While I was studying my degree the College had a small collection of Dells in the main Prepress area. Surprise surprise it wasn’t long before they got a couple hundred more - they were the smoothest, most reliable computers they eve ever had! Although the computers were perfect, the service wasn’t…
I worked for the College as a Technician for 6 months, and I knew the poor bloke who had to do all the servicing and hardware maintenance. For some odd reason Dell always took ages, the engineers could never quite fix the problem, and usually the College ended up servicing the computers themselves.
I can’t speak from a personal point because I’ve never owned a Dell, but everyone I know who has one apart from the College never had any trouble. Perhaps Dell just don’t like large contracts and all the extra hassle they create?