What piece of hardware do you regret buying?
- Thread starter Jos
- Start date
Evernessince
Posts: 5,469 +6,158
Yep, learned my lesson on Multi-card setups after two 680s. Multiple card just aren't worth it.
I'd second that Crysis 2 as well. I preordered the game and didn't get it until a week after launch. I had to contact EA support. All that work for a short story and poor multi-player.
Tekkaraiden
Posts: 996 +93
PS3 and WiiU, never play them. Only plus is I got them both for half price retail when I bought them.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,683 +8,823
If that's all it takes to qualify as a regret, I have a house full of woe....
captaincranky
Posts: 19,683 +8,823
What choices did you actually have at the time? You gotta admit, "AGP" is ancient technology, but at that time, actually way better than PCI (no "E").
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You guys are killin' me here. The PS3 was home to some amazing exclusives! Uncharted, Demon's Souls, Infamous, Metal Gear Solid 4, Ni No Kuni, Journey, Heavy Ra--- whoops, almost got excited there. There are also a bunch of fantastic HD collections of old PS2 games that you can usually pick up for under $20 too. Seriously though, the library on the PS3 is nothing to scoff at!
Bigtruckseries
Posts: 583 +320
All those lovely exclusives you mentioned, I sum up with one word: BORING.
I just want gameplay. I don't want a bunch of cut scenes. I'm not into Japanese Anime games.
Way back when...Iomega 100 Zip Disk ..was real slow and never worked right.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,683 +8,823
And as with another member's dissatisfaction with an AGP video card I ask, "exactly what other options for portable storage did you have? I think at the time those Zip drives were around, a 64MB compact flash card was about $300.00 (?
). I'm wondering if I have an ancient photo stuff catalog somewhere around the house to research the topic.I still have a stack of the damned discs sitting around the house with photos on them, and no way of getting them off.
I do believe at one point, those Iomega drives went all the way up to 750MB. I know the 250MB models became fairly common
mcborge
Posts: 599 +487
Third.
cartera
Posts: 379 +121
I did the exact same thing but completely by luck I bought EVGA and used their step-up programme straight away. They also just sent me a EVGA power link for free
Worst purchase for me was probably a Lenovo Thinkpad Twist convertible ultra book. Pretty nippy but too many annoying bugs with the touch interface and accelerometer.
I should also add, every game I've ever preordered... (I know it's software - just saying)
Bigtruckseries
Posts: 583 +320
It's amazing how much money we've spent on peripherals for storage.
I recently bought a 4 TB Samsung SSD for $1500 .
Three years from now I'm gonna look back and think about how much money I wasted when SSD passes 10 GB for that same price .
S
ScubaRhys
My AMD FX 6300. Worst CPU I have ever owned by a country mile, replaced it within 6 months of owning.
That's something I rarely regret. If you have the need and the money, then it's worth it. You can always buy something better later on for the same price.
That said, I'm waiting to see if BeSang is able to do what it promises. That would really change the SSD market and make you go 'doh!'.
EndlessWaves
Posts: 192 +46
Saitek X52. I thought it would be a step up in quality after the Logitech Extreme 3D pro I'd had which had started to misbehave in less than a year and failed not long after. It wasn't and started drifting itself after not very long.
Rover do seem to have been cursed. After all the BL stuff those joint cars with Honda you mention turn out to be poor compared to the Rover 75 and then there was the saga of Phoenix Venture Holdings.
Rover do seem to have been cursed. After all the BL stuff those joint cars with Honda you mention turn out to be poor compared to the Rover 75 and then there was the saga of Phoenix Venture Holdings.
Wizwill
Posts: 129 +61
A long, long time ago in a computer store a long way away, I bought all the parts for a PC with a mainboard supporting RDRAM, of which I bought the then-absurdly-expensive full load of RDRAM. It was a load alright! I spent about $2000 but the piece of excrescence never ran right. I wound up giving the board, CPU and RAM to a tinkering relative then built another machine with a board using conventional RAM and most of the other original parts which worked properly. I spent untold hours trying to gain "the advantages" of that RDRAM crap.
Wizwill
Posts: 129 +61
Dear Dell:
Over the course of the last six months, I have purchased 3 laptops from your firm. The first 2 machines were returned because they did not work properly and your tech people were unable to fix them. The third machine, a top-of-the-line model, was the only laptop I received from Dell which actually worked properly out of the box. Unfortunately, it did not provide nearly enough performance to justify its extravagant cost. I ordered an optional "high-performance" hard drive, but any operation requiring hard drive use was s-l-o-w. I promptly exercised the clause in my contract allowing me to return the system to Dell within 30 days if it did not meet my expectations, which it did not, although I had to pay the $25 shipping cost myself to return it to Dell.
My problem stems from this final machine. After originally placing the order online, I found a $39.95 surge suppressor I had not ordered listed on the confirmation spec sheet that was emailed to me. The next day I revised my order, adding the faster hard drive upgrade and requesting the surge protector be removed from the order. The computer was later shipped to me and the surge protector arrived with the new machine. When I returned this machine to Dell, the surge protector was packed along with the rest of the order into the box the machine originally came in and returned to Dell using a label provided by Dell. The machine itself was credited as having being properly received several days later and the lease supposedly canceled out.
Shortly thereafter, I received an urgent phone call from Dell Financial insisting I call them immediately, as ‘my account was seriously in arrears’. I spent an anxious 45 minutes on hold, burning cell phone minutes returning the call, only to find out the amount in "serious arrears" was $2.98. At first, I thought someone was joking! No one was initially able to tell me what this amount was for. It was only after a LOT of time on the phone I finally found out that Dell Financial, in its infinite wisdom, had created two leases! One lease for the $4000+ machine itself and, without informing me, another lease for $102 for the $39.95 surge protector! When the surge protector was returned, it apparently had not been credited as having been received and the lease for $102 did not get canceled out. It was only over the course of the many phone calls I also learned the surge protector had been shipped using the original order number while the computer itself was shipped with a new and different order number. At this point in time, the matter remains unresolved.
After a total of almost 20 hours on the phone:
• In all umpteen levels of voicemail hell.
• Listening to elevator music and interminable Dell PR announcements.
• Listening to exhortations to visit Dell on their web page for 24-hour customer service.
• Being hung up on and "lost" on hold.
• Being endlessly switched by rude and unknowledgeable customer service personnel to others equally rude and unknowledgeable.
• Being apprised by these ignorant folks of their “rights” to refuse to help me, to refuse to give me their names and to refuse to allow me to speak with their supervisor.
• Perhaps most frustrating of all, when dealing with one of the world’s alleged premiere computer companies, of having to repeat the basic information for my request each and every time and with each and every single person I talked to! (Dell's computers and internal databases apparently don't communicate very well with each other)
During my most recent (and apparently unfruitful) exchange, the support person I talked with seemed genuinely helpful and said she could resolve the issue for me. After waiting for over an hour on hold for confirmation of the resolution, I finally ended the call, hoping a miracle had occurred and my travails with Dell would be ended. Alas, I received yet another call (again showing the caller ID number “unavailable”) from Dell Financial Services. The databases were STILL not talking to one another! I've finally enjoyed all of this I can stand.
I continue to advise my many professional clients concerning their computer purchases. I have made it a standard practice within my consultancy never to recommend any goods or service that have not demonstrated to me a strong record of satisfactory customer service I can personally attest to. Despite the fact that some clients may feel your machines offer them a reasonable value, I shall make it my personal mission in life to disabuse them of this notion. There is no way, in good conscience, I could ever again recommend a Dell system or product to a professional client, considering the customer service hell I have been through in the past six months of my ill-conceived involvement with Dell.
I am sending a copy of this letter to the Attorneys General of both Texas and Pennsylvania as well as the Better Business Bureau of both states, several newspapers’ “Letters to the Editor” sections and also to my rather extensive email address list, along with my request to pass it along to their email lists. It would show a nice touch of class on Dell’s part if I could follow up these correspondences with a personal note informing one and all that your organization had resolved this matter in good faith to my satisfaction and cancelled this ridiculous lease/charge.
Finally, my numerous and unsuccessful attempts to rectify this erroneous $102 billing have been a total and utter waste of more than 35 hours of my valuable time, for which I normally bill a minimum of $85 an hour in a professional setting. Don’t tell me you are sorry; words won’t cut it. If you truly wish to apologize, I would consider a certified check for this amount ($2975) expressed to me immediately an effective apology. Don’t waste more of my time with anything less.
Hoping for a speedy end to this disaster,
Wizwill
PS:
Perhaps it is only an urban legend, but an online source recently reported that Michael Dell has ordered all Dell employees to fold rather than “scrunch up” their toilet tissue, thus saving 2 sheets per usage. When I first read this news, I thought it was a prime example of micro-management but, after my recent dealings with Dell, it seems perhaps Michael is on to something here. It is apparent to me after the last 6 months there are more than enough *******s at Dell for the 'tissue issue' to save you folks some serious money.
Over the course of the last six months, I have purchased 3 laptops from your firm. The first 2 machines were returned because they did not work properly and your tech people were unable to fix them. The third machine, a top-of-the-line model, was the only laptop I received from Dell which actually worked properly out of the box. Unfortunately, it did not provide nearly enough performance to justify its extravagant cost. I ordered an optional "high-performance" hard drive, but any operation requiring hard drive use was s-l-o-w. I promptly exercised the clause in my contract allowing me to return the system to Dell within 30 days if it did not meet my expectations, which it did not, although I had to pay the $25 shipping cost myself to return it to Dell.
My problem stems from this final machine. After originally placing the order online, I found a $39.95 surge suppressor I had not ordered listed on the confirmation spec sheet that was emailed to me. The next day I revised my order, adding the faster hard drive upgrade and requesting the surge protector be removed from the order. The computer was later shipped to me and the surge protector arrived with the new machine. When I returned this machine to Dell, the surge protector was packed along with the rest of the order into the box the machine originally came in and returned to Dell using a label provided by Dell. The machine itself was credited as having being properly received several days later and the lease supposedly canceled out.
Shortly thereafter, I received an urgent phone call from Dell Financial insisting I call them immediately, as ‘my account was seriously in arrears’. I spent an anxious 45 minutes on hold, burning cell phone minutes returning the call, only to find out the amount in "serious arrears" was $2.98. At first, I thought someone was joking! No one was initially able to tell me what this amount was for. It was only after a LOT of time on the phone I finally found out that Dell Financial, in its infinite wisdom, had created two leases! One lease for the $4000+ machine itself and, without informing me, another lease for $102 for the $39.95 surge protector! When the surge protector was returned, it apparently had not been credited as having been received and the lease for $102 did not get canceled out. It was only over the course of the many phone calls I also learned the surge protector had been shipped using the original order number while the computer itself was shipped with a new and different order number. At this point in time, the matter remains unresolved.
After a total of almost 20 hours on the phone:
• In all umpteen levels of voicemail hell.
• Listening to elevator music and interminable Dell PR announcements.
• Listening to exhortations to visit Dell on their web page for 24-hour customer service.
• Being hung up on and "lost" on hold.
• Being endlessly switched by rude and unknowledgeable customer service personnel to others equally rude and unknowledgeable.
• Being apprised by these ignorant folks of their “rights” to refuse to help me, to refuse to give me their names and to refuse to allow me to speak with their supervisor.
• Perhaps most frustrating of all, when dealing with one of the world’s alleged premiere computer companies, of having to repeat the basic information for my request each and every time and with each and every single person I talked to! (Dell's computers and internal databases apparently don't communicate very well with each other)
During my most recent (and apparently unfruitful) exchange, the support person I talked with seemed genuinely helpful and said she could resolve the issue for me. After waiting for over an hour on hold for confirmation of the resolution, I finally ended the call, hoping a miracle had occurred and my travails with Dell would be ended. Alas, I received yet another call (again showing the caller ID number “unavailable”) from Dell Financial Services. The databases were STILL not talking to one another! I've finally enjoyed all of this I can stand.
I continue to advise my many professional clients concerning their computer purchases. I have made it a standard practice within my consultancy never to recommend any goods or service that have not demonstrated to me a strong record of satisfactory customer service I can personally attest to. Despite the fact that some clients may feel your machines offer them a reasonable value, I shall make it my personal mission in life to disabuse them of this notion. There is no way, in good conscience, I could ever again recommend a Dell system or product to a professional client, considering the customer service hell I have been through in the past six months of my ill-conceived involvement with Dell.
I am sending a copy of this letter to the Attorneys General of both Texas and Pennsylvania as well as the Better Business Bureau of both states, several newspapers’ “Letters to the Editor” sections and also to my rather extensive email address list, along with my request to pass it along to their email lists. It would show a nice touch of class on Dell’s part if I could follow up these correspondences with a personal note informing one and all that your organization had resolved this matter in good faith to my satisfaction and cancelled this ridiculous lease/charge.
Finally, my numerous and unsuccessful attempts to rectify this erroneous $102 billing have been a total and utter waste of more than 35 hours of my valuable time, for which I normally bill a minimum of $85 an hour in a professional setting. Don’t tell me you are sorry; words won’t cut it. If you truly wish to apologize, I would consider a certified check for this amount ($2975) expressed to me immediately an effective apology. Don’t waste more of my time with anything less.
Hoping for a speedy end to this disaster,
Wizwill
PS:
Perhaps it is only an urban legend, but an online source recently reported that Michael Dell has ordered all Dell employees to fold rather than “scrunch up” their toilet tissue, thus saving 2 sheets per usage. When I first read this news, I thought it was a prime example of micro-management but, after my recent dealings with Dell, it seems perhaps Michael is on to something here. It is apparent to me after the last 6 months there are more than enough *******s at Dell for the 'tissue issue' to save you folks some serious money.
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