Advice needed re problem with Dell

muffler

Here are the problems I have with Dell in relation to a PC I bought from them about 14 months ago which came with a 3 year warranty but went on the blink a couple of weeks ago.

I had to make phone calls to their technical support people each day over a 5 day period. As the casing had to be removed and things checked inside I arranged to have someone else here to do this and it was agreed that they would ring me at agreed times on 3 different days when my friend would be here to assist but they failed to do so.

When I finally said enough was enough and I wanted the PC collected, repaired and returned I had to wait a further 6 days for them to collect it. The PC is now with Dell and I think it will be about another week before I get it back.

As I understand it their commitment is to either have a technician call here and repair it in a time frame of 2 – 5 days or have the PC collected, repaired and returned within 6 days. It is now 14 days since I first contacted them and they have said that it will probably be another 7 days before I get it back.

Has anyone else had a similar experience or has anyone an opinion as to what I should do about this. I work from home and after 4 days I had to borrow another PC as I could not get some of my work done.

EDIT........I should have included this initially but I just want to confirm that I am looking for pointers here rather than legal advice and any pointers or advice offered will not be relied on as being legal.

Eru

Im not going to give legal advise because Im not qualified too and I would imagine the PC area would yield better answers. I can state however that every person within IT that I spoke with warned me too ignore Dell and their 'not in shops' cheap prices and go with a shop bought, returnable PC.

'Not in shops' as you can see means 'not easy to resolve'.

Karoma

muffler wrote:

As I understand it ...

What does the copy of T&C of a repair provided state?

...their commitment is to either have a technician call here and repair it in a time frame of 2 – 5 days or have the PC collected, repaired and returned within 6 days. It is now 14 days since I first contacted them and they have said that it will probably be another 7 days before I get it back.

Most manufacturers (And business') count in working days - how many working days has it been? And, alas, the timeframe specified is usually an 'all-things-go-well' -and they usually have an ass-covering clause to allow for longer.

Has anyone else had a similar experience or has anyone an opinion as to what I should do about this. I work from home and after 4 days I had to borrow another PC as I could not get some of my work done.

Ask to speak to someone in customer relations or a line manager/team-lead and ask how to make a formal complaint or what the situation is?

If you do wish to seek specific legal advice - contact a solicitor.

Karlitosway1978 wrote:

'Not in shops' as you can see means 'not easy to resolve'.

This scenario is not limited to Dell.

TempestSabre

Karlitosway1978 wrote:

....every person within IT that I spoke with warned me too ignore Dell and their 'not in shops' cheap prices and go with a shop bought, returnable PC....

You need to get to know better IT people.


Otherwise everything Karoma said.

muffler

Karoma, unfortunately I dont have a copy of the terms and conditions at the moment but I have requested a copy from Dell.
In relation to the days (working or normal days) i got the stated days from their website which is the cover they provide now but may not have been the same when I bought the PC although I wouldn't see why they would change over 14 months. If anything the time scale could be longer if buying a PC now.

In fairness the time I counted was in normal days. In working days I would have waited 3 working days to get them to agree to collect the PC, another 4 working days before they did so and it will probably be 8 working days before it is returned

I actually posted a letter of complaint to Dell just a couple of hours before they collected the PC. Their Customer care/complaints manager rang me on Thursday and wasn't too pleasant about the matter. His attitude was along the lines that it was just one of those things that happens now and again.

I got the customary apology and eventually he said that he would send a USB key as a gesture of good will for the "inconvenience" that I experienced. I was tempted to tell him which port to plug it into. Its strange that he rang me rather than reply in writing.

Karoma

I was tempted to tell him which port to plug it into.

Its strange that he rang me rather than reply in writing.

Not really. It's less effort and (On paper,at least) looks better. It looks like they care.

Get them to fax a copy of the repair T&C? (And read through your coverplan T&C)

muffler

Karoma wrote:

Not really. It's less effort and (On paper,at least) looks better. It looks like they care.

Get them to fax a copy of the repair T&C? (And read through your coverplan T&C)

Im a sceptic at the best of times. When that guy rang me instead of writing I assumed that he did not want to put in writing what he said to me.

I will get the relevant details of the cover and the t & c's.

Just for the record I am not looking for monetary compo here. I feel that I have been let down by Dell and I think there is a breach of contract for the reasons previously stated. When people like that mess you around they should acknowledge their mistakes

Our man in Havana

muffler wrote:

Its strange that he rang me rather than reply in writing.

They also call because anything said in a phone call can be denied if the case was ever before a court. A written reply would be on the record and could be used as evidence.

muffler

Bond-007 wrote:

They also call because anything said in a phone call can be denied if the case was ever before a court. A written reply would be on the record and could be used as evidence.

That was my suspicion. This particular manager give me his email address and having had a bit of time to reflect on our telephone conversation and particularly his attitude I decided to email him and ask him to reply in writing. The email bounced.

I sent a request to the sales people asking if I had the correct email address but so far they have not responded.

maidhc

Bond-007 wrote:

They also call because anything said in a phone call can be denied if the case was ever before a court. A written reply would be on the record and could be used as evidence.

No one is going to go to court over a single computer, even going to the small claims is a lot of work.

If I recall correctly Dell's terms for the Collect and Return service are quite vague, and it is designed for people who can live without their computer, i.e. for people who use it for pleasure rather than work.

However if you need a computer to be working with minimum downtime you really have to pay the small bit extra for the next business day warranty. here you pay more but the terms of service are clear... If it cant be fixed over the phone an engineer is sent out the next day. Much more satisfactory in a business context I am sure you would agree.

I dont think there is much you can do other than send an email stating they have had the machine long enough and you want it back within 5 working days.

Maybe a solution is to buy a second computer to keep as a spare. They are cheap.

Schuhart

maidhc wrote:

If I recall correctly Dell's terms for the Collect and Return service are quite vague, and it is designed for people who can live without their computer, i.e. for people who use it for pleasure rather than work.

I think that's about the size of it. The DVD drive on my Dell broke with a few weeks to go on the warranty. I found their email support adequate in the home context - they responded to each message on a next day basis.

They did replace the unit once I had performed a few checklists to verify the problem was related to the unit, which was a process that between the jigs and the reels took about a week. I asked them just to send me the new unit and fitted it myself rather than CAR, given that it was a simple enough job. All this is fine in the domestic context, but obviously if it was work and you needed the device to do your backups it would be a different story.

muffler

Schuhart wrote:

The DVD drive on my Dell broke..................All this is fine in the domestic context, but obviously if it was work and you needed the device to do your backups it would be a different story.

Yes the work issue is a bit different. The DVD RW drive wouldn't burn initially. They sent me software/drivers to install which I did but that did not fix the problem. Then one morning when booting up the DVD RW shelf partially opened and when I closed it again it wouldnt open again and the whole computer shut down.

For what ever reason about 5 days after that the PC was able to boot again but the DVD drive was still banjaxed. I told them all about this at the time.

Now for the update of the story. As stated earlier the PC was collected last Wednesday and I had it returned today. The covering docket said there was a new power supply was fitted and that the machine passed all the diagnostic tests.

Got it all hooked up again and hey presto.............the DVD RW drive is still f*cked. Drawer wont open. Tried it manually and also clicking eject in the drive properties.

Its not much good to me if I cant back up my documents.

Thirdfox

Perhaps get a memory stick in the meantime...

TempestSabre

Start writing letters complaining about the service you recieved. Despite them not replying, you will have a copy of your own letters. If someone reply via email or telephone. quote these in your letters back to them, with the name of the person, what they said, time of call etc. Also make them registered to you have proof of delivery etc. Make your first letter include all the events thus far.

I find just complaining endlessly usually gets results. Sending in letters, email and ringing them at least once a day.

muffler

Thanks guys (and gals?) for all the replies.

Thirdfox - it would appear that this will be the only way to back up the docs I had just before the drive give up. I have a 512mb memory key and I can transfer what I need to it, put it on this PC and then copy to CD.

TempestSabre - I have just banged off a couple of emails earlier and have a letter almost completed which I will send tomorrow. Cant seem to get a customer service phone no. for them. All they have in that end is the tech. support where the call ends up in India.

I have requested a copy of the T. & C.'s and when I get same I will at least know where I stand (I think)

The guy who picked the PC up last week was telling me that he has taken hundreds of them back to Dell. That may be the norm considering the volume of sales but what was interesting was the story he told me about a guy who had to send his PC back 5 times before it was fixed

Thirdfox

Perhaps you can use free online storage as a way of carrying you over until the drive gets fixed... I googled it and found you can get up to 25GB free storage.