Issues with Dell Outlet (hopefully resolved...)

Pulled this out of another thread, since I know many people order through the Outlet...

I've ordered at least a half dozen machines from the Outlet through the years and never had any problems, always touting the cost/benefit of that vs. buying new. But, for the first time, the Outlet let me down! They might (hopefully) have redeemed themselves, but we'll have to see how things play out in the end. I'll post updates to this thread.

Long story short, I ordered one e6320 and one e6420 off the Outlet last week using the recent 25% discount code. When they arrived, right out of the box, they both had several problems.

The screen on the e6320 had a line of dead pixels an inch in from the right side. The bottom cover on the chassis seemed to be warped a bit and flexed with a hollow sound whenever you picked it up. Went through tech support, ran some diagnostics, was told a depot repair (didn't have on-site) would replace the screen at a 7-10 business day timeline.

The e6420 seemed to have some major driver issues. The trackpoint wasn't detected by the mouse driver. The wireless NIC wouldn't connect to our network (same NIC, btw, as the e6320 which connected fine). Some other odd behavior which I don't recall specifically given I was increasingly frustrated by this point. Again some time with tech support who suggested I swap the hard drives or reload the OS!

Needless to say, I wasn't up for going through a whole repair/support process for two machines, right out of the box. Called customer service and setup the returns. Since, I did like the overall machines themselves and the outlet pricing matched the budget we had (and also based on past experience) I was willing to give them another shot.

I called the Outlet instead of doing the new order online. Explained the situation and they agreed to apply the 25% discount, even though the code had expired. The rep even took it upon herself to go through the inventory to find similarly spec'd machines. Called me back in 30 minutes and we were good to go. They arrive next week and keeping fingers crossed the cycle doesn't go around again.