need help with broken e4300 situation - complete care

hello folks!

I need some advice about a broken e4300 I got recently. It has complete care but it's missing some pieces that got lost when the laptop broke. Before I send it in for repair I need to replace these items but I am not sure how to go about it. Should I get the parts I will be using or should I parts as cheap as possible?

I am missing
-keyboard
-ram
-hdd
-battery
-battery charger

the laptop came with regular keyboard, 1gb of ram and a 80gb HDD.


what should I do? can i buy one stick 2gb of ram and a 160gb before send it to dell, but I want to make sure that if they replace the whole laptop they put back the new HDD and ram.
or should I buy some cheap HDD and ram and hope they give me a new HDD?

thanks

 

I think you should buy the KB and RAM.

You should be able to keep the HDD anyway, just because there might be sensitive data?

Last time I sent a machine in, my rep told me specifically NOT to include the battery or charger, even though the instructions that came with the box did. So I didn't and made a note.

I guess your mileage may vary, though.

 

will I still have to buy ALL the components?

I have a new e6400, can I include that for the keyboard?

 

Like I said, I think you should for sure include the keyboard and memory, but you can try to get away with not including the other parts... I mean if they tell you it's not complete, and send it back, then you can include the rest of the parts and try again.

I don't know if the keyboard from an E6400 works in the E4300.

EDIT: It's red, isn't it?

 

It won't fit.

John

 

AHAH! What the....?! how do you know? this is so funny!

yeah I understand that i don't have to include everything but i was just wondering if I might get lucky and they would replace some of the parts without me buying them.
I wish the previous owner would include the broken HDD, that would save me a few bucks.

 

I don't know. I would be nervous about this transaction if I were you.

If they really do possess complete care coverage on the laptop, they would stand to make a heck of a lot more money if they had it fixed and then sold it.

It baffles me why they would be unloading a laptop cheap that has numerous problems/defects but still has valid, complete care coverage.

It seems like you may have already completed the transaction, but, hopefully you are able to get it repaired without too many issues.

 

this is a very good point. I thought about that for a while before bidding. It sounds a bit odd that someone with complete care wouldn't get their computer fixed. But there also could be many reasons, maybe they are a wholesaler. I have not paid yet and tomorrow I will be on the phone with dell service tag team, I am not going to pay until I see clearly what's going on.
I just don't understand why all these parts are missing. That's what puzzles me the most. I already asked them to include the non working HDD and provide the original owner info as a start, but maybe they don't have it.

 

If I were Dell, I would expect to receive a complete damaged notebook for repair.

John

 

I've gotten a ton of machines like this on eBay over the past couple of years... I think a lot of times the machines have been insured, and the companies can't collect on CompleteCare if they collect on the insurance (I think I heard that from some seller).

Other times, the company just doesn't know or doesn't care... just like how my university scraps a ton of good equipment, just because it's at the end of its working life cycle. The machine was probably raided for some parts, and just discarded.

The companies that handle the scrap for the client companies are the ones that ultimately get these things on eBay.

... or something like that.