I nearly forgot to mention that my laptop is now been fixed by Dell. It turned out that the motherboard was broken and that why it wouldn’t charge. I sent it off the day before I went to Disney and when I came back it was magically fixed. What a good turnaround!
I still think that Dell needs to rethink if having email is a good idea as it just slowed things for me and calling them was the way I sorted the problem out. I also think that they should get people with a more clear voice as I couldn’t understand what was being said half of the time. I don’t care where it is based along I can understand.
When I first heard of Dell preinstalling Ubuntu on a range of computers and laptops in Amercia, I was excitied and looking forward for it arriving to here. It wasn’t because I couldn’t install Ubuntu but the idea of Ubuntu being tweaked for the computer for you sounded good for me. So when I was shopping for a college laptop due the bad times with the one the college gave me, I went for Ubuntu as it was cheaper for it that way.
I wish I just spent that tiny bit more and had Vista on it as then I would of been treated normally. It would seem that the having Linux mean that their customer support freak out as their computers don’t have advice so therefore they blame your problem on Ubuntu and try to use that as a get out clause to direct you away telling you to call Dell Ubuntu.
It is quite clearly that Ubuntu isn’t the reason why my laptop isn’t charging as it doesn’t charge even when it shut down. The reason why it isn’t charging possibly because of a defective battery or a fault on the charging circuitry. Try telling Dell that. Well I did and asked them to have a look and if this is a case replace it under the Warranty. I haven’t yet had a response to this. Not even a automatic ‘We got your message response’.
I might get somewhere if I called them but their opening times is mostly when I’m at college and there not open on weekends. I wish my Dad would of helped me out but he is useless. When I had problems with my phone, he didn’t offer me any help and I was the one getting stressed out calling O2 when I needed to be doing other stuff.
Dell and their Ubuntu can get lost as far as I can see. I’ve been in contact with them I think since late October 2008 and their support hasn’t been impressive at all. Taking something like 2 weeks to response to a message is not appectable not is being treated like a idiot. I still got this laptop problem meaning it more harder for me to take notes at college. 
Update: It would seem to be a more commen problem than I thought it was. I’m not buying anything Dell in the near future then.
If you like this post: please digg it. 
I forgot to say that I am a owner of a Acer one since late September. It is a Christmas present for me but in the spirit of how Christmas comes early in shops, I was allowed to have it early. I had many woes with Tescos as the first one we got didn’t boot up, so it had to been brought back and replaced. I was also disappointed as it doesn’t have a sleeve in the box like in photos that it been reviewed in.
I didn’t like the Linux that came with in. I was way too simple and I felt like they didn’t trust me and that it was like something that RM had fiddled with as it was so restricted with right click menu being turn off and stuff. I knew I can turn that on but still, it didn’t feel right.
So long story short, I managed to get Ubuntu on a USB stick. I did managed to get it working with the stable version but I had problems with sound and the wifi. however I discovered that the beta version fixes all the problems and I only had to unclick something and reboot to get the wifi working. Good times.