I purchased a Mini Inspiron from a seller on eBay. It had never been opened. He called them to transfer the warranty to me and was told it would take 10-15 business days. Naturally, the notebook turned out to be defective from the box. It does not charge when connected to a power outlet. The charge cable has some play left and right when it is connected so I suspect the receptacle is not properly attached to the motherboard. I called Dell for support. They first suggested that there may be a BIOS update that will fix the problem. However, they could not even give me the link to download the update because the warranty had not yet been transferred to my name. I called back to check the status of the transfer but they cannot do this. I have heard from two different reps that I can “one-ly” (I assume they mean “only”) transfer the warranty online. Last night I heard from a different rep that they can transfer the warranty immediately if they have the first and last name to which the computer is currently registered. I must call them up to provide this in spite of the fact that the original owner has already initiated a transfer of ownership and, in doing so, given them his name, my name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and whether or not I’m circumcised. It seems obvious to me that these are merely arbitrary barriers so that Dell will have a convenient way to evade having to make good on their warranty. The lessons learned:

1. Do not buy from Dell. Their products are tested so poorly they may come to you bad right out of the box.
2. Buy a Mac. Their support staff speaks English as their first language. I have no problem with anyone no matter where they are from, but taking people and teaching them enough English to troubleshoot is an unnecessary barrier between the customer and a solution. Troubleshooting is a process that is difficult enough already. I also have problems with companies that run a business in the United States to get our money while shipping as much work as possible overseas to save on labor costs. It exploits Americans and those people who are left doing the jobs for practically nothing.
3. Having a store nearby (as Apple does) is a fantastic tool in getting issue resolution. It’s easy for a Dell rep halfway across the globe to hang up on me because I don’t have the first name of the person who originally purchased the PC from them. It’s not so easy for my physical presence in a retail outlet to be ignored.
4. You get what you pay for.

Happy computer shopping!