What about the great PC refresh? ha ha
I too, in spite of the Dell discount, have been buying/recommending other vendor's products. Acer for the fiscally challenged folks and MacBook Airs for folks with more money. Lenovo's might not be perfect either, but their quality seems to be foremost and they're not taking chances to ruin the rep for quality they got from IBM.
I too, have heard folks complain to me about their old Dell laptops and I don't want to start an argument when they mention overheating, fan noise, multiple repairs, etc. It's easier to just let them go take a look at BestBuy or another store and then ask me for a recommendation on a new laptop. I just want to remain above the fray...
I have bought 2 Lenovos and 1 mac air for family members the past 4 years
Dell was never on the short list despite having an employee discount.
After owning many Dell products over the years (some Dell provided - I used to work there) I went to Costco and bought a Lenovo. Dell choices were very limited and the price point was too high for what I needed. Dell doesn't appear to be serious about retail and never has been. And on top of it all Lenovo usually has a better quality reputation (source: Gartner surveys) than Dell, though a commodity product is a commodity product.