OK, I'll try to make this as quick as possible. About 10 days ago I ordered a refurbished Dell Inspiron 600m notebook. It had a 1.3MHz Pentium M, 384Megs of RAM, a 14" screen, a CDRW, and the other standard stuff.

It took Dell 24 hours to email me confirmation of my order. In order to push the order through, I called them to arrange payment arrangements. Due to a daily limit on the credit card I used, I wanted to split the payment into two payments on successive days.

After about a dozen calls, shuttling back and forth between their esales and customer service departments, I eventually reached someone who helped me out. For a reason I won't go into, Dell ended up cancelling the order. It wasn't because the card declined, it was just concerning information I provided them. OK, so that I can understand, and even accept partial blame for. They're trying to protect me. However, what I'm bothered about is a) they didn't inform me that the order had been cancelled, and b) they didn't tell me they needed that information to process the order.

And, most importantly of all, they had put my order back in the bin. So, the computer I had selected was no longer available. When I asked them whether they could give me the same or a better system for the same or a better price, I was informed that I had to go back to their web site and go through the whole procedure again. I mean, if I wanted to make a sale, I would have said: "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, here, let me make you a satisfied customer." But, they told me I had to go through all their crap again.

I've got a better solution, and it's right here.

So, I noticed that Gateway had a special on their 400SP Plus for $800. It's certainly not as good as the Dell: 2.2Ghz Celeron, 256Megs RAM, a 15" screen. Great! I said as I received the printout with the quote from the Gateway store in Manhattan Beach. Oh No! I said as they informed me that they had none in stock.

To cut a long story short, the 400 SP Plus has been discontinued by Gateway, and only their Glendale store had something similar in stock. However, it was $100 more. The only difference is it had 512Megs of RAM. Note that that extra 256Megs of RAM is available elsewhere for $50.

So, why should I spend an extra $50 (plus CA tax)? Plus Gateway charges a 15% restocking fee whereas with Dell all you need to do is pay shipping to return something. On the other hand, Gateway has stores across this great land, which might make servicing the thing (knock on plastic) easier.

So, I got the Gateway. I only saved $200 off the Dell, I got a system with a larger screen, more RAM, but with a worse processor.

But, at least I can say: "Dude, I won't be getting a Dell."