Dell - dont give a .... What can I do?

4 months ago i made a first call to Dell about my Alienware 17 r3 with GTX 580m.. I know i know.. its pre-dinosaur era already, but it is still on guarantee..

I had a problem with GPU overheating and throttling down to 5% at 77C.. known problem.

4 repairs later and 2 weeks in repair depo - issue of course remains, but Dell now claims that "this card is working as intended, we cannot do anything", whereas before they were saying its technical problem.

They offer me a deal now, 300eur and 15% off next purchase (on the account of "lengthy troubleshooting") - but I just wonder if they should not fix this issue under warranty.

Please advise - is this 77C throttling - very low temperature for GPUs by the way - really "working as intended" behaviour? For a rig that cost me 3000 eur 3 years ago?

Are they joking with me or are they right?


Please help, I am sooo frustrated.

 

Well... working as intended is just ridiculous. It is sold as a gaming laptop and if it can't game then they need to fix it - or offer a replacement. This R4 I have now was a result of the 580m issue on my R3.

Repairs and warranty are very country specific. Even though it's supposed to be an international warranty different countries interpret it differently. You paid for full warranty, it has a known issue, hit them with this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...x-580m-78c-throttling-see-post-191-later.html for a real saga and that dell were also in the loop!

Read my sig advice. You need to ask for escalation to a supervisor as you do not agree with his diagnosis or offer of solution (stay polite but firm). Then you ask for consideration of a full replacement. If agreed they look for something suitable in the local outlet (unlikely in a small country) and then build you a new one to a similar or better spec. Of course they will try to get out of this and in some countries you simply cannot get ANY decent help.

Do you get reasonable customer service in general there? This is another thing they base the service on - 'conforms to local cultural norms'. The internet and forums like this have now revealed just how much it varies.

Good luck and post results - maybe I need to add Austria to my sh** list of countries for dell support!

 

dear Micky

Don't get me wrong - Dell support here is very good - they are polite, friendly, cooperative. Had 3 on-site repairs and it was very good and professional experience. Had laptop in service depot as well - pick up and return was flawless and it took 2 weeks - problem not fixed though.. Small problem is that in depo they broke my keyboard ( "P" doesnt work now).

My problem is with escalation management - they don't treat me seriously, they increased the offer to 600eur and 15% discount - but that will not give me a new laptop of comparable configuration.. Also, they ignored my message about broken keyboard..

I reached the highest level of escalation now, I think... So it seems i don't have any options.. But to never buy another Dell product in my life...

Or can I still super-escalate it somewhere?

 

I would ask for a written statement as to why they cannot fix the machine or supply a replacement. Say you need this information to pursue legal recourse to hold them to the warranty you paid for. Bet you don't get it but get the name and job title of the person deciding to screw you over - sorry, after that it has to be goodbye dell .

It seems that when a problem gets to this point they are just not taking responsibility. Normal in most countries it that after 3 on-sites you can ask for 'consideration' of a replacement. They do not have to do this and could just keep on trying to fix it. You can only try to force a fix to get a working machine (as per warranty), however they decide to do it!

You might like to make a public request to dell on twitter #dellcares, if corporate can be convinced to intervene you might get a quick resolution?

 

@OP, have you tried asking for a replacement system? If the replacements had a small amount of time between them then you could ask for that. I do not see why they say it's working as intended. What parts have they replaced?