Dell XPS - Replacement Laptop Request

jonboyuk

Thank you! They have agreed to consider a replacement and will get back to me in 2/3 days. I'll keep you updated...!

visidigi

jonboyuk said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

jonboyuk said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Under the final right to reject for goods older than 6 months the refund my be reduced for ownership vs the expected lifespan of the product. 

That's all slightly over my head, but I think I get the gist. Business or not, I am actually the literal consumer of the product. I run a small company (2 people small!) and this laptop I use for work and home, I just happened to buy it through the Dell business site because I assumed I'd receive better support..... alas!

Apologies for any confusion, we all "consume" but the use of the word consumer is to differentiate from otherwise being a trader or business. 

Considering the second highlighted sentence I would say you aren't a consumer unfortunately, that doesn't mean you don't have any rights but does mean the legislation pertaining specifically to consumer rights wouldn't apply to the contract. 

No that's fine. I've got a manager calling me in an hour or so, so we'll see how that transpires! 

Bet 50p its the person sat next to the person you last spoke to 

Never did understand this logic of speaking to a manager. The effectiveness of that in CS environments went out the window a long time ago...

Jenni_D

jonboyuk said:

Thank you! They have agreed to consider a replacement and will get back to me in 2/3 days. I'll keep you updated...!

"Thank you for your patience Mr Walton We've considered your request and our final response is On Yer Bike!" 😉😁

arthurfowler

visidigi said:

jonboyuk said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

jonboyuk said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Under the final right to reject for goods older than 6 months the refund my be reduced for ownership vs the expected lifespan of the product. 

That's all slightly over my head, but I think I get the gist. Business or not, I am actually the literal consumer of the product. I run a small company (2 people small!) and this laptop I use for work and home, I just happened to buy it through the Dell business site because I assumed I'd receive better support..... alas!

Apologies for any confusion, we all "consume" but the use of the word consumer is to differentiate from otherwise being a trader or business. 

Considering the second highlighted sentence I would say you aren't a consumer unfortunately, that doesn't mean you don't have any rights but does mean the legislation pertaining specifically to consumer rights wouldn't apply to the contract. 

No that's fine. I've got a manager calling me in an hour or so, so we'll see how that transpires! 

Bet 50p its the person sat next to the person you last spoke to 

Never did understand this logic of speaking to a manager. The effectiveness of that in CS environments went out the window a long time ago...

Not true in my experience, including with Dell.

jonboyuk

Haha, well we'll see very soon!

visidigi

arthurfowler said:

visidigi said:

jonboyuk said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

jonboyuk said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Under the final right to reject for goods older than 6 months the refund my be reduced for ownership vs the expected lifespan of the product. 

That's all slightly over my head, but I think I get the gist. Business or not, I am actually the literal consumer of the product. I run a small company (2 people small!) and this laptop I use for work and home, I just happened to buy it through the Dell business site because I assumed I'd receive better support..... alas!

Apologies for any confusion, we all "consume" but the use of the word consumer is to differentiate from otherwise being a trader or business. 

Considering the second highlighted sentence I would say you aren't a consumer unfortunately, that doesn't mean you don't have any rights but does mean the legislation pertaining specifically to consumer rights wouldn't apply to the contract. 

No that's fine. I've got a manager calling me in an hour or so, so we'll see how that transpires! 

Bet 50p its the person sat next to the person you last spoke to 

Never did understand this logic of speaking to a manager. The effectiveness of that in CS environments went out the window a long time ago...

Not true in my experience, including with Dell.

Most of the 'managers' are never managers.

Chances are you get a solution from Dell because you got a direct employee of dell to help you as opposed to an outsourced script reader/follower who isn't empowered to resolve the customer, just to serve low level inquiries.

e.g. Business Pro support is based in the UK, notably in Scotland all who I've found are very good - consumer support is offshore and no where near as empowered. 

Of course, you'll always get lucky now and again, but its well know many managers in CS are just senior staff or 'supervisors'

Jumblebumble

jonboyuk said:

Hello all,

I own a Dell XPS 2-in-1 9310 laptop, which I bought for work in late Nov 2020. It went wrong and I've had it repaired 3 times now and it's still broken. What are my rights in terms of having it replaced? They it looks like they'll repair it over and over again but say it's not their policy to replace.

If you're interested in the story - it's below...

In mid-Nov 2021, one of the internal fans started rubbing against the chassis and was making a terrible noise. So I thought I should get it fixed as I only had a few weeks of warranty remaining. This was the beginning of a painful saga which hasn't been resolved yet.

1st Visit - November

A technician turned up to my house to replace the fan. He called me 10 mins prior to arrival asking me if I'd backed everything up! I said no because it was just a fan. At that point he informed me that the fan was part of a motherboard assembly and in fact they were replacing the whole mobo/cpu/ssd etc as part of this procedure. Thanks for the heads up Dell! Oh and he didn't have any OS replacement media. 

I needed it fixed, and I'm fine with IT stuff, so was able to reinstall the OS myself and retrieve all my data from the cloud.

So he did the work. But he said he'd never opened "one of these before" so clearly blagged it. He brought no mat to work off on my dining table, no anti-static equipment and did the operation. Turned it on, and left. Obviously couldn't show me the OS as it was a blank SSD. Anyway, he said it was okay so I took his word for it.

I managed to get Win 11 reinstalled and noticed that the case wasn't reassembled correctly. It was open down one side and I could see inside the laptop! The mouse trackpad was also higher one side and wouldn't click. He'd also managed to scratch the lid and back of the case in the process. I had to go through many attempts at speaking to Dell technical to get the next visit.

2nd Visit - December

This time, another chap came armed with a new screen, keyboard, mouse, and backplate. On opening it, he found a loose screw under the trackpad, which is why it was elevated in one area. He was replacing anyway so went ahead and effectively rebuilt it. Much better guy this time, with all the necessary equipment. However a couple of weeks later I noticed the TAB key had a hairline crack in it. It also felt strange to press so I complained as the repair was generally okay but they'd installed a faulty keyboard. This took some effort because my original warranty was expired and they make it hard to get in touch once this has happened. Nonetheless I found a way.

3rd Visit - January (at the time of writing)

Another technician arrived today. This time he took it apart, in a very slow and diligent way. He was having trouble however reassembling it. Sadly he put a screw into a hole that was too small at the top left and started to push through some of the plastic on the top plate, so now there's a small dent. He also said, a previous technician had dethreaded some of the screws because they no longer held in the holes. 

Anyway he reassembled. I said I wanted to check it thoroughly before he left (with all due respect of course!) That's when I noticed the screw issue above. However. the space key and the mouse are not working properly!! The mouse doesn't 'click properly' and only the top right hand side of it actually works. The bottom left hand side sends the mouse into some kind of crazy motion, or doesn't do anything. I think the way it's all internally seated relates to the broken mouse and spacebar issue. As an aside, I checked the fresh keyboard before it was installed and the spacebar was fine at that point.

I said to the guy that I was annoyed by this (not at him) but that I can't have this repaired and broken even more once a month. He said that with it being opened and closed so frequently it's caused these issues. He thought that it should be replaced - and I agree. He spoke to Dell on the phone, who just kept asking him if they keyboard was fixed (ie why he was there) and not overly concerned that there were new issues.

If you've read this far, thank you. 

TL:DR - How do I get a replacement?

I need to know how to go about this because some have said yes in the forums, but I've been told on the phone that it is policy not to ever replace a machine.

I've given Dell 3 opportunities to fix this and I feel I've been reasonable. How can I get out of this mess? I can't go for a 4th repair, it's draining my life out of me!

Thanks

Hmm
I would never let Dell take away an SSD unless it was faulty as i would not want to risk data leakage.
I have had motherboards replaced but they have always changed over the ssd and I struggle to understand why they would want to do so unless the engineer is an imbecele (or if the ssd in an xps is soldered on)

born_again

Many managers in customer service environments, Know less that the staff taking the calls. As their role is to manage the teams. Been through lots of managers who come from other area's in the business, who just sit there and look at their team for advice. So all they do is agree with the person you spoke to in the 1st place.

jonboyuk

Jumblebumble said:

Hmm
I would never let Dell take away an SSD unless it was faulty as i would not want to risk data leakage.
I have had motherboards replaced but they have always changed over the ssd and I struggle to understand why they would want to do so unless the engineer is an imbecele (or if the ssd in an xps is soldered on)

Sadly you're right in your last remark - it's soldered on!

jonboyuk

Right, so we have a resolution.

Dell have decided not just replace it, but they are going to give me the latest 15" model XPS (mine was 13"), with an OLED screen and an additional 500GB of SSD over what I had before. I'm impressed to say the least. The laptop they are replacing it with is c. £500 more than the faulty one I currently have in my possession.

The only downside is it no longer a 2-in-1, but I never used it that feature since I have an iPad. So all in all, a good result from Dell. Thanks everyone.