Anyone in the U.K had a home technician visit? Good or bad experience?

I'm asking as someone is going to be coming and replacing my keyboard (which I'm hoping is an easy job?)

The reason I am nervous, is that I had a Panasonic plasma that went faulty on me, and John Lewis sent out Martin Dawes - who in turn had sent out someone else, as I found out afterwards.

Upshot was that they treated my TV like garbage. They decided to take it away without even checking what was wrong with it. I look after my stuff, but they merely wrapped up my tv in cling film, which has debris stuck to it from rolling around in their van.

Then when they got outside - where it was pouring with rain - they just set it down on the pavement right where a puddle was!

Needless to say this has made me very nervous now where my electronics are concerned. I'm in Manchester, and if someone wants to tell me that a guy in suit turned up, put on white gloves, and whispered soothing songs to their laptop while he attempted a repair, I'll be very happy

 

Hi, I had dell tech come and fix a problem with my M17x R2. I live in London so doubt it will be the same guy though. He did a really good job and not one mark on the laptop. He had to change a fan on the gpu. Turns out a sticker had peeled off and got stuck. Im like you and keep my stuff in great condition. He was very careful and knew what he was doing. You would never know he opened it up.

 

Too funny man, I've had a couple of call-outs to my R3 and R4. I found the whale music and the way he got out a compass to orientate a little distracting but..

Actually, the guy knew his way round the laptops, mentioned differences, did put down a cloth although no gloves or wrist strap - both fixes (GPU and heatsink, and panel) very quick and job done. Luck of the draw I guess from other people I have seen.

A Dell executive recommended that I watch the whole process closely and take pics of the parts - keeps the guy on his toes


Good luck, let us know how it goes

Oh yeah, keyboard is not very easy IMO but I've seen it in teardown videos and there are things like tabs that can be broken by a ham fisted engineer.

 

Well, someone from Dell has just got back to me on the forums (where I inquired about the issue with my keyboard) and has told me that they only deal with U.S customers there - despite me following the forum links from the U.K site.

So they are now telling me that Dell can arrange someone to call , or that they will send me a keyboard and I can tackle it myself. I used to install and repair car stereos, sat navs etc, so I'm comfortable (and happier) doing it myself if I can.

One thing though - they point to the ftp page for the manuals and also a direct link for keyboard replacement. The FTP page hasn't worked since last Friday, and the page covering just the keyboard doesn't even have working links in the instructions. Not the best service there to be honest

 

If you can do it yourself I would do it yourself. The keyboard isn't too difficult to get to, it could be worse, its simple enough just a bit time consuming. The generic M17x R4 manual should tell you how to remove it. Youtube has quite a few teardown videos as well if you need to watch someone else doing it and just follow them.

 

For me all I did was call and let them diagnose and arrange for repair. I wanted a tech on those jobs since i wasn't sure about a fix but when a HD died on me I just said send me the part when they offered a call.

I found the @dellcares twitter a good way to follow up on any issues and they did direct my stuff to the UK internally.

Owners manual: ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...ps/alienware-m17x-r4_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

Section 25

 

That's the FTP link I've been trying since my laptop arrived but it just times out.

I'm confident I can do the keyboard, but it mentions in the guide to remove the base off the machine, but doesn't say why, has no diagrams, and the links for "removing the base" and "removing the keyboard trim" aren't dead links.....they just aren't there :/

 

Weird, I just opened it twice. It has everything you need to know and diagrams, If you want to PM me an email I'll zip it over to you.

Edit: emailed

 

hmmm weird, its just a PDF file frrom what I know. Yeah for removing the keyboard I think you will need to remove the base (literally 2 screws) and the multimedia trim (or whatever its called) the plastic bit that goes around the keyboard with the power buttton and volume controls. I think that is another 4-6 screws. That should let you get to the keyboard from that I've seen before, the keyboard is another 6 screws I think.

Taking the base off is super easier, you need a credit card/ plastic card to easilly remove the trim that goes around the keyboard. Yours clipped in/screwed down so it takes a bit of patience. Don't pull it back too much either I think there is a cable connecting the trim to the motherboard as well (nearer the buttons side).

 

Well, I'm hoping they do send me a keyboard so that I can replace it at my leisure. It all snowballed on the Dell forums when I asked if you could reseat individual keys, as my caps key is slightly wonky (but sturdy and doesn't feel loose)

Before I knew it - even after saying I was content with it for now as it works fine - they were asking for my service tag and saying they would arrange for it to be replaced.

Of course, they then said they couldn't because I'm in the U.K and they only deal with U.S customers. But of they will mail me a keyboard (and don't ask for the faulty one back?) then I can just sit on it and replace it once the caps key gets iffy (as it may well do once I start using it some more).

 

Should be fine, it's cheaper for them. I got a reply-paid sticker to return the old part - and they did chase it on the phone.

 

I've not had a warranty call out yet, but I've had 3 or 4 with my old xps m1730. All the engineers seemed really friendly and professional, they knew what they were doing. The last was about 12 months ago, lets hope it's not changed!

 

They ended up just sending me the keyboard so I could swap it myself. Though the guy I spoke to was initially reluctant and left me waiting a while so he could check if I was allowed to,

I did my best to persuade him I was capable of doing it. And even then he really wanted to send a tech guy. Anyway, it arrived today (next day delivery was a nice surprise ). Decided to knuckle down and swap it once it was in my hands, and it was all done in less than 15 mins

 

Nice one! I've had a few issues with my keyboard, a row of letters stopped working for a while, then when they started working again pressing any of them caused the letter pressed to appear twice.
Looks like a hardware issue so might be giving them a call!