Ron Schenone

Dell Laptop – How Many Fixes Before You Ask For A Refund?

Posted by on Jan 29, 2008 | 9 Comments

Over at The Consumerist web site they have a story about a person who states he has been battling with a Dell laptop trying to get it repaired. The story includes a wide variety of fixes and repairs that the person alleges have been done during the past 3 years.  Part of the tale of woe states:

I purchased a laptop through my company in 2005. The laptop I bought was the Dell XPS (Gen2). I had several issues with the DVD burner right off the bat. Within months Dell was replacing my 6800 Ultra laptop video board due to video artifacts. This happened again and more parts were replaced. In Late 2006 Dell swapped my Gen2 system for a M1710. In my book, both the customer service and the quality hit the fan. They sent me a laptop with less memory and poor video.

A replaced unit was sent but the alleged problems continue.

The current M1730 has major issues and already I have had the motherboard, power supply, and battery replaced. The Blu-Ray scratches the dvds and the first replacement they sent was DOA. I am trying to test the second Blu-ray, but my laptop has been crashing and locking up. I’ve worked with a Sr. Dell Executive Technician for 5 days. Here are my current unresolved issues:

The laptop power cord can be loosened by moving the power cord or the laptop. When this happens, the laptop switches to battery.

When the laptop is running on battery, it freezes and locks up. This happens every time, not just occasionally.

When I plug the laptop back in from running on Battery it bluescreens or freezes.

The story goes on and on. Putting aside the brand and putting aside some of the problems the user has experienced, one would suspect that this person should of asked for a refund when some of the original problems persisted. Letting things go on for 3 years seems ludicrous to me.

Maybe we need a lemon law for computers. Or was this incredible situation the fault of the person who is presenting this tale?

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

The Consumerist article is here.

[tags]dell, laptop, computer, repairs, replacement, support, refund,  [/tags]

  • http://www.zenpcservices.com zenfool

    I don’t believe it was necessarily the fault of the person as he probably did not want to go without a laptop for long. I feel his pain as I’ve had products just be lemons. I had an iPod that broke every 6 months on me for 3 years. I was able to replace it for a new unit via the Best Buy extended warranty I purchased but without that I’m not sure how far Apple would have gone to fix my issue.

    I personally believe that in a case like this laptop owner wasn’t aware that he would have so many issues with his laptop and decided to rough it out, by the time he knew he should have just called it quits and asked for a refund it was probably too late. It happens to a lot of us and quality of products in general within the last 20 years has become worse. Dell should just offer him a discount to purchase a new system and replace his old system with a refurb of some sort again, since it seems like he only received 1 refurb unit thus far.

  • Don Naphen

    Ron, I question anyone who’s tolerated this situation for 3 years also. Dell’s tech support/customer service have long had a dismal reputation, but I have to ask myself if this tale of woe is in fact legitimate. I know Dell is taking some hard knocks these days, but this smells! It’s almost as if the competition is slipping some bogus comments your way, as absolutely NO ONE that I know would tolerate a problem for 3 years!

    AND, if this dude did in fact buy his lappy through his company, then the company should have been requested to throw some heat towards Dell. Apparently the company, like many, has an arrangement with Dell for employee discounts and the like (??).

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi zenfool,
    Could be. But his ‘roughing it out’ seems like a rough ride! :-)

    Hi Don,
    My first thoughts as well. It is unfortunate but with the advent of the Internet once does not have to prove what he posts is true or not. It does make wonder if the person is a shill or not.

    Thanks for the comments. They are appreciated.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/digged/ Matt

    My Dell had these problems,

    wifi card drivers where installed wrong thus leading to BSOD
    battery died in 5 months
    charger in 8 months
    I paid for recovery disks but they where not shipped, they refused to send me the disks.

    And the $100 warranty I purshed didn’t cover any of this, I will never deal with Dell again.

  • NewJohnny

    Tech forums from all manufacturers are full of these stories. It’s amazing how much abuse people will withstand. My tolerance level is at the 2nd level. If something breaks twice, I demand a refund and get something else.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Matt,
    Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

    Newjohnny,
    I’m glad you mentioned this. This is not a problem that is isolated to Dell systems. Other companies also have this problem.

    Regards, Ron

  • dan roden

    xps gen 2 i’ve had for 3+ years at this point. this didnt go wrong until about a year and a half in.
    bad original video card (6800)
    botched upgrade from 6800-7800 (took them 2 months to send out technician)
    dvd drive died
    hard drive died
    upgraded 7800 died
    motherboard died
    numerous overheating issues.

    inspiron 8100 – hard driver died after 5 years (expected) – no other problems – still works great and beat half life 2 on it!

    give this recent Dell experience, i will never buy from them again.

  • http://www.cpmexpert.com Jim Hamje

    I had all the same problems and Dell stonewalled me all the way. They even went so far as to promise to replace the computer and after I sent it their service center wanted to charge me $700 to fix it instead. This was within the first month. I wouldn’t accept a free Dell and if there is any lawsuit I can join I would like to know about it.

  • Julie

    Our issues have been with both Dell business computers and Dell printers. We purchased the Dell 2145cn in April of 2010. The policy with Dell is that if you are unhappy you can get a full refund up until 31 days after purchase. After that period, when something goes wrong, you can only get replacements, no refund allowed. So we bought it in April, in June it had its first fatal jam. We got a replacement -refurbished or course. That didn’t work. Complained. They sent a second replacement. That didn’t work either. The third replacement worked as it was a brand new printer (not refurbished). That was mid-June. Late October that printer got a fatal jam. We contact support. They sent us a replacement. The scanner part worked fine. The copies were probably the worse quality we had ever seen. So they sent us new ink cartridges. That didn’t fix it. They sent us a new transfer belt. Still exact same problem. Customer support and tech support are in the Philippines. We spent hours on the phone. Every time you state your issue the rep repeats it to make sure they understand. That does not alleviate the frustration label. We asked for a full refund. The “floor manager” stated that we were not illegible for a full refund because the issues had happened after the 31 days and that even if she filed the full refund application it would be denied.
    Didn’t even try to escalate past her position.
    They could have saved soo much money by refunding instead of shipping overnight nearly 100 lbs via Fedex 5 times. Dell policies are not logical, efficient or economical. Not blame the customer! Check the return and refund policies before you buy (although we are NEVER buying Dell again!)