I have a Dell
And I'd recommend them. They're cheap for what they are and they generally do what they say for much less than the competition.

If you buy Dell, be aware that:

a) The machine will be laden down with crapware - trialware such as antivirus software which is utterly useless. Uninstall anything which nags, pressures or otherwise tries to bother you into "upgrading" to another version. That ESPECIALLY includes any antivirus software and MS Office 60 day trials. Just uninstall that shit and use the free equivalents. MS Security Essentials is a great and free antivirus app.

b) Never buy peripherals or extra memory from dell. Prices are a scam and no doubt Dell sells PCs cheap because people stupidly pile on extras to make up the difference.

c) Keep a track of everything and make sure you report faults as soon as you encounter them.

I avoid bricks and mortar stores like the plague unless you know precisely how much something costs online and are prepared to take the hit. PC World takes the piss with its prices although if you are EXTREMELY lucky and persistent you might get a bargain.

I bought an HP Mini 210 for (at the time) a reasonable £250 from Currys, including a 6 cell battery but I had to run the gauntlet of not onen but two sales drones trying to upsell shit to me and not stopping even when I said no:

1. Would I like MS Office? No thanks. How are you going to write documents? I'll use OpenOffice. Open Office? Yes a free office suite, works great.
2. Would you like a laptop case. No thanks. How are you going to keep your laptop safe? I'll manage somehow. (actually I intended to buy a neoprene sleeve on ebay where they are stupidly cheap compared to the Belkin equivalent).
3. Would you like an extended warranty? No thanks. It covers you for... no thanks. But if your computer was acciden... no thanks.

Got me netbook in the end. Probably could have got it cheaper online with persistence but not a bad price. HP also bogs their machine down with crapware. Must be industry practice but incredibly annoying all the same.
(MagicMoose, Sun 5 Sep 2010, 17:09, 1 reply)

Yes, but...
This is all well and good assuming the thing arrives in the first place, which in my case it didn't. It's not so much the company I'm complaining about as their brain-judderingly awful customer relations policy (presumably identified in the Dell Staff Handbook by the words 'SHOOT TO KILL').
( Sonic James Doom forgetting the date since... umm..., Sun 5 Sep 2010, 20:10, closed)

I sympathize
Your rights don't fly out the window because it's the internet. I expect as with most automated systems your case is simply too unique for their knowledge base / scripts to deal with and you've fallen through the cracks. The paeons who answer the phones don't have the authority / guile to help and you'll have to speak with a supervisor, or even take it to snail mail.

If they don't offer you suitable redress, take them to the small claims court and force them to refund your money.
(MagicMoose, Mon 6 Sep 2010, 18:44, closed)