Comments on: Dell Laptop - How Many Fixes Before You Ask For A Refund?

By: dan roden

dan roden — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:44:12 +0000

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.

By: Ron Schenone

Ron Schenone — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 13:18:41 +0000

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

By: NewJohnny

NewJohnny — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:44:28 +0000

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.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:05:01 +0000

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.

By: Ron Schenone

Ron Schenone — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:28:33 +0000

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.

By: Don Naphen

Don Naphen — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:34:53 +0000

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 (??).

By: zenfool

zenfool — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:19:15 +0000

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.

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