Are Dell Outlet 'immune' from UK legislation?!

still_savin

I've had a disastrous couple of days at the hands of Dell computers and I'm looking for information on whether or not I can make some form of claim against them for my mounting losses due to their incompetence.

A week ago I bought a laptop from the Dell Outlet, a nice little 5010 Inspiron, via some info I found on this and other forums about the 'deals' available through the outlet for reconditioned machines. Obviously as 'recons' these are not new, but they still carry a full Dell warranty and have allegedly been fully repaired of whatever fault they had. I paid for my computer straight away on my credit card, and the money went instantly from my account. My online Dell System Info page changed to 'In Production', which seemed weird since it was apparently an already built and returned machine, but hey ho... A full week later, it arrives at my home (Dell will ONLY ship to the cardholders registered address so I couldn't get it sent to work, and took a day off to get it).

My computer went through its initial start up routine, and after about 45 minutes said it was going to reboot into Windows for the first time. At that point it failed, with a warning on the screen that the restore partition had failed. I eventually found a number to call tech support, and was immediately bounced to an Indian call centre where we went through several options for about an hour before he diagnosed a faulty hard drive. I was a bit disappointed that my newly-recon'd machine wouldn't even start up ONCE, but I suppose that's the perils of buying online. At least an engineer would be with me the following day (yesterday now). Another day off work though - this saving from buying at the Outlet rather than a store was getting a lot smaller.

Of course, no engineer showed up. At 5pm I phoned them again, transferred back to India. He's DEFINITELY coming, they say. But still no show. This morning I phone tech support again and get told 'Hmmm, he'll be there today then'. Ouch, another day off work. Savings from buying this way now long gone. Midday arrives and I get back on phone to India, a tad narked. Nowhere near as narked as I was going to be, though, when I found out no engineer was coming and never WAS coming, because they'd discovered they didn't have the 'parts'. Why in hell didn't you tell me that yesterday so I didn't spend the day waiting? Why did you tell me again this morning he'd be coming? "Ooops", say Dell, "Sorry!".

This 'part' they don't have is allegedly the hard drive, and to be frank I'm struggling to believe that. Their engineers don't have hard drives? Of any size at all? Dell reckon they'll "expedite" getting a drive out to me, but it could be a week or so. Hang on a mo - this is a 'new' machine, it's never been turned on yet. You've already had my money nine days now, and you reckon you'll get a drive out in another week? Naff off! After "escalating" the call several more layers over the following hours, someone finally begrudgingly says I can have my money back, but not until they've sent a courier to collect my machine (within 5 working days sir, we assure you), and its then been shipped back to their remanufacturing facility (7 to 10 working days). THEN they'll give me my money back. Hang on, since when was it ME who was the untrustworthy one? I had one duty as a customer, to pay up on time. Errr, I did that. Dell, on the other hand, haven't been CLOSE to doing their duty - they haven't supplied a working item despite having the money, and they won't be fixxing it for some time further! And, of course, that's quite apart from the two days off work I've had waiting for their phantom engineer - even if they were to give me a full refund right now I'd still be a hundred odd quid out of pocket.

I know Dell have a UK presence (though I've not managed to find a phone number that gets there) so I can happily serve a small claims court summons on them, but by the time I got to court they'd have refunded me. What I really want to do is go and buy the equivalent computer from my local retailer so that I'm not without a computer any longer and sue them for the cost, plus something toward the two days pay I've lost. Sorry, rant over now. I feel much better...

penrhyn

0844 444 5986

Dell House
Cain Road
Bracknell
RG12 1LF

still_savin

penrhyn wrote: »

0844 444 5986

Dell House
Cain Road
Bracknell
RG12 1LF

I've got that number among the ones I found today. All three options on the automatic menu that answers it go straight through to India...

free4440273

Sometimes -- and it's not necessarily easy -- the credit card issuer can grant a refund in case of dispute //

JasX

well part of the issue is you not having a very efficient way of receiving goods -worst case I go with these days is to miss the delivery and go with the card to the depot to collect. rather that than take entire days off work for deliveries.

Also under DSR regs you were perfectly able to return the laptop for a full refund on day one rather than get involved in any kind of fixing attempts no?

still_savin

JasX wrote: »

well part of the issue is you not having a very efficient way of receiving goods -worst case I go with these days is to miss the delivery and go with the card to the depot to collect. rather that than take entire days off work for deliveries.

Also under DSR regs you were perfectly able to return the laptop for a full refund on day one rather than get involved in any kind of fixing attempts no?

Dell's UK courier is called Welsh Western. I'm not going to prejudice anyone in any way against them other than to say "Google the name and look at ANY result from the top dozen or so results - you'll soon get the picture...". Not being in to collect the delivery would have ensured that it would be two weeks since order before I had a hope of seeing it!

DSR would ensure I get my initial cost back, eventually. To be fair I'd long have the refund via Dell's own offered routine by then, but that's not the point - Dell very arrogantly feel they are entitled to sit on my cash for a couple of weeks when its THEM who've not stuck to the contract, not me, and its THEM who directly cost me money in lost wages unnecessarily. I'm hoping someone can tell me that I have the right to claim back all the costs I've incurred as a result of their series of errors!

diable

Send it back and get a refund.

still_savin

diable wrote: »

Send it back and get a refund.

A refund leaves me over £100 out of pocket. Dell contracted with me to provide a working computer, within a 'reasonable period of time, in exchange for a large sum of money. They're in breach of that contract, and I've incurred significant costs as a direct result of their breach and will continue to do so until they either finally repair my machine or I get a replacement. That's the cost I'm trying to find out if I can claim for within the small claims arena.

fwor

It's a while since I looked at the Sale of Goods Act, but I don't ~think~ it includes any provisions for consequential losses, so I would guess that the Dell Terms and Conditions of Contract that you signed up to as part of the ordering process would prevail, and you can bet that they exclude liability for such losses.

One thing's fairly sure: Dell can probably afford better lawyers, and more of them, than you can.

In your position, I'd let it lie. Given the number of people that view these forums, I suspect you've done more damage in terms of undermining their reputation through simply starting this thread than any amount of action through the Small Claims Courts would.

debitcardmayhem

fwor wrote: »

It's a while since I looked at the Sale of Goods Act, but I don't ~think~ it includes any provisions for consequential losses, so I would guess that the Dell Terms and Conditions of Contract that you signed up to as part of the ordering process would prevail, and you can bet that they exclude liability for such losses.

One thing's fairly sure: Dell can probably afford better lawyers, and more of them, than you can.

In your position, I'd let it lie. Given the number of people that view these forums, I suspect you've done more damage in terms of undermining their reputation through simply starting this thread than any amount of action through the Small Claims Courts would.

Whilst agreeing with fwor , it may help you to write to your favourite Broadsheet/Rag/Red Top. Write to the daily mail and they will claim in next years customer wooden spoon awards they started it.
Give it a week and see what they say from Dell, have you written to them and copied the complaint to your card issuer. All well and good venting on forums, (that's how I started) write to them in reasonable language, good logic and then send me a promise that if they give you £xx as a goodwill gesture for their bad service, give 10% of that to your favourite charity.
NB I didn't say my favourite charity cos that's me or the Injured Jockeys Fund (I realised that most jockey's get injured by carrying the extra weight of my 50p bet )

still_savin

fwor wrote: »

It's a while since I looked at the Sale of Goods Act, but I don't ~think~ it includes any provisions for consequential losses, so I would guess that the Dell Terms and Conditions of Contract that you signed up to as part of the ordering process would prevail, and you can bet that they exclude liability for such losses.

One thing's fairly sure: Dell can probably afford better lawyers, and more of them, than you can.

Oh boy you got that right! However, that's why I love the small claims process - Dell wouldn't dream of not putting together an extremely comprehensive and multi-pronged defence to a summons, all performed by their violently expensive team of lawyers, and the very best they can hope for is to not lose the case but swallow their costs. Me, I stand to lose a few hours preparatory time, and the nominal court fee. Sounds like a good deal to me!

fwor wrote: »

In your position, I'd let it lie. Given the number of people that view these forums, I suspect you've done more damage in terms of undermining their reputation through simply starting this thread than any amount of action through the Small Claims Courts would.

True dat. Still, I promised the call centre today that if they wanted to play hardball, I was quite happy to dedicate sufficient time to the project of informing people that they'd wish they just gave me the replacement machine I'd asked for. Dell have been callously indifferent to the results of their poor service, and arrogant in believing that as the multi-national organisation they get to set the way things will be handled and the customer will just have to put up with it.