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Electronics excite me. Not only are they a hobby in and of themselves, but most of my hobbies involve electronics in some form or another. I play video games on my computer and on various consoles. I love digital photography and use my computer to edit photos and make digital scrapbooks (another hobby). I enjoy cooking and use my scanning pen to scan recipes into Word documents to be saved on my laptop. I also use recipe software for new dishes. I write Epinions. I also depend on a lot of electronics. I keep all important documents, such as my resume, our wedding budget, several cover letters, a list of emergency contacts, a list of all prescription medications I’m on, and our wedding contracts, on a flash drive in my purse at all times.

My affinity for this category of product, and my need in some cases, leads to about twenty-five or so. Most of those purchases are made on Dell.com and I’ve been mostly happy with those experiences.

Products
Dell sells a wide variety of electronics and accessories. Their main product line is their computers. Dell offers desktop and laptop computers, which are sold as stock models or customized to the customer’s needs. They more recently expanded into selling Dell brand televisions as well.

The site also offers computer peripherals, parts, and accessories including printers, mice, keyboards, graphics cards, internal hard drives, external hard drives, USB flash drives, cables, removable media, and computer speakers. Dell sells many other products you’d expect to find at an electronics store. The site offers a wide selection of popular digital cameras and related accessories. Video games and console accessories are also available on the site.

Prices
The regular, non-sale prices of products on Dell.com are comparable to the same or similar products on other electronics sites. Occasionally the accessory prices are slightly lower than those on other sites like Best Buy and Circuit City. That being said, I find that Dell often has the best deals. Dell coupon codes are abundant on the internet and often bring the price below employee prices at other major retailers. Deep discounts are often offered on overstocked computers and digital cameras. Finding and using these coupon codes doesn’t require much effort, either. Before you make a purchase, simply google “Dell Coupon Codes” and you will find a wealth of sites that track and list these coupons. This is my main reason for shopping through Dell. Electronics are expensive and this site offers quality electronics at very low prices with the codes.

The Site
Navigation on Dell.com is hit or miss. Customers may browse the website using categories and subcategories to find the item they are looking for. A search feature is also available, but isn’t always accurate. If I type an exact camera model number in, often the item I was looking for will show up at the bottom my result’s page. A search for “Canon SD1100IS” results in a list topped by four Canon “ZR” camcorder models, followed by nine other Canon Powershot Elph SD models (SD950IS, SD870IS, SD890, etc.) before the Canon SD1100IS. You can narrow the search by various subcategories, which are useful if you know the camera’s specifications (the search can be narrowed by price and megapixels), but clicking on “digital cameras” didn’t get me far. The site’s categories aren’t so specific so any camcorder with picture capabilities shows up in the list. Although the site sells several San Disk Memory cards, a search for “San Disk SD Card” turns up no results. If you’re looking for something specific, you may have to do some digging or waste time browsing. Often coupon codes are accompanied by links to the products they apply to, so that may make your search a bit easier.

The product pages are very complete and detailed, giving me sufficient information to make informed purchases. Every product listed is accompanied by a picture. Most of these pictures can be zoomed into, while some of the pictures offer full 360 views. At the very least, big ticket items have several pictures from different angles on their pages. A brief overview of the product is offered in paragraph form on the page with a tab for the full technical specifications. These specifications were complete, similar to the manufacturer’s site I’ve compared it to. Another tab allows shoppers to see other customer’s reviews and ratings of the product. The price (of course) and the availability of the item are listed at the top. Information about financing is listed under the price, providing payment information for products purchased with a Dell credit account. There are buttons to chat live with a representative who can answer any of your questions on each page.

I have never experienced speed or loading problems at Dell.com. With many shopping experiences with this site, I have never encountered an error nor a broken link.

My Orders
The site’s check-out process is easy to use and self explanatory. You are required to enter certain information, which you are prompted for, and click “next” when you get to the bottom of the page. I have never encountered any problems during this process. Customers must create an account, which allows you to view your purchase history, track items, and more. Financing is offered, with instant online approval after filling out the application. I opened an account and often get to take advantage of additional 2% off deals.

Almost every ordering experience I have had with Dell.com was a positive one, with the exception of one listed in the next section. The selection offered is sufficient for my needs and they have products in stock most of the time. My orders have been processed smoothly and I have received emails to confirm and keep me updated. Tracking information is always provided, so I always know where my package is. The orders have always arrived on time and the products were excellent quality. Every single item I have purchased from Dell since 2003 is still in working order today and I never had to return or exchange an item.

My first purchase on this site was a micro desktop in 2003. I wanted a small desktop to accompany me to college. I customized a Dimension 4600C, which turned out perfect. The computer was built in fewer days than expected (five, rather than the estimated seven) and arrived one day earlier than the shipping method I chose was estimated. It has been a quality product that still works well to this day. It was worth every penny, despite the fact that I didn’t know about the existence of coupon codes at the time.

While at school, I made several small purchases for various peripherals. One included my Buslink External Hard Drive which became my main storage device for music, schoolwork, pictures, and video in 2004. The item was reasonably priced, and arrived on-time at my dorm. This is another product I bought from Dell that still functions properly.

My favorite Dell purchase was the one where I first discovered coupon codes. I priced out a customized gaming laptop to $1500. I was going to forget the idea of a laptop all together, but decided to do a search to see if I can find a better price. I stumbled across a coupon for $750 off any Inspiron 6000 priced over $1400. My fiance and I bought twin laptops for practically half price. The laptops arrived one week ahead of schedule and have been quality computers. Both performed well for gaming and other tasks. I’m only now, three years later, beginning to have problems with my laptop. The USB ports became a little loose, probably because I use them so much for my peripherals. Either way, we’ve gotten more than our money’s worth of use out of them.

I make many smaller purchases from Dell. In the past I have purchased flash drives, computer memory, and various peripherals. A more recent purchase was an item I never leave home without: my San Disk Cruzer Micro 2 GB USB Flash Drive. I also purchased my Wizcom Elite Scanner Pen from Dell. Both have been quite useful.

My camera purchases have been very positive experiences. At the time I purchased my Canon Powershot Elph SD600, I was working in retail. Dell’s price with the coupon code was less than my employee price at Best Buy. I was very happy with the purchase for two years and now I’m even happier with my new Canon Powershot Elph SD1100IS.This was my most recent purchase, within this month. The item arrived two days early along with my San Disk Extreme III 2 GB SD Memory Card and the spare batteries. I saved over $37 on a brand new camera and had two new, high-speed, high-capacity memory cards for $30 each!

Customer Service
Outsourcing is commonly associated with Dell’s customer service, as most people know that calling them will require them to decipher thick accents. Unfortunately for me, I’m terrible with accents, which has been only one of my problems with the site’s customer service. Both experiences I have had dealing with Dell staff left me with a few more gray hairs.

My first experience involved a replacement video card. At the time I purchased my Dimension 4600c, I was not very interested in computer gaming. As my interests expanded, I realized my computer was in need of a graphics update. The problem is, the computer was a micro system that would only take low-profile video cards. Most systems take standard cards and the low-profile ones are more difficult to find. I called the number supplied on the site for parts. Dell assigns each computer a “service tag” so their staff can easily identify your machine when you call for support and products. I gave the gentleman my service tag and explained I needed a video card. This should have been simple enough.

After twenty minutes of being put on hold so the parts department could consult the technician departments (why would the parts department employees know nothing about which parts go with which computers?), the employee proudly told me the model of the video card I needed and said, “That will be $269.99. May I have your credit card information.” I probably would have bought it to, but on a hunch I asked, “Are you sure this is a low profile card that will fit my system?” Ten minutes later he came back from speaking with the technicians to report that it indeed wasn’t, and they actually don’t have a graphics card for their system. I wasted thirty minutes dealing with an ill-prepared parts department for nothing. Worse yet, had I not double checked, I would have purchased the wrong product and would have been stuck paying the restocking fees.

My second problem with Dell’s customer service occurred when I placed an order for a high speed memory card for my last digital camera. The product page says “usually ships within 24 hours.” Upon checking my order status the next day, the site said “Backordered: Expected Delivery Date: January 24.” This was in November. I called customer service to find out why the product was still listed as ships within 24 hours and to cancel the order. I spent more than forty minutes fighting with customer service. First I asked the status of the order. The customer service representative read me the expected date I had seen on the site. I explained that the site said something different and that I’d like to cancel the order. The customer service representative informed me that it was impossible to cancel the order as it had already gone to the warehouse. Excuse me? Between now and January 24 you cannot cancel the order? If you’re telling me it’s not coming until January, you can’t tell me it shipped already. We went back-and-forth for over thirty minutes. The employee told me that I had to wait until January when I receive the item, then pay to ship it back and receive a refund. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was put on hold for ten minutes. The same employee returned and informed me that he would cancel the order for me. He asked, “Are you happy with the service you received today?” Of course I responded that I wasn’t because he had spent forty minutes telling me he couldn’t do something that he could have done all along. Strangely enough, the item arrived two days later, before the order had been marked cancelled on the site. It did show up on my credit card so I kept it, but I was still annoyed at the way the situation was handled

Recommendation
Overall, my experiences with Dell.com have been positive. I have made well over fifty purchases with them and have only needed to deal with their customer service twice, so I wouldn’t worry about their weakness in this area too much. The site offers great quality products and coupon codes make them a great value. The site is a bit irritating, but if you can get over its faults, I think you’ll be happy with your purchase.