Ashmore steak and seafood is one of those places that you simply cannot afford to drive past. There are very few places around like these guys anymore.

The restaurant is quite big, and to be honest could do with a facelift. It's not somewhere you really need to dress up for, although that doesn't mean you rock up in a singlet and thongs...

it's family friendly and they have a great range of options on the menu.

Even the kids menu items would be enough to feed an average adult so to be aware, when you come to this place you will more than likely leave with a doggy bag with half your meal :)

the prices are very good for what you get, and what you get is just phenomenal!

the meals come out on silver platters, and when you see the size of the meals, you will truly wonder why you had that last slice of complimentary garlic bread...

My favourite is the t-bone steak, I usually struggle to finish it, but what a great game it is to try!

One piece of advice before going to this place, starve yourself for a good half day before going there, because you will definitely enjoy the experience much better!

A great place to visit, especially for those who like value for money, and big meals!

Approximate cost: $35

This is a LONG review. I suggest the reader get comfortable.

Well, before I detail my story, let me give you my background. I am an I.T. professional, with over 20yrs experience in Information Technology. The main part of my work has been repairing, building and selling computers and laptops. I also visit customers onsite to repair their computers and offer tuition on various aspects of computing.

So, I decided that I would need a laptop with a bigger screen, so that when I visit clients that I could interact with them more easily as they could see my screen better.

As I had always used second-hand laptops up till point, I figured that I'd go for new this time, just to show the professional image to my customers that I intended to portray.

I viewed a number of models online and finally came across the L702X XPS 17" Model from dell. It offered all the specs that I was after at the time.

I cordially put through an order, opting to take the custom cover (back lid) called "teal the cows come home" which was an extra $99 option. I also opted for a tv tuner and a blu-ray burner in the machine, so that I could make backups onto blu-ray disks.

the machine cost $2066 at this specification. I decided to put the machine through finance option, which was offered through Bank Of Queensland, who had the finance agreement with Dell. I signed all the documents and the finance was approved.

some 5 weeks later, 2 weeks later than first advised, I received my new laptop.

The first thing I noticed about the machine was its size, it was huge, compared to a standard 14 or 15" screen, even the keypad area was huge as it also has a number pad on the right hand side of the machine, similar to what you'd find on a desktop pc keyboard.

The sound was excellent! Probably the best sound I have had from any laptop. But there was no dedicated volume control on the machine itself, other than the volume control built into windows. I found this unusual considering the sound quality was touted as one of the machines features on the dell webpage.

However, putting that issue aside, I found the machine to be fast and the screen size to be excellent. The screen resolution was great (1080x1980) and very bright, perhaps too bright...

But this is where the positives end.

One thing that was noticeable from the start was the power cord falling out of the laptop far too easily. You could almost just look at it and the power cord would fall out. I found this to be very odd. I contacted dell and they said this was normal. So, I persisted, although it was very annoying, particularly when you had the laptop on your lap, the power cord would fall out and you wouldn't know till the machine shut down due to the battery dying.

the power light and hard drive light are behind the screen so you don't see when the hard drive is working or if the machine has frozen for example.

the next thing I noticed was that every-time I opened and closed the lid, I would hear a "clicking" noise coming from the left hinge area of the machine.

initially, I put this down to an over-tightened hinge, as I have seen this before on the other laptops I have had. Traditionally, in my experience, this has worked itself out over time and use, as the hinge loosens itself through continued use.

Roll on 14 mths (into a 24mth "next business day onsite warranty), and one day I opened the lid of my laptop, as usual and suddenly the front bezel (the front cover that surrounds the screen) sprang off the screen at the left hinge area and had snapped around the left hinge area. As the bezel was now off the screen, I could see that the left hinge was still in its down position (i.e. the position it would be in when the screen was closed), whilst the screen was in the up position (as I had just opened it). The hinge had therefore detached from the back cover.

I took the bezel of of the screen completely for fear it might damage the screen as it was snapped at the left hinge area of the bezel.

i could see the back cover was just plastic sockets with small brass barrels placed into the plastic sockets. the sockets had essentially disintegrated and the brass barrels had come out of the sockets, causing the hinge to detach from the back cover.

so, now I have a screen which is dangling on the left screen bracket, which is a small aluminium rod which attaches to the screen itself and was attached to the left hinge, and screwed into the back cover. as the left hinge detached from the back cover, it took the left screen bracket with it, so the screen was being held up on that side with the left screen bracket only, something it was obviously not designed to do.

as the screen was now only held up by this thin aluminium rod, the screen was skewing, i.e. it was not sitting parallel to the base of the computer and was skewing off to the back of the machine. Eventually (1 day) the left screen bracket snapped at the base, as it was being twisted by the screen.

The right hinge was now the only thing keeping the screen upright, and it was bearing all the weight of the screen itself.

So, I emailed the original sales rep who sold us the system, explaining to her what the situation was, and hoping she would not refer me to the tech support line because i had read of very long wait times on the line.

however, 3 days later she did just that via email. So, I took a deep breath and I phoned the tech support line. After approx 15mins on the line (which was a reasonable wait, I thought) I spoke with a friendly Asian lady, I told her that I wanted the screen fixed, and I needed a new cover, but I needed the custom cover that I had ordered when I bought the machine (as it cost me $99 extra)
I also told her that I needed the left screen bracket, and I told her the webcam was no longer working properly, possibly because the webcam has a cable that runs down the inside of the back cover and this may have caused some issue.
I also mentioned the issue with the power cable falling out of the back of the machine as it was now beginning to annoy me greatly. She took all this down and suggested it was all good and that I should see a technician out with me the next morning, as per the next business day onsite warranty I had.

so, Confident that I would have my machine in working condition the next day, I waited. And waited...

3 business days later (remember, I have a "next business day onsite warranty") I got a call from a dell technician. He tells me they were due to come and see me that day (no, 3 days earlier actually!) but that they couldn't because there are only 3 of them to service the whole city (approx 500,000 people) and that one of them was in hospital, so they couldn't come out to see me that day, but they could the following day... what do you say to such a thing? I had to accept this arrangement, albeit I was starting to think that this dell warranty was a bit flaky in its promises...

Next business day (4 business days now into a "next business day onsite warranty"), 2 1/2 hrs after the dell tech was supposed to be with me, the dell tech arrives. He has two boxes.

immediately I became concerned, as being a technician myself, I surmised that there should be three boxes, one for the back cover, one for the front bezel, and one for the screen bracket.

The dell tech looks at the laptop and tells me that it should be a relatively easy fix, of which i already know this, in fact i did mention to him that had dell sent me the parts i would've fixed it myself in 10-15mins. He said that since i'm not a "dell authorised technician" that this was impossible...

anyway, he proceeds to open the boxes... first thing I noticed was that the cover he had brought was the basic standard dell cover, i.e. silver, that comes at no extra cost on one of these laptops. I asked him where the custom cover was that I had paid $99 for when I purchased the system, showing him the cover from my laptop. He just stood there with no explanation to give, suggesting this is what was given to him.

Willing to forgo this mistake in favour of getting the machine fixed and allowing me to get back to using it for my business, I asked him where the left screen bracket was. Again, he gave me the 'deer in the headlights' look and told me that he wasn't aware of this part being needed, seemingly blaming the tech support agent who took the call from me initially.

So, obviously i'm not too happy at this point, but I wasn't rude or arrogant to the tech, I just asked him what happens now. He told me he'd have to go away and re-order the parts, but that he didn't know when he'd be back because there were only 3 of them to service the whole city (500,000 people) and one of them was in hospital currently, so they were under a lot of pressure. (what happened my next business day warranty???)

I then asked him about my webcam issue and again he suggested he knew nothing about this, but that he'd get a chance to look at it 'later' upon his return...

I then asked him about the power cord issue, and yet again he gave me the "I knew nothing about this" look, and suggested he had no idea how to fix it... and off he went!

a day or two later, I went onto the dell australia facebook page and I posted a comment to ask the dell facebook staff if they could please let me know when the dell tech was coming back as he had not advised me, and could they please ensure he had all the parts with him this time, including the proper custom cover i had ordered when I bought the machine. I then awaited a response from the facebook dell team. I got a response from a guy called Holland. He asked me to email him my service tag (the unique service number from the laptop so they can check your details on their system) so that he could look into it.

he then sent me an email to my own private email asking if i could please send him pictures of the issue as he was not technical at all and he couldn't understand what the problem was. I found this very unusual as the problem was already in the system and the technician, as I understood it, was away to order the parts to fix it, after having showed up with the wrong parts the last time round. So why would this guy from dell suddenly want pictures of the issue? But, since I had nothing to hide, I told him i'd take pictures of the issues and send them through to his email. At this time, as I expected, the right hinge on the screen gave way and the cover completely detached from the hinges because it was bearing all the weight of the screen itself. It sits back at an angle of around 110o, so it doesn't fall completely back at 180o for example. Still, it is unusable in this fashion.

So I took around 8 pictures of the hinges, the bezel where it had snapped right in front of the hinge, and the back cover, to outline the custom cover I wanted replaced (i.e. like with like). I also took a picture of the left screen bracket. As this guy, by his own admission, wasn't technical in any way, I wrote on each picture what he was looking at, and what had happened briefly, i.e. "the left screen bracket has detached from the back cover"

A short time later I received a response from this Holland@dell rep and was told that he would have to contact his engineering dept to ascertain what could have caused this and to see if it was a quality issue with the components, before he could get back to me about the tech.

I was pretty puzzled by this to be honest because what was, I thought, a simple query on the dell facebook page, was now turning out to be a big of a bigger issue, at least it seemed to be.

But I thought that perhaps this rep was just trying to figure out if this was a wider problem with the dell laptop itself, that perhaps other users had reported similar issues.

A few days later, after a promise he would get back to me, but hadn't (starting to realise this was becoming a common occurrence now), I had to contact the dell rep, at his email address. I asked for an update on what was happening with my warranty issue.

He told me, in no uncertain terms that he was waiting on his engineering guys to get back to him, but for now, HE had determined the 'damage' (now it became 'damage' as opposed to a warranty issue) to be "Customer Induced Damage" and therefore he would be voiding the warranty on the issue.

I had to read his email a few times to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Thereafter I nearly fell off my chair.

How could a person determine this conclusion from looking at 8 pictures? How could a person void a warranty based on his own opinion, which he himself had stated he was neither qualified, nor technical at all.

At this stage I became quite irritated. We have suddenly gone from a genuine warranty issue, reported to dell, assigned to a tech, to the tech arriving (4 business days into a next business day warranty) with the wrong and incomplete parts, to leave, without giving me any idea of his return, and from that to go to a request for an eta on the dell facebook page, to now being voided of any warranty at all, by a guy who is neither qualified to determine such issues as "customer induced" or anything else.

I replied to this dell rep and told him I was a 20yr I.T. professional, whose main job was repairing and fixing laptops and pc's. I gave him a detailed and professional and qualified opinion on what I believed was the underlying issue. That the hinge was never properly affixed to the back cover on build and each time the lid was opened and closed, the hinge moved ever so slightly forward, pushing against the front bezel, causing it to move a few mm each time, causing the "clicking" sound I noticed. Eventually when the hinge broke altogether when i lifted the lid, the hinge stayed in its downward position (lid closed position) and pushed through the front bezel forcing it to break.

Of course it could be argued my opinion is biased given im the owner of the laptop, but my opinion is a qualified and professional and credible opinion nonetheless. This holland@dell rep just completely ignored that and continued to argue "it was customer induced". Eventually, after asking him how he came up with that conclusion (customer induced damage) he said that It could "only" have been caused by "someone pushing the screen back with such force that they broke the hinges completely off the screen" and then went on "thus it is obvious customer induced damage".

I pointed out to him that the hinges broke 3 weeks apart, that the screen itself was perfect, and that any such action would break the screen itself. I also reiterated that i was an I.T. professional who fixed laptops, not break them and the action he suggested was akin to something you would expect from a 2yr old child, not a 20yr I.T. professional. He ignored all these arguments I made.

So, then I thought i would take this conversation onto the public dell Australia facebook page (which is still there if one cares to read it) so others could see the conversation at hand and see how dell was treating me, as a "valued customer".

the conversation got nasty, and this rep (who turned out to be the escalations manager for dell worldwide!) was not budging from his stance. He was adamant, that despite his absurd suggestion, that I did this damage myself, therefore dell would not warrant the issue.

I suggested taking the matter to the office of fair trading, which he seemed to have no problem with. So I did just that. Unbelievably, the OFT decided dell had broken no laws, and that they had done nothing wrong. The OFT even told me that this Holland@dell had told them "bluntly" that Dell was not prepared to fix my laptop.

So, I mentioned the power supply issue on the dell facebook page, having now found a number of forums online about the exact same issue by hundreds of other users of this model.

the forum I listed was at http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19382073.aspx?PageIndex=1

it is currently at 45 pages long and was started in feb 2011, 3 months before I bought my laptop!

Holland@dell suggested there was a 'fix' for this issue and that I would be contacted by a rep from their Malaysian team. i was called a day later by 'Sean' from the dell Malaysian team, who was very surprised indeed to hear that there was a 'fix' for this issue, in fact he was very surprised to even hear it was an issue at all, seemingly admitting he knew nothing about the long standing power supply (design flaw) issue. I gave him the link to the forum above and suggested he educated himself on the issue. He said he would go away and see what he could do and would call me back to arrange a resolution. That was 3 months ago. I have heard nothing from dell in any regards to this issue since.

the next thing to happen was my 'i' key fell off my keyboard. I again went onto the dell facebook page and reiterated that i was extremely unhappy with this machine, it was not indicative of a $2000+ laptop and it was essentially falling apart. I told them the hinges failed, the webcam failed, the power supply issue has been totally ignored, and the keys were now coming off the keyboard. yet again the dell escalations manager, on the public facebook page, told me that I did this damage myself, and they would not warrant it. They ignored completely the power supply issue and the keys falling off the keyboard, but they did suggest the webcam wouldn't be warranted either because it "was most likely damaged when 'I' damaged the screen".

as a 20yr I.T. professional, with my own computer business, I couldn't believe the continued arrogance of dell and that they were allowing this guy to act on their behalf, seemingly unsupervised!

I suggested taking the matter to the Queensland tribunal, but even this didn't deter him. He went on to suggest that he had no doubt about the outcome of a tribunal as "the pictures speak for themselves"

he completely ignored my professional opinion, his own dell technician seeing it in person and not diagnosing it as customer induced and the fact that the laptop is falling apart, with keys coming off keyboards and power supply issue being a long standing issue before i even bought the machine!

it now emerges that dell removed this very model from their laptop range, sometime back in September 2012. I suggested that dell did this because the knew the laptop had major problems. Dell have not acknowledged this, of course, but it seems too much of a coincidence to me that they suddenly drop this laptop from the range without replacing it... for example my model is a l702x, it superseded the l701x, so if they were planning on superseding it, they would've done so with the l703x... but no, they just removed it altogether... very strange I think!

I then decided to contact the finance company behind the transaction to see if they could offer any help. That finance group was bank of Queensland. Initially they were very helpful, and seemed to understand my situation, even seemingly agreeing that a 20yr I.T. guy would not cause such damage to his own $2000 laptop, especially one that needs it for making a living with!

so,they told me they had a dell rep in their customer care dept and that they would escalate the case.

finally, I took some comfort in the fact that I had someone to support me, someone to step up and force dell to acknowledge this matter in a better fashion, and not ignore me as a customer, and the evidence supplied, not just the pictures, which show nothing more than the issue as a whole.

I didn't hear anything from the bank of Queensland till 4 business days later, and again I had to chase them up for a response. The response I received was very poor.

They basically told me that dell had not moved from its original viewpoint, that they were refusing to warrant this computer of mine at all and that all i could do now was proceed legally through the courts with the matter.

they stated that they have no power to force dell to change their minds on what they called an 'internal matter' and suggested that the finance is not based on the issue of the equipment being faulty or not. In other words, the Bank of Queensland were telling me that they expect me to pay for the laptop regardless as its not their problem.

So, I have a $2000+ ($2700 by the time I have finished paying for it) laptop, it has now being withdrawn from sale by dell, I suspect because of the hundreds of disgruntled customers out there with the power supply/design flaw issue alone, but dell have treated me, as a so called "valued customer" with disdain and derision and I cannot help but feel that I have been completely scammed by this company.

As an I.T professional, I cannot imagine why anyone would suggest how someone in my trade could do this, and that makes me realise that Dell, quite frankly, do not care. They make a determination, regardless of how outrageous it is, and they don't move from that opinion.

This was the first brand new Dell machine I have ever owned and it has been the worst machine and the worst customer service I have ever experienced in my life, not just as an I.T. professional, but as a customer of any company.

Dell simply do not care about you. The moment they get your money, is when they stop caring.

I have come up against an immoral company and one who will go to any lengths to make the customer feel like they have no recourse with Dell at all.

To anyone who reads this post, please, please, check out dell's customer service reputation online, don't just take my experience as your reason to go anywhere else, but do ask yourself, if they can do this to an I.T. professional, one who works with computers every single day, and one who knows the industry, what then can they do to you?

Dell, definitely worthy of Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware).

Approximate cost: $2066