I bought a brand new Dell monitor through Amazon’s Dell Store (i.e. fulfilled by Dell themselves and shipped to me directly from their warehouse). The HDMI port broke a couple months later as it was sitting undisturbed on a desk, which was a common problem mentioned in its reviews. Dell flat out refused to replace it, saying that their database showed a different owner than me. Remember, they themselves shipped it straight to me. Amazon did right and let me return it even though it was already past the return period.

I will never, ever buy Dell hardware again. They’re dead to me. And when the IT department at a previous job reported to me, and a Dell rep cold called me to offer us a business plan, I politely explained why I’d rather gargle broken glass than risk my reputation on a vendor who doesn’t understand what a warranty means. That felt pretty good.