Dell Warranty Woes

Bluefrog

Hi all,

I have a dell inspiron 8600 for about a year and a half. When I purchased it I also bought their 3 year next business day cover. On Monday one of the keys on my keyboard popped off while I was typing and could not be reattached - the little plastic bracket had failed. When I contacted Dell asking for a replacement (with the usual problems detailed elsewhere on this board) I was told that the failure of the keyboard was 'natural wear and tear' and that it was not covered by the warranty. I was also given the pretty shocking price of £129.25 (yes folks, that's Sterling) to replace it - a job I would be forced to undertake myself.

It seems my only option now is to take Dell to the small claims court to get them to abide by the warranty. I was wondering if anyone else here had similiar experiences with their keyboards or with other components that Dell excludes from the warranty.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Blue Frog

Fusion251

The Dell 3 year NBD warranty does not cover accidental damage unfortunatly.
If you break your keyboard or it seems that you have tech won't really listen to you. I reckon you should call again to be honest, if you're not getting anywhere ask for a manager.

I used to work for Dell, but in terms of the warranty it's just how you word your call tbh. If you call up and say "The key has fallen off my keyboard" they'll say that's accidental but!, If you call and say "my keyboard isn't working" go through some trouble shooting and at the end of it say nope still not working, you should get an engineer out to you..


Cheers
Fusion

Bluefrog

Actually, I did speak to a manager. Very understanding but not so accommodating. Then spoke to the legal department who were brusque to say the least so now I am committed to taking the legal route but thanks for your suggestion - perhaps it will help others.

I fail to see how using the keyboard for it's intended purpose (surely typing) can be interpreted as me inflicting any kind of damage - accidental or otherwise. :eek: If I dropped my laptop, then fair enough. If I spilt my delicous hot creamy latte over it fine, but typing????????

Bluefrog

After 5 days delay, Dell have finally sent me out their reason in writing for not replacing my keyboad. They are citing 'user damage', a conclusion they claim to have come to after thoroughly 'investigating' the situation. I don't feel their investigation was in any way thorough as they haven't bothered looking at the keyboard, in fact I'm not sure what exactly their investigation involved - perhaps I can get them to clarify that.

In any case, I'm just about to fill out my Small Claims Court application form.

I'm a web developer so obviously can't work with a disfunctional keyboard in the meantime so having checked with Dell's spare parts supplier (Upgrade Optios in the UK who wanted me to pay £129.25) I have discovered that a company called Laptopbits offers better value - they have sold me a keyboard for £90.

You live and learn. :rolleyes:

formatman

the 8600 chassis is unlikely to still in stock at the onsite depots or at dell

is your motherboard or screen was to fail ! they would have to replace with the next model up which has to come with a new keyboard

Be very careful as everything you say will be logged but this would be the only way to

start to invent lots of problems and their tech support managers will soon give in to keep their closure rate statisics in line