Dell to Sell Most or All of Its Factories in 18 Months

[ThePhoenix]

http://gizmodo.com/5045901/dell-to-sell-most-or-all-of-its-factories-in-18-months

According to the Wall Street Journal, Dell is restructuring their production in a massive overhaul that will send the entire manufacturing process overseas. According to one insider's account, most or all of Dell's factories, which are based in the US, will be sold off in 18 months.

Dell has long used their own factories to assemble computers after a consumer places an order—a technique Dell pioneered to cut inventory costs and boost profits. Currently, the company relies on Asian computer parts assembled in Dell US factories—the "two touch" process. The planned transition, which has already been made for some laptops, will move all production to foreign contract manufacturers—something we already see from companies like HP and Apple.

So the only question that remains is whether or not there will be interested buyers in Dell's $2.6 billion in production plants. Because if Dell is backing out of the game, it's gotta be a tough sell to anyone.

[Captain Hilts]

1. Needlessly noisy keyboards. I hate them!

[cornermouse]

2. I quit buying Dell when I saw that.

Fact is, try to jump through all the hurdles to contact them about something. It ain't gonna happen. Customer service has become extinct.

[sellitman]

3. Dell lost me as a customer years ago.

When they outsourced their help desk with people who bearly speak English.

They lost me with a faulty hand held PDA that they wouldn't stand behind.

They lost me by being a Republican financial backer.

I have bought Apple products ever since.

[QC]

5. Apple moved all their production overseas years ago.

It's mentioned in the original post.

[sellitman]

29. Notice in my comment that wasn't the issue that drove me away.

Dell lost me for a host of other reasons.

Apple has first rate customer service and generally stands behind their products very well IMHO.

[orleans]

33. remember when fuckhead was on the telly and said something to the

effect of: and when you go on your dell computers?

[leeroysphitz]

4. Then to hell with Dell along with HP and Apple.

My next PC (like my current one) will be assembled by the people at my local computer shop. They do an excellent job, customer service is FACE TO FACE and more of my dollars stay in the local economy.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. !

:thumbsup:

[pstokely]

25. But they don't build Laptops

[Stinky The Clown]

7. "Sam" has been building and maintaining my computers for years

He's about 5 miles from me. Nothing fancy. A storefront shop. Every computer he's built has been a terrific performer. Any problems have been Windows related, not Sam's work. Sam has gotten me past every roadblock thrown up by Windows.

Just a few weeks ago, I decided to buy a Mac Pro.

I 'customized' it by upgrading the video card. That's it. Everything else was stock. I got programs, more memory, and bigger hard drives from a third party supplier.

The memory, drives, and software have been here for over a week.

The computer is not.

I got an e-mail note saying it was shipped from the US depot. I tracked it on Fedex's site. They say it was neevr scanned into their system.

Apple says wait until the due date before I complain.

Meanwhile, my credit card has had a nice chunk sent over to Apple.

I spoke to an Apple customer service supervisor. She couldn't find my computer either so she ordered me another one to be built in China. I got shipping notice about it yesterday. Delivery late next week.

I am VERY unhappy with this experience. Why couldn't I buy this at the local Apple store? Because they can't customize except to add (outrageously overpriced) memory. For any other upgrade, one is forced to buy online.

Now that I finally made the decision to join the ranks of Apple users, THIS is what greets me.

I may well go back to my $2000 PCs. This $3800 Mac just can't be 'all that'.

I feel used, duped, and stupid.

[SteelPenguin]

17. that sucks

I had a simliar experience with multiple computer companies before. I think hiccups happen in some of these processes occasionally.

My favorite was when I bought a computer from Alienware and it didn't ship for a month, and wehnever I called they talked about their backlog. Finally i got someone to tell me the computer was built, and that they were waiting to ship it until the speakers I ordered with it came in. I told them to ship the damn computer now, and ship the speakers separately when they came in.

A week later the speakers showed up...but still no computer. It was 2 months from when I ordered it till it arrived. Alienware is now part of Dell.

Meh.

don't hold the experieince in ordering/shipping against the actual machine though. You just got unlucky. It happens. It sucks, but it happens.

[KillCapitalism]

8. I think most here would boycott Dell anyway.

They build an inferior product and have awful customer service.

Peresonally, I build my own desktops and interestingly I never seem to have any problems with them.:headbang:

Thing is that you cannot find ANY PC components made in the US, which is a bummer b/c I would buy American made if it were an option.

[Jazzgirl]

9. I build all my own desktops too.

I almost never have any trouble with them. If I do then I can fix it and don't have to wait on anybody else. I agree it is a bummer that none of the components are made here anymore. America doesn't make anything anymore.....

[Stinky The Clown]

11. "America doesn't make anything anymore....."

Yes we do.

We make trouble.

[HughBeaumont]

12. And money for the extremely wealthy.

We seem to be really good at that.

[CRF450]

10. You and I can, but most people can't.

Thats the problem, evem if 90% of PC's come from India or China, people will still buy them. My brother bought a Dell desktop computer from walmart earlier this year, although I dispise of Dell's now, the one he bought runs pretty well with Vista. Now, when it comes to laptops, we have no choice but to them buy them manufactered.

[KillCapitalism]

18. Ehh, it's not too terribly hard.

Really, you can just read an online guide to figure it out. I taught my 9-year old nephew to build a system. I hooked him up with some old parts I had so he could build a halfway decent gaming rig. We just did it last week. Here are the specs on his rig:

- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
- EVGA N-Force 680i Mobo
- 2 X 2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800
- EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 512MB video card
- Western Digital SATA 400GB hard drive
- LG 16X DVD-RW drive
- Corsair HX Series 650 watt PSU
- An old Lian-Li case that I modded up

[ForeignSpectator]

20. Halfway decent? I'd say that's at least "decent"! Core 2 Quad, 8800 GTS, 4GB RAM, "halfway decent"??

:crazy:

I want to build me a new PC soon, too. I am wondering... how much of a difference do the NVidia chipsets make compared to Intel's?

Also, what's the advantage of SATA drives? Faster or something else, too? In that case I'd go with IDE because I heard you can't install XP on the SATA drives... is that true?


PS : Oh and on topic, Dell always sucked, the "Dell Hell" episode proved that.

[KillCapitalism]

22. Yeah, just decent.

Mine's a good bit faster & overclocked. I get my parts through someone who gets steep vendor discounts, so that helps.

Nividia chipsets v. Intel...not a whole lot of difference performance wise, but most all nvidia chipsets support SLI, only some Intel chipsets do. Intel chipsets can support AMD's crossfire, but not nvidia since AMD is a direct competitor. Personally I like nvidia's chipsets right now, I have an nforce 780i SLI based board & it's great. It all depends if you want speed & tons of features, get an nforce 780i, 790i, Intel X48 or P35. If that's not important & money is an issue, go for an nforce 680i, 750i, or Intel X38 or P45.

SATA v IDE...yes SATA is abit faster than IDE, especially if you get a Western Digital Raptor. SATA uses a very thin cable unlike the huge ribbon cables you need for IDE. You can install XP on an SATA drive, you just have to hit F6 at the beginning of the install at the prompt to install SATA drivers from a floppy. If you don't have a floppy like I don't you can slipstream the SATA drivers onto an XP install disc. Nowadays I just use Vista Ultimate 64-bit to totally avoid all of that. Anyway I usually recommend Western Digital hard drives, they perform well and seems to be most reliable.

[ForeignSpectator]

26. Thanks for the tips! Agree on Western Digital and Seagate seems to have turned to crap...

But about the chipsets... P35 is actually faster than P45? Thought the other way around...

I have basically made decisions for all components, just some questions may come up here or there... may I PM you about them?

[KillCapitalism]

32. re

Ehh, it just depends...look for a board that has PCI Express 2.0 no matter what you get. I'd stay away from boards that only take DDR3 memory b/c it's still pretty expensive. DDR2 will still be around for quite a while anyway.

Sure, PM me anytime you need some help.

[HughBeaumont]

13. On a homebuilt here!

Clean as hell without a stitch of pre-installed crapware you'll find on pretty much any Dell.

The tech from the wife's job installed VPN on this machine and couldn't believe how easily it installed.

Compare that to the wife's Dell laptop . . . unnecessary bells and whistles galore even upon opening. Annoying.

[Maven]

31. Michael Dell is also a BIG RWer. nt

[flvegan]

14. Anyone know how many American jobs this will cost?

I wouldn't buy Dell anyway, but this just pisses me off.

[sunnystarr]

16. Dell in TN

Nashville, TN, June 2, 2006

Dell today announced plans to expand its Americas customer-contact operations and increase employment at its Middle Tennessee facilities by up to 1,000 people over the next several quarters.

.....

Since Dell's launch of its Middle Tennessee operations in August 1999 with about 200 production, sales and call center employees, the company has expanded its work force to approximately 3,500. Today's announcement will increase employment at Dell's Tennessee facilities to as many 4,500 by the completion of the workforce expansion.

Dell currently has three facilities in Middle Tennessee: A 260,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Lebanon producing award-winning Dimension and OptiPlex desktop computers.
A 360,000 square-foot office facility on the Nashville campus housing Dell's technical support call center and sales operations.
A 250,000 square-foot fulfillment center servicing customers in the eastern U.S.

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2006/2006_06_02_nv_000?c=us&l=en&s=corp

[johnaries]

19. Yeah, I'm a Tech Support trainer in Nashville, and we've hired some

former Dell Tech Support "technicians". First, Dell's Tech Support is outsourced to a company named Spherion. These so-called "techs" can't do ANYTHING unless they have a script in front of them they can read. The systems we support are Unix/Linux, and require logic and actual knowledge to troubleshoot. You know, actual "troubleshooting" skills. These guys couldn't think for themselves. I believe the scripts they use actually train them "not to think".

I begged my manager not to hire anymore former Dell "techs", and after seeing their performance he has heartily agreed. We now have no former Dell employees. Hell, we hired several folks with no support experience whatsoever who are doing GREAT!

[sunnystarr]

21. After dealing with them I agree totally

although since I have a Dell and an HP and dealt with both of them, HP techs were even worse!

[johnaries]

23. LOL! Of course, one of the differences is that

we offer a "maintenance" (extended warranty) agreement. So, if they say "you'll have to replace it" it just means more sales for them. If WE have to replace it, it means higher costs for us. So it's more in our interests to actually fix them.

[Greyhound]

15. K & R # 5. To the Greatest Page with thee. n/t

[Lyric]

24. Remind me to NEVER buy another Dell product.

Someone please tell me there's still a computer manufacturer who makes the darned things here in the USA, so I can give them my business. This outsourcing of manufacturing is going to kill our country faster than anything else. No nation can survive without industry. Our consumer economy is already sputtering; crap like this will sink it even faster.

People need MONEY in order to be consumers, and retail jobs barely pay enough to buy food and shelter--there's little to nothing left over for consumer spending. *sigh*

[TwixVoy]

27. There are

but they won't be giant mega corporations. There are lots of small computer shops in every major city.

[bean fidhleir]

28. I don't think what they do counts as "make". More like "assemble".

I "make" my own systems too - by assembling parts, most of which are built in Taiwan, Mexico, Thailand, etc.

[jazzjunkysue]

30. Wow. If Dell is screwed, even the tech market is screwed.

They were our last hold out.

[Bluebear]

34. 'that will send the entire manufacturing process overseas'

Like everything else.