Why I’m Telling My Clients to Stop Buying Dell Systems

Sometimes a bad experience is so systemic that staying quiet becomes part of the problem. Over the past two months, Dell handed us one of the most infuriating hardware support disasters I’ve seen in decades. I’m writing this to warn others—especially IT managers and business leaders who still think “brand name” equals better support.

We ordered six Dell computers for a client. All six arrived defective.

Let that sink in...

We weren’t dealing with accidental damage or even something a BIOS update could fix. These were brand-new, high-warranty machines that failed out of the box. Naturally, we started troubleshooting. After weeks of wasted labor and multiple phone calls, Dell “escalated” the issue, only to admit their engineering team already knew about the defect.

They knew.

And they let their frontline tech support walk us through hours of scripted fixes they knew wouldn’t work. That’s not just inefficient; that’s dishonest.

Dell finally sent a technician with replacement system boards. One was also faulty. The others were installed anyway. Nothing changed. Now, Dell wants us to pack up the machines and ship them back for in-house testing, while our client waits, offline, for basic computing functionality.

And the kicker? Our client purchased one of Dell’s premium warranties based on our recommendation.

Dell has refused to reimburse our client for downtime. They’ve also refused to reimburse Solve iT for over 30 hours of labor, time spent cleaning up their mess.

Their response has been tone-deaf and devoid of accountability. We told Dell directly: we’re going public. They shrugged. 

So here we are.

If you're an IT manager thinking about deploying Dell, or a business leader making your next hardware refresh decision, here’s what you need to know:

1. Big brands don’t mean better support. In fact, the larger the vendor, the more likely your ticket gets buried in layers of scripted support with no accountability.

2. Warranty levels don’t guarantee actual coverage. Dell’s second-highest warranty tier did not get us anywhere. It didn’t expedite results, solve the issue, or prevent our client’s downtime.

3. When vendors waste your time, you eat the cost. As an MSP, we take pride in protecting our clients. But vendors like Dell are undermining our efforts and your budget.

This isn’t about one bad machine. It’s about a pattern of deflection, delay, and disregard for downstream impact. When Dell ignores a known hardware issue and still ships those systems, that’s negligence. When they require partners like us to waste billable hours just to validate what their engineers already know, that’s a betrayal of trust.

At Solve iT, we audit our own stack. If something we recommend causes downtime, we don’t pass the buck. We fix it. Fast. We’re honest about known issues. And we don’t let vendors throw your business under the bus.

This episode has pushed us to reevaluate our procurement advice. We’re already steering clients toward vendors with better track records and better service-level guarantees. Sometimes that means going smaller. Sometimes it means fewer logos on your machines and more uptime on your device.

If your IT vendor isn’t willing to protect your time and money, they’re not really in your corner. And if your vendor doesn’t care about their own reputational risk, they’re not thinking about your business either.

Dell doesn't care. We do.

Let’s talk about your next hardware cycle before you get burned like our client did. Book a free threat assessment, and we’ll walk you through what better vendor management looks like from procurement to patching to post-sale support.

Because you and your team deserve machines that work and partners that care.