How do you guys always get free replacements?

I see this on NBR all the time. People selling brand new alienware laptops that are sent as replacements for older laptops? I also see a lot of people getting straight parts from Dell?

I'm not familiar with Dell's service so are they just really generous because of some replacement plan or is the price matching what you paid for the original system?

Thanks.

 

As for the straight parts, I can answer that:

I used to own a Dell laptop back in the day. Keyboard and Hard Drive failed ...they shipped me both parts within 2-3 days. This was about 4 years ago. It was a 10 minute phone call too ...very easy to work with and you just return the broken parts at their expense.

Hands down the best warranty service (and easiest) I've ever experienced. I personally believe that all companies should mimic Dell/AW's warranty service, because it's lightyears ahead of Asus/MSI (which I both used).

 

Its the best customer service of Dell.
If they cannot fix your pc in numbers of dispatch, they offer you a replacement.

 

Okay that kinda leads me to the next question, because how come I see them selling those replacement systems? I see lots of sales threads about brand new Alienwares still boxed.

if you bought a $1000 XPS17 let's say from a few years ago would they always just replace it with an alienware if you bought a replacement plan?

 

There is no replacement plan or anything.
Its just the customer service.
Its also not sure that you will get Alienware in first place.
It depends on part availability and your current configurations.
Since most people who had a replacement previously had M17X R1,R2 or XPS M1730s with dual GPUS.

 

If the Alienware is around 1000$, yes.

From what I've gathered, it'll act like a Dell/AW credit and you can work with the rep in deciding what is a suitable replacement.

As for people selling their replacements: It's because they use the money from the replacement + some out of their pocket in order to buy a newer revision of the AW (or a different laptop that has the latest tech if an AW has not refreshed yet)

I don't really see people selling replacements from their week/month old purchase unless for example, they discovered the M11X screen was too small and now they have an opportunity to buy something bigger once they sell the replacement (+pocket money to cover the difference).

 

I've had two replacements so far, both times because Dell couldn't fix the problem by repairing the machine or replacing the appropriate parts. It's a result of their customer service.

 

This is how the replacement system works with Dell.

If you have warranty and something goes wrong, they will replace the hardware for you free of charge. If its not available, you will get the next best thing but NOT anything downgraded. Basically, like for like worst case scenario.

If your system is beyond repair or beyond economically doing so, Dell have the option to OFFER you a like for like replacement. It is at their discretion, you cant ask for one (or you can but you may not get it )

If your system is older and is no longer in production, Dell are bound by terms of warranty to offer you the closest thing to it in the form of a new system. And example of this would be if you HAD an M17x R1 with a QX9300cpu, (and if Dell didnt have them), they would (or should do because of the "like for like" rule of thumb) offer you a replacement of an M17x R2 with a I7 940xm cpu.......this is because its extreme cpu for extreme cpu.

Same goes for all components - if your system had crossfire or sli gpu's - your replacement should have the same. This works the same with all components, blu ray = blu ray etc etc......The person undergoing the replacement may need to work with Dell when configuring a replacement as gpu's etc change regularly so may not be available. If you get a good rep, chances are you will get an upgrade on those kinda things.....you may also find that Dell (in certain circumstances) may offer you a "bump" on some components. When I had mine replaced, it was only a month or so old and for the hassle etc and because I worked WITH the rep, they upgraded my cpu to an 840qm, also upgraded my warranty to two yr and upgraded the ram from 4gb to 6gb. I did have one heck of a stretch of bad luck with my systems though, all in all, I had about £1000gbp of upgrades applied......it may not be the same in every scenario - I was fortunate (or unfortuate to have gone through it in the first instance) you could say!!!

D'ya get me?

Regarding people selling those systems AFTER they have taken ownerships is simply down to them. If they want to, they can. They may have plans to buy a different system with the proceeds from the sale of the replacement.

 

I'd echo steviejones remarks with a couple of tweaks from my own experience. While I ultimately received a solid R2 replacement system for my R1, I went through one year of non-stop attempts (3 Mobo's, two sets of GPUs, Two screens) to fix my system.

And it was sill broken when I insisted (They did NOT offer) that they needed to do something because it was beyond the scope of anything reasonable. After exhausting all other possibilities, they finally did the right thing (my favorite quote from Winston Churchill about America).

The R2 exceeded my R1 specs: i7 740 vs T9600, Dual 285's vs, dual 260's because that's what they had available. To Dell's credit, it was a brand new system (it even came with a new hat & huge alien head mouse pad).

Again, I had to insist they do something & had to remind them I've bought several servers, desktops & laptops from them & they were losing their credibility (and future sales) based on one bad system. And frankly, I would have preferred that the R1 had performed flawlessly and a replacement would not have been necessary.

 

My experience was this:

I had an totally tricked out M17x-R1... like $6K original price. One day about 6-7 months into ownership it just died. Like literally could not do anything with it (bricked). So I called dell and I had the premium service so a tech came to my home with every part you could imagine. He tore the R1 apart and replaced the MB, Video cards, AC adapter, even SDD. Couldn't get it functioning even after all those replacements. So he called it in to get a system replacement. He told me that he could come back with more parts again, but it would waste both his time and my time.

The only downside to the sys replace was the fact I had to wait a whole production queue to get it. Like it took about 4-5 weeks just like my opriginal order since I had everything customized. Good news was that they upgraded everything to top level spec and I ended with with an i7 R2 versus the Dual-core R1.

 

I had a studio 17, which was a replacement for a 17 in inspiron that I dropped. There was a bios update to fix a DPC latency issue, but the update simply would not work, it crashed every single time. They sent a tech to replace my motherboard, in the process the tech messed up the keyboard to where only like 8 buttons worked or something. I had to purchase an external USB keyboard just to use my computer

I already had to wait a few weeks for the tech, because my schedule was so busy, and there was basically no way for me to have another tech come for another few weeks, and i couldn't send it to the depot because i needed it for work. I talked with a CSR for a long time on their customer service chat, trying to convince them to just send me a replacement, since i had complete care and couldn't schedule a tech anytime soon or send it off. I finally spoke with a supervisor and he put in a replacement for me.

I didn't know anything about the replacement, I assumed i'd just get another studio 17. I had my fingers crossed that i'd get a newer one with an i7 and ATI 4670 (up from a c2d and 3650). Imagine my surprise when an M17x with 4870's showed up on my doorstep! I pretty much had a seizure because i simply couldn't believe it. I guess the supervisor felt really bad for me or something. It was also towards the end of my 3 year warranty.

My original laptop had a c2d 2.2ghz and a 8600 GT DDR2. Complete care was the best money I ever spent.

 

I live next to Michael Dell, so he just gets one out of the garage anytime mine has a problem - he just says "ah keep it, I got too many as it is"