Unreliable laptop - what can I do

Lomcevak

I purchased a Dell laptop from a large UK retailer in late October last year, paid for with credit card. Laptop was fine at first, but developed a worsening fault with the keyboard where the space bar was unresponsive when pressed at either end - worked in the middle - but was horrible to type on as youkeptmissingspaces. As it was getting worse, it went back for repair in January this year.

Laptop was returned in February, space bar now works but after the repair if I leave the laptop unattended for minutes (sometimes) to hours (usually) it hangs, black screen and have to hold power button to reset. This didn't happen before the repair.

UK retailer said it had to go back for repair again, before I did this I tried to work the problem with Dell support - three reinstalls of Windows, various other fixes, not result, so finally went back for repair number two in mid April.

Arrived back yesterday, has failed twice since with exactly the same fault.

What can I do now? I've obviously got a dud of some form, but desperately need a working laptop - this is used for work


edit: called retailer, they want it back for a third repair attempt. Guess i'm prepared to do this, but it needs to be resolved properly so need to know what to do if still not resolved.

wealdroam

Lomcevak wrote: »

I purchased a Dell laptop from a large UK retailer in late October last year, paid for with credit card. Laptop was fine at first, but developed a worsening fault with the keyboard where the space bar was unresponsive when pressed at either end - worked in the middle - but was horrible to type on as youkeptmissingspaces. As it was getting worse, it went back for repair in January this year.

Laptop was returned in February, space bar now works but after the repair if I leave the laptop unattended for minutes (sometimes) to hours (usually) it hangs, black screen and have to hold power button to reset. This didn't happen before the repair.

UK retailer said it had to go back for repair again, before I did this I tried to work the problem with Dell support - three reinstalls of Windows, various other fixes, not result, so finally went back for repair number two in mid April.

Arrived back yesterday, has failed twice since with exactly the same fault.

What can I do now? I've obviously got a dud of some form, but desperately need a working laptop - this is used for work


edit: called retailer, they want it back for a third repair attempt. Guess i'm prepared to do this, but it needs to be resolved properly so need to know what to do if still not resolved.

After one repair you can reject the goods and insist on a refund.

George_Michael

wealdroam wrote: »

After one repair you can reject the goods and insist on a refund.

As the OP stated that they need the laptop for work then it could well class as a business purchase so the right of rejection under the Consumer contract regulations won't apply.

Lomcevak, you said that you bought the laptop from "a large UK retailer". Was this Currys / PC World? and if so, did you buy from their business sales department?

Lorian

Lomcevak wrote: »

, space bar now works but after the repair if I leave the laptop unattended for minutes (sometimes) to hours (usually) it hangs, black screen and have to hold power button to reset. This didn't happen before the repair.

Is it a DELL 7537 or something similar? They had two common faults - spacebar issue like you describe and an issue where it doesn't switch off properly in standby when running Windows 10 (like you describe).

If this is the case update the intel IMEI driver on the machine to the latest on Dell support site for your model to fix the black screen/need to hold power button.

Lomcevak

After one repair you can reject the goods and insist on a refund.

When I queried this, I was told that I had agreed to multiple repair attempts by accepting the terms and conditions of sale - I haven't pushed this option further yet, but it was part of my reason for my post.

George_Michael wrote: »

As the OP stated that they need the laptop for work then it could well class as a business purchase so the right of rejection under the Consumer contract regulations won't apply.

'work' was a bit of a shortcut to try and not write too much of an essay to explain the situation - it's used to do coursework and assignments for my part-time MBA, the MBA is funded by work but the laptop is personally-owned. I need something light that I can stick in a briefcase and get 30 minutes work done here and there during lunchbreaks, on the train, etc.

Important thing (for me, at least!) is that it's not just a "surf the internet" tool, having it crash or disappear off for repair is a real pain in the backside for making progress with my MBA.

Lomcevak, you said that you bought the laptop from "a large UK retailer". Was this Currys / PC World? and if so, did you buy from their business sales department?

It was John Lewis, ordered online. Payment was with a John Lewis credit card, which I believe is provided by HSBC.

Is it a DELL 7537 or something similar?

Dell XPS-13 (7th-gen Intel i5 model, the 9360) - drivers, BIOS, disk firmware, etc. are all fully up to date, i've had about a dozen calls with Dell to install or upgrade new drivers to try and figure out what the issue is. Nothing in Event Log or anything similar gives any clue, sometimes it goes after a few minutes idle, other times it keeps going for days before it hangs. There have been a fair few times that i've made some change or other and it has seemed to work for a while, but within a few days it always goes.

wealdroam

Lomcevak wrote: »

wealdroam wrote: »

After one repair you can reject the goods and insist on a refund.

When I queried this, I was told that I had agreed to multiple repair attempts by accepting the terms and conditions of sale - I haven't pushed this option further yet, but it was part of my reason for my post.

John Lewis should know better than this.

A consumer cannot be contracted out of their statutory rights.

If there is anything in their T&Cs suggesting that their T&Cs deny you rights afforded by The Consumer Rights Act, then that could amount to a criminal offence.

It is paragraph (5) of Section 24 of The Consumer Rights Act that gives you the right to reject the goods after one repair.

Of course there is nothing to stop you accepting an offer of another repair if you wish.

Lorian

Is your BIOS version 1.3.2 ?
Video driver 21.20.16.4627 ? (this version less than a week old)

But this would still be my bet at fixing the issue:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER03880350M/1/Chipset_Driver_H71HM_WN32_11.5.0.1020_A01.EXE

It appears to be a back-rev from IMEI 11.6 - but this 11.5 release is definitely released later by dell for your model - so perhaps there was an issue with 11.6. This sort of subtle detail is often missed by 1st line support people.

Lomcevak

Lorian wrote: »

Is your BIOS version 1.3.2 ?
Video driver 21.20.16.4627 ? (this version less than a week old)

Yes to both - BIOS has been at 1.3.2 for a while, but upgraded the video drivers yesterday once it came back from repair

But this would still be my bet at fixing the issue:

https://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER03880350M/1/Chipset_Driver_H71HM_WN32_11.5.0.1020_A01.EXE

It appears to be a back-rev from IMEI 11.6 - but this 11.5 release is definitely released later by dell for your model - so perhaps there was an issue with 11.6. This sort of subtle detail is often missed by 1st line support people.

[STRIKE]I'm at 11.5.0.1019 so will upgrade that and see if it makes any difference.[/STRIKE]

edit: i'm at 11.5.0.1019 right now, but that's because I reset Windows today in preparation to send it back for repair number three and have only applied normal Windows updates and the upgraded the graphics drivers back to current since the reset.

Dell System Detect picks up 11.5.0.1020 as available and I also did a full update of drivers via that route yesterday, so 95% sure that I would have been running .1020 when it failed after repair 2.

Problem is that it can take a few days for the failure to manifest, so troubleshooting drivers is a very slow process.

Lomcevak

Sorry for bringing this back up, but it went away to Dell at the end of April (just after my last post), after being away for almost a month it came back two days ago and failed immediately with the same problem again. I give up with this one.

However, the tech support rep is telling me that they can't refund or replace unless Dell authorises the replacement? Surely after three repairs that can't be right? My contract is with the retailer and not Dell, so aren't they responsible for satisfactory quality under SOGA etc.

edit: I'm also being told a series of different things - after one repair, it couldn't be refunded unless they failed twice to repair, after two repairs it needed a third repair before it could be refunded, now it can only be refunded if Dell agree ... ? Any suggestions for how to escalate?

wealdroam

Re-read post#2 and post#6 and send a letter before action to JL.

Lomcevak

wealdroam wrote: »

Re-read post#2 and post#6 and send a letter before action to JL.

I could do this, but getting legal is my last resort, really - I'm fairly sure I have the right to reject the laptop (and have had, for a while), but I'm no lawyer and I don't want to start quoting statute without understanding it (e.g. how s.24 is caveated by s.20). If nothing else, things get slow when you start writing letters.

I'd rather just get agreement from customer services to refund, that'll be much quicker, so I wanted to confirm that it doesn't matter what Dell do or don't agree with the retailer, my statutory right to refund is for the retailer to uphold, and if there are any suggestions of how best to bypass the person who insists that Dell agree to a refund.