixing my computer problems. Is this article a lie? I’ve only experienced the exact opposite of everything you claimed happened to you at the Orem TAC store. Their customer service is honestly the best I’ve ever experienced, both with computers and other things. Please respond to this post and tell me if you actually had the bad experiences you wrote about. I just can’t imagine the Orem store doing to a person what you say happened.
I described events exactly as they happened to me. Granted, I’m just one guy, and maybe I’m the only person out there who has had a bad experience with TAC, but the experiences I had lead me to believe there were systemic problems and not just one bad apple. Why would an employee refuse to replace a $10 part on an almost new computer? Why would he make up reasons to blame me for the part going bad that I could tell weren’t true? Even if it were my fault, why argue over something that cost me $10 and probably cost them half as much? It seemed to me the employee had been coached on how to get out of doing even the smallest thing to cost TAC any money, and I had the same experience with PC Laptops.
2 bad experiences with TAC vs. 30 good experiences with Dell = I only buy from Dell from now on.
Speaking of which, in the original post I mentioned we had a power supply go bad on a computer. I hadn’t called in to get it replaced because I thought it was out of warranty, seeing as how I bought these computers almost three years ago. Turns out it still was under the original warranty (which wasn’t an upgraded warranty, it was the basic one that every computer comes with), and I submitted a request online, and the next day I had a new power supply in my hands, free of charge.
And about a month ago I decided to buy a new projector for our office. It was Tuesday evening at about 5pm, and I need it for a meeting on Thursday. The website said that it would ship within 4-5 days. I called up and asked if that meant it might ship immediately. The nice young lady (who was definitely a US citizen and not in some call center in India, by the way), was very knowledgeable and told me she couldn’t make any guarantees, but that it was in the warehouse and would probably ship within 24 hours. I decided to get it overnighted and risk that it might not be there for my Thursday meeting. Bear in mind, this is between 5-6pm.
I got the projector at 9am the following morning. I only had to pay $35 for shipping. And the projector has been working great. Much better than the previous Sharp one I got at Costco and eventually returned.
Every experience I’ve had with Dell has surpassed my expectations, and every experience I’ve had with TAC or PC Laptops has been more than disappointing. I’m just one man, and I only know my experiences, but there they are.
TAC computers are overpriced, always have been. The last one I bought from them was sold with “lifetime” free service. Well that has gone out the window now, they told me something about a computer being over three years old meant the “life” was over.
Granted when I bought the computer from them it was a Saturday and it was after 11:00 PM when I got around to setting it up and booting it when I found it wouldn’t go. I called the 24 hour tech support line and woke some guy up and he said he’d call me right back, which he did. He said the Murray store techs were still working even though it was now after midnight and if I head right down they would let me. I lived close by and made it there in ten minutes and they fixed my problem with a smile and sent me on my way. I appreciated that but like I said it was an expensive computer.
Next computer (current) is a very inexpensive Emachine which is now over three years old and ticking along nicely. The guys at TAC tried to sell me on the fact I couldn’t upgrade it and some components were far less than the best. SO WHAT!!!! When was the last time you actually upgraded a computer’s processor? Sure you add a faster video card more DDR but that is pretty common and easy on my emachine.
I don’t dislike TAC but there are much better deals out there. Now, Superdell . . . .
You people crack me up, one says he buys a computer at 11pm and comes in at midnight for instant service but then suggests people buy an emachine because Totally Awesome is supposedly over priced even though our system that cost more is about 40 times faster than the cheap pile of proprietary crap that comes with no service at all. Our prices are stupidly low for what you get!!! You came in at freaking midnight and recieved instant service but then complain???? Are you freaking nuts??? Where on planet earth can you recieve instant personal service on a software problem at midnite???? Or you could be the first guy that buys a computer and then changes the entinre operating system and complains that we noticed so he buys a dell. Hmm if you change the OS on the dell you won’t get any help at all since they don’t cover ANY software problems, user errors, viruses, spyware problems or anything at all other than hardware failures and then only after you press endless menu buttons, wait on hold and talk to someone in India. Not that I need to point out the completely obvious but a few of you seem to be a hamburger short of a happy meal. I still love you though and will continue to provice the best computers on earth and the best service in the world 50 times over. I sure get a kick out of how even people that post complaints about me on the net inadvertantly point out we are unbelievably Totally Awesome. INSTANT SERVICE AT MIDNIGHT AND THE GUY IS WHINING!!!!! There should be laws against peole like that.
I just bought my 5th Totally Awesome computer on January 7th 2006.
Over the years I have taken my computers in at least a dozen times for service. There was only 1 time TAC could not fix my computer after taking it in several times. The thing just kept crashing and they could not figure out why. So TAC replaced my computer with a BRAND NEW ONE, and gave me an upgraded Video Card FREE OF CHARGE for all the hassle.
I just wish I could work for SuperDell. Every time I visit one of his stores I don’t want to leave. They treat me like family. I just wish they would put a TAC in Payson so I didn’t have to drive to Orem for service.
I find some of the comments on this web-site quite funny. Show me a computer with the same equivalent at a better price that benchmarks faster than my TAC computer and that company will have a new customer…. guys….. you get what you pay for. All of my TAC computers have been smoking fast, and very reliable (except for the one mentioned earlier, yes it was a BIG hassle but TAC made things right with me).
I, of course, cannot straight out say that these complaints are lies, but several aspects of them do not ring true.
Of course individual experiences vary, and I have had uncharacteristic customer service experiences at different places, but I have dealt with some of these exact same problems.
I purchased a TAC in November of 99, after two of my brothers had purchased theirs.
Both my brother and I had a power supply problem, and they were replaced immediately at no charge.
I have taken my system in several times, just to get cleaned up (virus’, trojan horse’s, worms etc.) It has always been quick, and free.
You can find a cheaper system, there is no denying it, but I could put out a huge list of friends and family members who have bought ‘economical’ and run into huge problems with no support or service.
I don’t know enough about a computer to fix my own, and that alone makes the unparalleled service of TAC the reason I will ALWAYS buy from TAC.
I tried to install a Wireless adapter in a TAC computer. It wouldn’t work so I had the customer I was working for take the computer back to TAC. They told him that the PCI slots were bad. The computer was less than 6 months old. It was an XP computer. They charged him around $90 for a new motherboard. I only recommend to clients to by Dell.
I worked for the wonderful world of TAC, now closed TAC I should say. These are not lies when a tech is charging 4 different people for the same hour and in such a rush he/she forgets parts, screws, which software was loaded etc, etc……. I myself have been in all the stores from Orem to the warehouse in Ogden. The parts TAC sells are top rate! the people working on the parts are promoted on a religous basis. Sale people are motivated by, first sales rep to sell five systems gets 100.00 bonus, first tech to finish 15 machines gets 100.00, you think your system was #15 and not really worked on????? Dont ask about RMA’ed parts in new systems that would never happen at TAC. (wink, wink) Now that you cannot buy a TAC where is your lifetime warrenty good? Best of luck with the gun oh wait thats for sell toooo. OK Dell best of luck with the flying sports, maybe you can keep your word with that?
Finaly! The public has awoken from some bizare trance and Stuper Dull is getting what he deserves.
I could never figure how anyone trusted him for a computer, not to mention with a gun or a parachute.
I can’t wait to see whats next for him. Totally Awesome Manure. (bs was always his specialty) Totally Awesome Shives of cell block 12. Totally Awesome Dental. (Just like a visit to one of his past stores.)
Best of luck to all the TAC employees filing for discrimination. You can spot Dale as a self righteous zelot, sexist bigot a mile away. Open shut case I imagine.
hmmm here some more lies .. backing up some of the lie some of us experienced. about about how they back up their products ..
TH: So, how do you do it? How can you sell computers for so cheap and still make a profit?
SUPERDELL paraphrased: I am successful because I am not greedy. I am willing to sell for less and make a profit because of volume. And, I have a very low overhead. When my volume of sales increases, I can then afford to lower the prices even further - I just lowered the prices by $100 per machine. But, even more important than the price is the total package.
TH: Tell me more about what you mean by the “total package”.
SUPERDELL paraphrased: Quality, price and service. If somebody has a problem, even if it is something they broke themselves, we will fix it. If we can’t fix it, we will give you a new computer or your money back, whatever they want. I personally see to the problems; I will call the customer personally. But, we don’t see too many people wanting their money back, only about 1 in 900, and that one is the type of person who simply won’t let you help them. Gateway, on the other hand gets about 35% returns.
heres the story http://saltlakecity.about.com/library/weekly/00art/aa042400a.htm
Does anyone have Dell Shanze’s e-mail address?
Just some thoughts on this…
I subcontract for TAC and have found the company fairly Interesting to work for and to the point. I do not know if I would go out and buy one of their computers, because to me PC’s are about all the same to me. Warranties for computers are also fairly equal even up to “Totally Awesome” standards. (Which is not saying much)
I would broaden your perspective and not just look at TAC but also Sony and Dell. And I would even suggest you be open minded and look into getting an Apple. I myself was a major PC nut and (putting this bluntly) have found that Apple makes a far superior product no PC manufacture can reproduce.
But what ever you do… DO NOT BUY A TOTALLY AWESOME COMPUTER!
-Troy-
Next time someone sees Dell flying around in their neighborhood in his personal flying machine, duck! He is facing trial in May for being armed, dangereous (and paranoid) !
Now that TAC is no more, beware… Totally Awesome Church is next to feed his god complex.
First, your complaint about Windows 2000 is completely and utterly unfounded. Any manufacture will tell you they do not support 3rd party hardware or software, an OS upgrade not purchased through the vendor is considered 3rd party software and is thus entitled to no support. It really must be this way, there are too many variables on a machine. What if your motherboard manufacture for your ‘98 line updated their line for Win2000 and isn’t bothering to write 2k drivers for their old motherboards? SOL. It’s how this business works. Perhaps you purchased one such model and they tried to enlighten you through their verbage and you wouldn’t take no for an answer.
As for your 2nd problem, yeah that doesn’t sound like good service to me. Yet, it is annecdotal, like the comments here. So I take it like a grain of salt.
As for his advertizing. Yes, he has quite the interesting style. I have found it to be quite the norm in the business generally so this problem is hardly unique to him.
I suppose it’s all a moot point now that they’re out of business, but my beef is that TAC acted as though they were the nicest computer company around and they would take care of you, even if you brought in a computer that wasn’t one of theirs. If they had wanted to keep me as a customer they would have at least tried to help me with my problem, and after five minutes they could have said “Gee, we’re sorry but we’re just not familiar with troubleshooting Windows 2000 becase we don’t support it” and I would have been fine. But the feeling I got was that they didn’t want to support me at all, and the fact that I had installed Win2K was a convenient way for them to get out of spending even 30 seconds. For all they know the problem may have been common to their computers running Win98 and if there was a known fix maybe the same fix could have been applied with positive results to a system running Win2K, and then they would have had a happy customer instead of a dissatisfied one.
Good businesses look for ways to keep their customers happy, and all my interactions with TAC (and PCLaptops for that matter) have made me feel like all those guys care about is the money. Ironically when I’ve worked with Dell Computers I’ve felt like they cared, despite being a huge corporation.
TAC never impressed me much. I went in there late 90s with my dad, who wanted to buy a computer for his sister. I asked the lead tech at the store a few questions about their graphics cards and motherboards. He couldn’t answer them and it appeared that all their computers were using 6-month old parts — not the latest. Doesn’t surprise me that he is going out of business. However, all you DELL lovers out there better be knocking on wood. Dell has one of the worst reputations for quality and customer service currently. In the past they had a good reputation, but recently it has gone down hill. Big articles about it in Business Week etc. Google Dell and Customer Service or Quality and see what you get. I build all my own PCs (and run hosting on them) and use Apple for all (except for test machines) my desktops and laptops…
Aye, they could have been nicer and enlightened their customer about the problem. Your perception is important. Having worked support for a major manufacture, I can tell you it’s not easy to keep all your customer service people nice and smilie when cynisism is on the rise at large in the population and they have to often deal with “stupid” questions and irate customers. Oh do I ever have stories… Turnover is generally pretty high, hard to keep good people around and most companies really don’t try very hard.
You don’t seem to have much experience with Dell. The comparison is rather unscientific. I like customers who fix things themselves
Perhaps Dell is doing a good job, I don’t think it’s chance they are currently top dog.
Oh, one more thing. Win2K and Win98 are almost as different as Linux and Win2K, what works for 2K is very unlikely to work with Win98 and vice versa. I can fairly positively assure you that your theory is incorrect.
Perhaps, but the point still stands that they didn’t even spend 30 seconds trying to help me find a solution.
As for my comparison being unscientific, of course it’s all anecdotal evidence, but two high-priced computers with lots of problems from TAC and 20-30 low-priced computers from Dell with only two minor problems in a six-year history means I’m sticking with Dell for the time being, not that I have the option of going back to TAC now…
I really hate to kick a person when they are down, but it could not happen to a nicer guy. If his were such a great computer and the Dells and the Gateways were beneath him, then why are they still in business and he is not??? Humm I wonder, also he has blamed the news media for his down fall, but the only thing he can really do, is look in the mirror and actually see the person responsible for his down fall.
I think totally awesome was a great computer company…Hey Super Dell, If you are looking to sell off a branch of totally awesome computers I am willing to talk. I love the way you did business!
I’m sitting here looking at 3 dead hard drives laying on my desk, wondering why we took this crap for so long. These hard drives all crashed within the last 3 years. TAC customer service has been mostly good, however, their equipment has not been. It is ridiculous to have your hard drive crash every year! Perhaps more ridiculous is that we bought into their excuses and continued to trust that a new hard drive would solve everything. Let’s see - dust, games, and not enough anti-virus software were just some of their excuses as to why our hard drives crashed. I mean, this is on a pc that was barely used for things like email, light word processing and a few kids games. If a hard drive can’t hadle that, then… IT MUST HAVE COME FROM TOTALLY AWESOME COMPUTERS! I’m glad they’re gone so that we’re forced to go somewhere else. I just wonder how long this 4th hard drive is going to last?
I’m sorry that some of you had bad experiences from TAC. I was a technician for TAC for 2 years and even though my company is dead, I don’t like hearing that people had problems with dealing with us. There were many of us that worked very hard (honestly, you have no idea how hard) to make sure that the customer came first. We did try to make high end computers for the masses but indifference from some employees (as well as a few other factors) killed the business.
If I can do anything for you guys email me at man_and_machine@comcast.net. I am starting a mobile repair business (hey, I did just loose my job ^_^) and I’m willing to give TAC customer a break in labor fees. Heck, I’m always around if you just need advice. Good luck gang.
I’m sorry that some of you had bad experiences from TAC. I was a technician for TAC for 2 years and even though my company is dead, I don’t like hearing that people had problems with dealing with us. There were many of us that worked very hard (honestly, you have no idea how hard) to make sure that the customer came first. We did try to make high end computers for the masses but indifference from some employees (as well as a few other factors) killed the business.
If I can do anything for you guys email me at man_and_machine@comcast.net. I am starting a mobile repair business (hey, I did just loose my job ^_^) and I’m willing to give TAC customer a break in labor fees. Heck, I’m always around if you just need advice. Good luck gang.
In the last half-dozen years, I’ve bought 7 computer systems from TAC. Like any other computer owner, I’ve had a few problems; one crashed drive, one power supply failed, one monitor that was really freaky and a few other minor problems. Over the years, I’ve brought computers to three of the TAC stores (Foothill, State, Sandy) for service. Honestly, I’ve never been disappointed with the speed or quality of the service; I can’t remember even paying for a computer part related to a service call. Because I use my computers in a professional office, I bought computers from TAC for the local service, and I’m happy that I did. I think everyone understood that TAC computers were more expensive than Dell or Gateway (which I also have) but it was a comfort to have such great local service, which, in my mind was worth the premium price.
My suspicion is that the infrastructure needed to service the growing number of TAC computers in the daily repair pool, was not being paid by revenue from new computer sales. As low cost computer sales outfits proliferated and TAC’s new computer sales volume slowed, perhaps the lifetime service model was no longer financially viable.
I seriously doubt that Super Dell’s recent court/criminal episodes were the cause of TAC’s demise. People, like me, that wanted solid local service, aren’t interested in Super Dell’s various other problems; we just want computers with competent, speedy local service.
Businesses close because they’re losing money, which, in TAC’s case probably meant that sales volume couldn’t support the operation. TAC rode the wave of computer technology, and was a fabulous business concept which lasted almost a decade. All things considered, TAC had a pretty long life measured against the bulk of local technology based companies.
I’m sorry TAC’s out of business, computer service will once again be a headache; but I’d be surprised if we’ve heard the last of Super Dell…
I never bought one of TAC systems. I did try once. I was shopping with my younger brother and he wanted to look at the systems they had. We went to the Orem office and looked at a few of the machines. He found one that he liked and we tried to ask questions about it, but there was only one person in the store at the time and he was to busy answering the phone to help us. At one point he told us it would be one minute then after 15 minutes we just left.
He ended up getting an HP. (which was not the best choice) But at least he was able to get help buying it from them.
Until this past week I would have agreed that TAC rocks. I had my system in for repairs at the Ogden store. Needless to say it was a drag to have to drive to West Jordan to retrieve it. It was an even bigger drag when they didn’t have my computer. I was promised that someone would call me Monday(3/13) to advise me where my computer was or in the event it could not be located where I could pick up a replacement. To date I have not been contacted. I have e-mailed daily. Does anyone know where/who I can call?
Everyone that hates me and lies about me worships satan. God says love thy neighbor as theyself. Therefore if you don’t love me you definitely don’t follow God. After all of your hate and contention can anyone even come up with one single thing I’ve done wrong that is actually true?? How about take the 10 commandments and try to find a single one I’ve broken?? Some of you I fired for theft and you try to call me a liar? Others don’t know crap about computers but claim to know enough to be sure I don’t know anything…. Still others try to pretend the guy that sued me for discrimination obviously had something to say… Hmm the highest paid, highest ranking officer of the company claiming to be held back from promotion becasue of race & religion. Why do you allow Satan to put such foolish things in your hearts??? None of them make any sense at all. Your hate, contention and lies only hurt you. I will always be SUPERDELL. No matter how many lies you tell or how you twist your stories to try and pretend I commited horrible sins I am still me. All the rocks you throw are just waiting to hit you after you die. I still love all of you though no matter how horrible you try and be to me. The nice thing about being able to polorize people so well is that you very quickly find out what people really are. Take a look in the mirror, is this who you want to be? Hateful mean people? You can even try to twist this post and make something horrible out of it but it only hurts you.
Love, SUPERDELL
Funny how you, “SuperDell” blames the media for your demise. Did they put a gun to your head (pun intended) and make you seem totally nuts when you go postal on the evening news? That’s your fault, not the media’s.
Glad those totally stupid commercials are gone. Doh… looks like the disease has infected PC Craptops.
Wow.. so, um, apparently Superdell is the Computer Messiah! At least he’d like to think he is…
“Oh, the media/Prince of Darkness has ruined me! They’ve hung me on the binary cross and I have been crucified for all of your digital sins!” What a religious nutjob! Never mind his apathetic workforce, INSANELY unsustainable business model (free support for life?!), crazy promises, declining sales, and television antics that would make Michael Jackson blush.. that could never have been it.. It’s all a conspiracy by the DEVIL to fulfill the prophecy and have this Techno Christ slain! Woe is SUP4RD3LL!
Whoa indeed.. crazy Utah !#$#%#@. Your Totally Awesome Trainwreck has left the station. Choo Choo!!
P.S. Why are you wasting your time flaming your former employees and customers on some random dude’s blog? Don’t you have something better to do with your ti… oh.. wait.. you don’t.
I’ll bet daytime TV gets kinda boring after a while doesn’t it, Dell?
There’s a few cry-babies out there! TAC is not perfect (but probably more than the cry-babies), but it is a sad thing when any business goes out. In your rebukes, don’t forget the individuals and families affected by losing work. Next time it may be your job. Then, perhaps you’ll wipe the smug grins off of your faces.
I have dealt with TOC twice. In both cases the service was excellent. On one occassion I flew in from California with my (TOC Purchased) tower, which had a bad video card. I had only two hours for it to be repaired. They moved it to the front of the line (no extra charge), made the repair, removed viruses, etc, and handed it back to me in time for me to be on my way back to California. You guessed it—no charge, and a kind comment and smile.
Gosh it must feel good to be perfect, but then TOC wouldn’t know. They just tried their best to give their best. Perhaps they came up short a time or two, but I think they suceeded.
Hey SuperDell why don’t you go get a job from Dan “the laptop man” he rode your shirt tails for awhile, maybe he can return the favor. Stopped blaming your problems on the media and everybody else, you made your bed now sleep in it. Whenever you stupid @$$ commercials came on TV I would either turn the channel or get up and walk out, you are an IDIOT. Finally, how dare you use GOD in any of your comments, you are so far removed from spirituality that you don’t have the right to use GOD for anything. Grow up!!!
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=412322
Watch the video or else you’re really missing out. The best part is “If I was a really bad guy do you think any of these news reporters would still be alive? Ask yourself that question. You know you all have the ability to repent because of the grace of God, but you are still alive to do it, because of the grace of Super Dell.”
Man, you can’t make this kind of stuff up.
I was wondering how those who had purchased TAC computers and have had problems now and needed to take them into PC Labtops for repair been treated. I called recently and they told me minimium of a week for a repair or you can pay 79.00 to jump to the front of the line. What have your experiences been like?
I purchased my computer for TAC in Sandy in Febuary 06.
Without taking sides to who’s right and who’s wrong, I do have to point something out. As a computer builder and business owner for years, an electroinic tech that has worked for NASA and others, it is physically and mechanically impossible to build a device, like a computer, that won’t eventually have problems. One of the hardest things about building systems and taking responsibility for them is 98% of the time the problem is user related. It’s always some $%#$ software problem. Very rarely is it the mechanics of the machine. Keep in mind, your dealing with a device that has millions of things going on at any given moment, and the fact that they sustain and work as well and as efficient as they do should be praised!! Computers are a very fickle and funny thing. You might have 10 that work perfectly for 5 years and then 2 or 3 with constant issues. TAC put together systems with top of the line parts offered in the computer world. Those vendors too have failure rates on their individual parts, just as Dell Computer systems do. I can promise you, I fixed more Compaq, Dell’s, HP”s, E Machines, etc.. than I ever did my own. And I can also tell you for sure, the parts they used WERE NOT the quality you would find in a TAC macine. Regardless of the failure or why, once you put your name on that box, you take ownership of every issue it ever produces. Even though it’s something you didn’t cause, the customer will expect you to fix it and blame your quality for it regardless. Its’ your machine, why isn’t it working? You’ll always hear of bad experiences buying computers from TAC, but you’ll hear even more if you read the posts, of people being extremely displeased with the other Big companies out there. What people forget to realize is there are thousands of people very pleased with the systems they bought from TAC, and still are. I’m here to tell you, I worked my butt off trying to benchmark my systems at the levels of TAC computers, and it was impossible! They had some very talented techs working for their company. When you get written up in major magazines for having the fastest benchmark times ever seen for a certain configuration or CPU type by a local company, THAT is impressive. Ok, so SD gets a llittle defensive and sometimes over the top at times, but it’s those same antics that drove you to a store and got you a TAC computer. It’s because he is so interesting, that people, even after his company is gone, still talk about him. Whatever he did, he’s still winning, because we are all here talking about ihim. He ran 9 stores, did extremely well, and should also be complimented. I challenge anyone reading this to do what he did and do it better….
Note: I don’t personally know Superdell, have never worked for the company, and am only writing this to help people understand the trials and tribulations of building and backing computer sysytems. Thanks for listening!!
K
I hope it’s not too late to chime in on this. Dell, you will be missed! Even those who said bad things about you will now have to find someone new to hate.
You helped me, I run a computer company in Green Bay, and you gave me 1st rate advice. You gave me straight up information and you helped me copy what you were doing there, minus the crazy commercials. We are growing and becoming very successful in the local area. We don’t do exactly like you did, but we do offer the “Life time Service Warranty” on our high end computers, and we hold to our word!. God bless you Dell, you will be missed.
For those who had bad things to say, simply this, you try to do what Dell accomplished is his otherwise short time. He believed in his product, and he backed it with his Name and his Word. Every large company has it’s share of dumb employee’s that’s a given. Dell tried to reward the good and weed out the bad. HMMM, normal business practice? Better than some. Some big computer builders want you to think they are “All American”, but their computers and support are all overseas. No money back into the local economy. Support your LOCAL businesses and build AMERICAN.
AFA Don
Wow.. So many misconceptions and misunderstandings..
As a competitor to Totally Awesome Computers, we actually did and still do get a lot of his machines in for repair. I have two on my work bench as I write…
A couple of things from a 3rd perspective. As for the owner of this site and original poster… No… Even your worshipped Dell would not support you if you changed the OS on their machine. Let’s try an experiment, shall we? (Since you seem to have enough time on your hands to go TAC bashing…) Let’s have you take one of your Dell machines running Windows 2000, and load the nightmare called Vista on it. When it crashes and burns, which it most definately will, go ahead and call Dell, read them the ID number on the case, and explain in an honest fashion what you have done. Please be sure to post their response here so I can be entertained at your expense.
As for the hardware quality of TAC, I have worked on many of his machines, and found them to be constructed of quality name brand components. This is so much more than can be said of Dell, whom makes MOST of the machines I repair every day. They use outsourced parts from third world countries that you can pick up for pennies on the dollar on the internet. TAC could have purchased these parts as well, and lowered the price of his machine considerably. The person whom complained about the hard drives is especially entertaining… There are only three major hard drive manufacturers in the world. Seagate, Western Digital, and Hitatchi. All others are sister companies or subsideries of these three. Every computer manufacturer uses one of these three companies. Even Dell… Usually when hardware fails on a consistant basis over and over again, it is user error or the environment of the pc.
Yes, dust kills computers, as was mentioned earlier. Dust clogs CPU heatsinks, Powersupply fans, and other vital cooling devices on the motherboard. It is not uncommon to replace power supplies due to dust. In fact, it is our number 1 repair. We order five times the power supplies to any other pc part in our catalogs. Guess what… Dell is the number one brand we replace the power supplies in…. Go figure… In any case, heat is the number one enemy of any electronic component… even light bulbs. Heat will drastically reduce the life expectancy of your computer.
As for the 6 month old hardware comment… In order to purchase the most up to date hardware and install it in a machine, you must have a buyer whom is willing to spend the money on the latest fashion. If your computer costs $599, you aren’t going to get a new quad-core with two gigs of ram and an nvidia 8800GTX. In order to keep the price of the computer the same for more than a few weeks, you have to use the same hardware more than a few weeks. Being 6 months outdated was a lame comment to make. Otherwise, the price of a computer would go up and down like the price of gas. But then, there are some out there that think the Dell $399 special is the way to go, hmmm I wonder how old the hardware is in one of those suckers… Let’s see… I’ll pull up the Dell website and see… Wow! What a deal! For $349.. Dell will sell you a 2 year old AMD Sempron!
My point is… get the facts straight and compare oranges to oranges. I don’t agree with the way SuperDell chose to run his company, but the things being whined about here happen to EVERY company, and 90% of the time, the guy in the mirror caused and could have prevented the problem.
DS - sounds like you didn’t read the original post. Of course dust causes problems, but to a 3-month old computer that is sitting in the same place where other computers have sat for years with no problems?
Maybe you have a different definition of quality than I do. 20 Dells with one minor hardware problem vs. three TAC computers with lots of problems leads me to believe that either TAC used low quality stuff or didn’t put it together the right way. If you bought three computers from one place and had tons of problems and bought 20 somewhere else and had virtually no problems where would you buy your next computer from?
Regarding TAC not supporting me after I upgraded my OS, sure, maybe Dell wouldn’t have either, but part of the point is that I have never found out because I’ve never had any problems upgrading the OS on my Dells.
Yes, I did read the original post. It says,
“Then I took it home and installed Windows 2000 on it. Windows 2000 is a pretty common desktop OS, right? I mean, before XP came along. Well, I immediately had problems. The computer would basically just turn itself off randomly, and you couldn’t reboot it unless you actually turned off the switch on the power supply. So I called TAC and asked them about the problems. Their response was “We only support Windows 98.” I was dumbfounded. Windows 98 was already a bit old, and Windows 2000 was much more common.”
What I am saying is this.. Had you done this to one of my machines, Dells, HP’s, or anyone else, you would have gotten the same response. If you look on the front of one of your Dells.. there is a sticker that says, “Designed for Windows XX”. XX being 98, ME, XP, or other… By upgrading that OS to 2000 which contrary to your statement, is NOT common, and was a collage of ME and XP features which really resulted in a disaster. By altering the OS, you would nix any tech support from any manufacturer. I would only ask you to be fair here…
For example, in my garage sits a Jaguar S-type R. It packs 400 horses under the hood, but I find the exhaust a little too tame for how powerful it is. I wanted to have it fitted with an aftermarket exhaust solution that would unleash a little more HP and let this car roar like I think it should. However, the shop I took it to informed me that altering the car would void the warranty. As a businessman, I’m sure you can see this must be.
I wish I could upload pix to your site. I would show you pictures of the Dell Dimension 2400 I am working on right now, and of how there isn’t a name brand part in it, and it is plastered inside with stickers that read “made in China”. SuperDell built machines made by Americans right here in Utah County with major name brand high quality high performance parts. That you had bad experience with them is unfortunate. However, the powersupply incident could happen to any manufacturer. The fact that you got a defective one is just a matter of odds. The fact that Totally Awesome sold it to you was unfortunate as well. I would have replaced the $10 part here at my business, so I can validate that point.
I’m not at all disagreeing with his poor business habits, but I have to stand up and say that ragging on his hardware and putting the Walmart of computers on the pedistal is going too far.
I’m happy for the guy that has so much good fortune with 20 Dells. However, I work on 30 to 40 of them a week, which is double the number of Compaqs, Sonys, HPs, and Toshibas. I see a Totally Awesome computer maybe two or three times a month. Maybe that’s because they go to PC Laptops where the lifetime warranty is “honored” by charging you double for parts, and no labor, but who knows.
One of these days, wander down to PC Club there in Orem, and see the number of Dells stacked up along the shelves and walls waiting to be worked on.
I guess my point is, there are some good honest computer stores here on the Wasatch front. I wouldn’t sell them out for a few Chinese built economy machines over a bad experience with Dell Schanzee. No one can stand the guy, but he did build quality machines, as do other local computer stores all over the county.
Well, until I have a bad experience with a Dell I’ll stick with them. I don’t care much about where something is manufactured, I care about whether it works, and my experience is that Dells work and TAC computers don’t. Maybe it’s an anomaly, but I’ll stick with what works for me.
At least we agree on PC Laptops. I got ripped off by those guys too. And the funniest part is that they always advertise how if your Dell breaks down it will have to go to “Chumbawumba” to get fixed, but that’s exactly what happened with my PC Laptops laptop! It broke and they told me they had to send it overseas and that it would take two months to get back! Seriously, no joke. Well, it is a joke, or at least they are.