Is Dell scamming us ?

tadworth

I have the widespread problem of my Dell laptop battery charger not being recognised by the pc, and not charging, so i'm left with a stationary laptop, this happened just after the warrenty ran out ! there is nothing wrong with any of my hardware, it's just built in to the pc. It appears that Dell have designed a complex charging system that wont recognise any charger exept Dell premium priced ones, which don't even last long anyway.

I will never buy Dell again.

have they done this on purpose or is it just they won't admit there's a problem ?

ChiefGrasscutter

But when you fly on an aircraft....you will probably be rather glad that the aircraft owners are required to buy the overpriced fully aircraft certified and documented replacement part from the manufacturers rather than some equivalent cheaper part available from third party suppliers.

Such requirements either legal/regulatory or as a condition of maintaining insurance are commonplace in business. It's only in consumer goods that one gets away with third party parts suppliers - printer cartidges being a classic case.

Personally I think the EU should start cracking down on these third party suppliers.
We can start with cars. Insurance is automatically invalid if any non manufacturer's own brand part is fitted to a vehicle regardless of whether is likely or could cause any accident or incident.
After that we can move on to the point that since cars are getting so complex these days that servicing can only be done by the manufacture's own garages or those registered/approved by them (just like aircraft actually)

So I'd guess Dell have done it on purpose
The printer manufacturers will start locking in the printers to their ink cartidges only next I should think.

texranger

I have used dell desktops for over 10 yrs and yes dell parts direct from dell can be expensive, but look around online their are other suppliers out their that stock dell parts cheaper than dell.

try http://www.redstore.com they stock a wide range of dell parts

cit_k

You are often better off with a genuine dell charger, I have seen inside some non genuine compatible ones, and the build quality/safety was atrocious, im suprised it didnt burn the house down.

From poor quality soldering, bad construction, loose components, blocks of metal bolted on to make it feel heavier and more like a decent weight item rather than the shocking item it really was.

I seriously doubt they would pass any safety tests, at least the ones I saw.

Get a genuine one, you can get them second hand quite cheap.

cit_k

I have never had any problem with genuine chargers either, I have quite a few that are many years old and still going strong.
Is the tip damaged in yours, or the socket on the laptop?
Any damage to the lead?

Hammyman

tadworth wrote: »

I have the widespread problem of my Dell laptop battery charger not being recognised by the pc, and not charging, so i'm left with a stationary laptop, this happened just after the warrenty ran out ! there is nothing wrong with any of my hardware, it's just built in to the pc. It appears that Dell have designed a complex charging system that wont recognise any charger exept Dell premium priced ones, which don't even last long anyway.

I will never buy Dell again.

have they done this on purpose or is it just they won't admit there's a problem ?

They have done this to stop people buying cheap rebadged chargers and blaming Dell when it kills their computer. Dell are not the only company to do this - Lenovo/IBM, Sony and other premium makes do.

OTOH, there are plenty of companies supplying aftermarket ones but there are so many genuine ones on Ebay its not worth taking the risk. The copies are easy to spot as the grey is the wrong colour and the texture is wrong as well.