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January 13th, 2005 08:00
Beware - Dell uses Unethical Tactics
Hopefully no one else has had the same problem I'm experiencing. I'm military, stationed in Okinawa. I ordered a Dell Laptop before the holidays. It arrived in December broken. After weeks of unsuccessfully dealing with Dell on line, I said enough is enough. The computer never worked. It was shipped broken. Dell sent a new hard drive, it didn't work. Now they want me to send it back to them, but at my expense. Since I live in Okinawa, they won't pay for shipping.
When I told their customer support team that I'm tired of their fix actions that don't work and that I just want a refund, I was told that my 21 day period had expired. Well, duh... Of course it had. Your Dell support team kept me tied up trying fix actions for 4 weeks.
Great Tactics Dell. That's one way to make sure no one gets a refund!
If anyones else has had this problem I'd love to hear from you. I hope to educate as many potential Dell users as possible of these tactics.
Bottom Line: If you have a problem with your "new" computer, get your refund immediately. Don't use the Dell Support team.
My 4150 arrived DOA.
Technical support had me try several things including attempting to reinstall the OS and perform some nice tests on the equipment that the device had built in.
I eventually had to send it back to them, but I had it back in 5 business days working like a champ. An I USE this thing to it's maximum potential.
Because youre in Japan? there may be a cost to ship, but it can't be that much. It does seem cheap that they won't pick it up for free as they did with me.
cobra_2004
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Posted January 14th, 2005 10:00
@Randyored wrote:
Speaking of a "Bad Motherboard", I see you have a 5150. Just wait... It's gonna die.
ha, I'll keep you informed Randy. No issues as of yet. And the heat issue, well, I keep that under control. Usually idles at 30 and I've never seen it above 60 after hours of playing games. So we will see. If it goes, well, I'll have to deal with it then.cobra,
I hope it doesn't happen to you. Really, I hope not.
But, I was in you exact position. I read about the i5150 issue a few months ago and tried to test my laptop. Pushed in all the reported spots, poked and pecked, but could not get mine to crash. Yay, I thought. Mine was rock solid. I figured I was a lucky one. So, I forgot about it, thinking I was spared.
Then, one day it was sitting on the table and just started to go crazy. I had to hard boot it. After that it was extremely touchy. Basically, it only booted in the upside down position. And it you even looked at the reported touch spots it crashed. Very touchy. The next morning it would not even boot. It tries. When you hit the power it begins to fire up (fans, HD, CDROM, etc). You hear it all startup, except the screen. Then, in half a second, everything stops. Well, almost everything. Sometimes you can still here the CDROM or hard drive. But no fans and the lights are blinking weird. You can tell it is somewhat powered. Screen never flashes or comes up, ever.
This all happened in the matter of 24 hours. Now, it is simply dead and unusable.
- Know your rights:Magnusson-Moss Waranty Improvement Act.Better Business BureauYour states Attorney General Office Consumer Protection ServiceFederal Trade Commissionall of these have information that may assist you in waranty dispute issues.
cobra_2004
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Posted January 14th, 2005 18:00
They are all in the US, not Japan. The rules are different.- I am having the same start up problem as you Randyored but I have a inspiron 2650 just had the mother board replaced and the 6TH harddrive and now I try to start and the light goes on and you hear the fan and hd go on and then nothing it takes about a dozen times and it finally comes on (kept trying while I was on hold from dell) and then the tech support comes on I tell them this happen yesterday and today and they said but it ok now!!NEVER AGAIN dellPaul
- If it was messed up from the time you opened the box and had problems with it. You should have requested an exchange then. You only have 21 days from time of purchase. Dell Tech Support don't hold up custoemrs ont he phone, you have an option to say nay or yay, it's your fault if you didn't request it the first day. And more than likely if it was a HW failure it could've been when it was packaged by carrier.
cobra_2004
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Posted January 13th, 2005 12:00