Dell Bad Manufacture

zendajohn

Hey guys,

I bought a Laptop for 800 pounds off dell and it arrived on the 7/09/2011, on the 17/09/2011 the screen cracked without warning and suddenly and now the laptop is deemed useless. There is no scrapes or dents at all on the exterioir of the laptop and I think there was a weakness in the screens integrity when it was sold to me. The problem is that Dell consider the screen to be not covered by the warranty. Do they have to give me my money back? Or even a replacement unit?

(I'm just not sure where I stand as I'm confident it was not my fault and the unit they sold me was "not fit for purpose").

Many thanks, John

pcombo

Laptop screens dont just break out of the blue.

zendajohn

See that's the thing, I'm the only one living in my house and it was fine the night before. Then when I opened it in the morning the screen was cracked and then the LCD crystals started to bleed. Okay, maybe it cracked when I was opening it, but surely that is what you're meant to do with a laptop. It definitely wasn't moved from my desk never-mind dropped. There has been some others online where this has happened to them too but with different models of Dell branded laptops. Is there nothing I can do?

ThumbRemote

Your laptop is covered by the Sale of Goods act, any talk Dell might give of what the warranty covers is irrelevant. A warranty is on top of the SoGA and cannot take away your statutory rights.

Given the laptop is so new it is up to Dell to prove the damage was caused by misuse. If they cannot it is their choice whether to refund, repair or replace.

Have they had the laptop back for inspection yet? If not there is no way they should be telling you its not covered.

Remember to back up any data before you do send it off!

bod1467

Dell can't arbitrarily remove a component part of a device from warranty/support. Raise an RMA and get it returned - the seller needs to prove that there was NOT an inherent fault (if within the first 6 months from delivery, which you are).

Edit: as TR says. (I was distracted whilst composing my reply, so didn't see TR's response).

shaun_from_Africa

pcombo wrote: »

Laptop screens dont just break out of the blue.

Oh yes they can.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/laptops-netbooks-tablets/1051801-acer-aspire-6930g-laptop-screen-cracked-its-own.html

A totally different type of equipment but still related story.
I'm a helicopter engineer and about 10 yesrs ago we took delivery of a new model of helicopter. (we had 7 of these).
The windscreens fitted were of a laminated glass type and in the first year of use we had to replace 6 windscreens which had cracked overnight. (none of the aircraft were flying when the cracks appeared).

It turned out that the cause was that when the glass was fitted it had been done incorrectly and when it flexed due to temperature changes it caused minute stress fractures which eventually caused a major crack to appear.

Laptops can get very hot so this could well be the same with the one in question.

zendajohn

@ ThumbRemote, thanks for the reply dude. I've contacted dell 4 times via E-mail and they haven't got back to me (been sending them an e-mail every working day since thursday) and they still haven't got back to me. I'm going to phone them mid-afternoon today if they still haven't replied.

I got the "LCD not covered by warranty" straight off the dell warranty booklet and there was also some others online which have had problems with dell accepting it was faulty goods and trying to make them pay for the repair.

@Bod - Thanks for getting back to me. I'm kind of new to this whole RMA scheme but I guess the only way of finding out what will happen is sending it away and see what they say.

@Shaun - That's a pretty interesting story, I thought about that being the cause actually. If the screws holding the LCD panel were put in too tightly it would stop the screen being able to flex when it heats up, making it crack. It even looks like the crack originated from one of the screws holding the panel in place, but I guess I just have to send it away and see what the inspectors think

thanks again guys, I'll update when I have more news of what's happening.

pimento

You shouldn't open a laptop by the corner, always by holding it in the middle. It puts less stress on the screen.

Not saying that's what the OP did, but...

DVardysShadow

pimento wrote: »

You shouldn't open a laptop by the corner, always by holding it in the middle. It puts less stress on the screen.

Not saying that's what the OP did, but...

So it is not poor manufacture but a design fault?

zendajohn

Argued for two hours on the phone to a sales representative at Dell earlier about this. They didn't budge from it being my fault. Almost forced me to pay 200 pounds for an engineer to come to my house and fix it for me. I feel so cheated, but I guess that's life. I'll never be buying anything from Dell again.

pcombo

well contact consumer direct and get advice from then, then write a letter to dell regarding this.

As others said use sale of good act, they cant refuse this.

But i still stick with what i said earlier.