Dell refusing to replace brand new faulty laptop

bradda

Hi,

Unfortunately I ordered a brand new top-of-the-range Dell laptop around 5 weeks ago, as a business customer. It eventually arrived and it became immediately apparent the machine is unfit for purpose; it has pixel lines running through the screen making design work impractical and most applications are incredibly glitchy and cause the screen to flicker on and off, making it literally impossible to use.

I reported this to Dell immediately and was told that they don't to refunds or replacements for business customers and that my only option was to speak to a support engineer who would help diagnose/fix the issues.

After several hours of business time on the phone (on a chargeable number!) all that was able to be ascertained is that it's not a hardware issue but a software issue, and as a result Dell are refusing to admit that the device is faulty, despite this being a brand new machine which only contains the software Dell installed on it! They want me to continue to spend more of my own time trying to fix it. It genuinely feels like a stalling technique designed to make me give up.

I can very clearly demonstrate that the machine is not fit for purpose - I have videos and pictures of the faults and a clear trail of support tickets showing willingness to resolve the issues in the recommended way, but I'm at a point where I just need a working machine. Enough is enough.

Does anyone have experience of this kind of thing as a business customer? I realise that I have no consumer rights, but is there anything equivalent for businesses? Surely a company can't sell you something for £2k that's completely broken and simply get away with it?!

Thanks for any help.

Alderbank

bradda said:

Hi,

Unfortunately I ordered a brand new top-of-the-range Dell laptop around 5 weeks ago, as a business customer. It eventually arrived and it became immediately apparent the machine is unfit for purpose; it has pixel lines running through the screen making design work impractical and most applications are incredibly glitchy and cause the screen to flicker on and off, making it literally impossible to use.

I reported this to Dell immediately and was told that they don't to refunds or replacements for business customers and that my only option was to speak to a support engineer who would help diagnose/fix the issues.

After several hours of business time on the phone (on a chargeable number!) all that was able to be ascertained is that it's not a hardware issue but a software issue, and as a result Dell are refusing to admit that the device is faulty, despite this being a brand new machine which only contains the software Dell installed on it! They want me to continue to spend more of my own time trying to fix it. It genuinely feels like a stalling technique designed to make me give up.

I can very clearly demonstrate that the machine is not fit for purpose - I have videos and pictures of the faults and a clear trail of support tickets showing willingness to resolve the issues in the recommended way, but I'm at a point where I just need a working machine. Enough is enough.

Does anyone have experience of this kind of thing as a business customer? I realise that I have no consumer rights, but is there anything equivalent for businesses? Surely a company can't sell you something for £2k that's completely broken and simply get away with it?!

Thanks for any help.

Of course there is. You have the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (this was also the act which applied to consumer sales as well until the Consumer Rights Act 2015 came along).

Most of the rights are similar though not as clearly spelled out as in CRA.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/54/contents

Tell Dell you are considering making a claim under SoGA 1979 and see what they say.

Slinky

After a very similar experience with Evesham (remember them, I was dancing in the aisle when they went under), I decided that any computer equipment I bought for my business in future I'd buy as a consumer and then claim back from my company. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of the legislation referred to above and lost a whole heap of money.