Dell complaints

ctijohn

I purchased an Inspiron 2200 for my daughter as a Christmas present on 11/25/05. It shipped on 12/5 and that was when the 90 day warranty started which is unbelievable seeing how I didn't even have possession of it yet! Anyway, I gave it to my daughter Christmas morning right out of the box and set it up for her (registered all of the software, etc). The machine ran fine until 3/24/06 when my daughter told me she was having problems with it.When you press a key on the keyboard it would output 2 characters instead of just the 1 you entered. She couldn't even log on to the machine. I tried to start it up in safe mode to do a system restore but the keyboard was still doing the same thing. I finally did a pc restore and the machine still did the same thing.

I went thru tech support and they said the warranty expired on 3/05. I tried to explain the machine wasn't even turned on until 12/25 and should be warrantied until 3/25. Well, that didn't get me to far! I then emailed the warranty issues contact and received a reply today telling me he was taking personal charge of my case and the advised me to contact Dell parts sale and they would be glad to sell me a new motherboard. They can bite me! I can't believe a motherboard that dies after only 90 days shouldn't be covered by warranty. I have 3 other Dells at home and have had no problems at all. I also buy all Latitudes for my department at work for our field techs with no problems either.

Does anyone have any ideas on where to go next with this or should I just send the thing back to corporate for someone to use as a paperweight?

I guess the old saying is true, you get what you pay for!

Thanks in advance for any help.

John

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 7:55 pm Post subject:

Welcome, John. They're not likely to budge on the warranty. Even though earlier this month they extended ALL warranties to one year. Shoot, try hitting them with that angle.

Double-keying has been a 'feature' of portables all along. 65% likelihood it's the keyboard, not the motherboard. Keyboards are cheap. A neighborhood repair shop might have one.
_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

ctijohn · Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 8:04 pm Post subject: Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the advice Rocke, perhaps I will try the 1 year warranty angle with them. I think like you saud though, I 'd have better luck replacing the keyboard and see what happens.

JodyAnn · Dances with Hate Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 107

Hi Citijohn, Dell sucks. You should probably just go buy her a new keyboard.

The Better Business Bureau is our Friend

StrangeFarer · Hates with a Vengance Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 61

ctijohn · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 3:12 pm Post subject:

Strangefarer,

Thank you for your honest input and yes, I suppose you are right about the warranty expectations.

I was hestitant to order the bargain special laptop for my daughter. I purchase Latitudes for my department where I work and have had very few problems with them considering they ride around in vans and are on construction job sites subjected to who knows what. Hell, I even had a 2" water line rupture over the top of mine while I was programming a controller. I slammed the lid shut, moved it away and turned it upside down after killing the power and waited for it to dry out. It's been close to a year since that happened and no problems yet!

I will check the keyboard and order one if needed.

FallenAngel · Super Hater Joined: 21 Feb 2006 Posts: 1516

Ouch that sucks. However, in a "buyer beware" scenario, if someone opts to cheap out on a warranty, there can be no blame except to the purchasing party.

It pays to investigate your company of choice way beforehand to see what kind of traps and pitfalls you may encounter. Where warranty is concerned, I'm usually the strongest consumer advocate up until then. It's hard for me to tell people this, but this is something that you did to yourself.

Like buying a car and having no insurance. Trash the car and who do you think should replace or repair it? The dealer?

A computer with a warranty is no different, fundamentally speaking. You want it protected, then you need to get it the protection it requires.

Sorry buddy, still sucks. I'd use the 1 year angle too if it were me. "Heard it through the grapevine" and all that.

ctijohn · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:02 pm Post subject:

This forum is great! It's really nice to hear an honest answer instead of having smoke blown up your butt.

Thank you from everyone for your honest input and help. I'll let you you know how I make out.

John

ctijohn · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:29 pm Post subject:

I just received a reply from Dell after I pleaded my case on the 1 year warrany now offered. This was the reply,

John,

While I agree with you that the keyboard should not have gone out, it did and there is no longer a warranty to cover the replacement of the part. Dell, as a company, started offering 90 day warranties in September of 2004, and it is the base option for coverage on all Inspiron systems. Dell is an OEM for hardware, so parts that are sold to us by manufacturers do not have a warranty on them, we provide warranty terms for them.

It looks like I'll be buying a keyboard but it sure won't be from Dell!

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 7:31 pm Post subject:

ctijohn · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 8:47 pm Post subject:

Thanks again Rocke.

I have fired off another round to James in Round Rock along with a CC to Michael Dell (for what it is worth). This has turned in to a matter of principal now!

I'll keep you posted.

John

Rocke_T_Sinetist · Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:45 pm Post subject:

You're welcome, John.

I haven't seen the hardcopy on this, but it's my understanding that Dell vendors warranty their commodities for one year. Which means, that when Dell was offering customers only 3 months, they were absorbing the other 9 months.

Computer commodities (all the individual components) are specified at 50,000 hours between failures. That's roughly 6 years of continuous operation. But the actual distribution of failures is a bell curve, with some exceeding expectations and some falling far short.

Issues such as yours are exactly the reason Dell raised the customer warranty 'quietly'. You haven't seen them mention it in print or TV ads, have you? They're waiting until all the 90-day warranties expire.
_________________
Rocke T Sinetist
as in, 'it doesn't take a...'

FallenAngel · Super Hater Joined: 21 Feb 2006 Posts: 1516

I'd send that email to the BBB and report it as outright fraud. Can local authorities get involved if fraud is perpetuated? They're an OEM for hardware and nothing come with a warranty except for what DELL puts on it?

F R A U D. Lies. Absolute bulls**t. That'd be akin to buying ANTHING from ANYONE and telling them, "I'm sorry it's provided to us without any warranty except for what *I* choose to provide for you, the customer."

Man, how do these jackals sleep at night? And now you have it in print? Use it. Use it now, and use it to the full advantage that it may offer. Maybe even demand to see, IN WRITING, that they are supplied with no warranty (or return credit) as an "OEM for hardware". So they buy, for example, 1.5 Billion dollars of Intel chips and all fail and they absorb the loss? Pay for a product AND pay if it fails by paying again for the same product? NOT F**KING LIKELY.

I'm seething over here. Every day is a new reason why I loathe this place, and each day I go to work my skin crawls...

ctijohn · Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 4:31 pm Post subject:

Wow, I can fully understand why you current and former employees feel the way you do about Dell after going thru this and reading your posts.

I consider myself lucky as I work for a small (150 employees) independant control contractor that sell and install DDC controls in comercial buildings. We represent most of the major vendors and do warrany and service on anything we sell or install. I am a project manager for the service department and we basically have a no questions asked policy if an item is even close to being out of warranty. We would rather warranty an item and have a HAPPY CUSTOMER who will continue to do business with us than have a PISSED OFF CUSTOMER that will take their business somewhere else when they need to upgrade. Hell, I've warrantied stuff that was way out of warranty knowing that this customer will most likely remember how they were treated and come back to us again with a sale.

Because of this thinking we have basically caused all of the big name control companies to become pretty much extinct in this area other than us selling their stuff when people request it. I worked for 10 years for one of big 3 control companies (starts with a H) and I was really happy when I finally switched from them to the company I work for now.

To make a long story short, I now can sleep good at night and enjoy talking to customers on the phone and not blow smoke up their ass. Everyone I work with has a great attitude and treats people the way they would want to be treated.

Thanks for all of your help evryone and good luck. I'll keep you posted on how I make out.

John

FallenAngel · Super Hater Joined: 21 Feb 2006 Posts: 1516

Speak to the Attorney General. I think that's the American equivalent of "ass whuppin 101".

I read it again and I'm still shaking my head. The jackass that wrote it should get fired, the Manager who told him to write it demoted back to L1, and Dell sued or fined up the ya-ya.