1645 wrong configuration sent 14 months ago

In November 2009, on the phone with a Dell rep, I ordered a Studio XPS 1645 with a BluRay burner. I have a confirmation of that order.

I then wrote to amend the order to add Bluetooth. I got back an amended order adding the Bluetooth but, without my asking, the BluRay burner (429-14487) was downgraded to the BluRay read-only DVD/CD burner (429-14489).

The price of the new configuration was cheaper, which seemed odd given the added Blutooth item, but checking the (intended, 429-14487) configuration on the web that day showed the same price, within a few £s.

So Dell had reduced their prices in the intervening week; they do this all the time, so nothing odd there. But the new price I was quoted (and later charged) was the price with the Blu-Ray burner. With the read-only, it would have been £100 cheaper still.

The 1645 arrived, and (once the great 90w/130w PSU issue had been resolved) I've been using it ever since.

But until today, I never tried to burn a BluRay. I put in a Verbatim 2X BDRE, and tried to use the Dell-supplied Roxio Creator Premier BluRay software. No go. The drive spat the disc out as 'incompatible'.

Investigation showed that I had the drive that only reads BluRay; and indeed, all the paperwork from the amended order onward (delivery note, invoice, etc.) show this 429-14489.

However, while the original Dell configs are nice and unambiguous:-
429-14487 Internal Blu-Ray RW (Blu-Ray, DVD and CD read and WRITE) Optical Drive
429-14489 Internal Blu-Ray ROM (Blu-Ray read, DVD and CD read and Write) Optical Drive

mine is shown on the invoice as:-
429-14489 Optical Drive: Blu-Ray ROM (Blu-Ray, DVD and CD read and write) Slot Load Combo Drive

and as it doesn't have 'read' after Blu-Ray, it set no alarm bells ringing. Though perhaps the 'BD-ROM' should have; but as the description was what I expected, I didn't query either that or the part number

Anyway, all this was 14 months ago, but I do have 3 years Next Business Day onsite support.

I have all the supporting paperwork showing that that I paid the price of the Blu-Ray burner, not the read-only, and that Dell made the mistake in changing it.

What are the chances I can get them to come out and replace this drive with the correct one I ordered and paid for?

 

Call them up, and tell them your case.
If the techs aren't doing it, don't try to convince them, just ask to speak to the manager. Stand your ground, but don't get angry. Tell em that you want what you paid for.
Try it out and let us know what happens.

 

This is from there order support page.

Incorrect Item Received

The first thing you should do is check the Packing Slip and/or Order Confirmation document. Is the item you ordered listed correctly?

If the item you ordered is listed correctly on your Packing Slip and/or Order Confirmation document, but the item actually delivered is incorrect, please fill in the Web form by clicking here.

Damaged or Incorrect | Dell

I would talk to them but after 14 months i don,t think they will do much for you.

 

Thanks, Bikerboy

Problem is, the above isn't my issue. The item quoted on the Packing Slip and the Order Confirmation at the time of shipment is what's in the laptop.

The issue is that Dell had changed the Order Confirmation prior to that, without my knowledge or consent, in regard to the BluRay item.

It's my mistake that I didn't spot it at the time, but we are talking about two characters in a description, and one in a part number, in two pages of config where I had no reason to suppose that this particular item had changed.

But Dell changed it, and they still charged me for the BluRay burner, so I think it's pretty clear it's their mistake at the root of this.

And I'm not going to let it be my mistake that I didn't try to use the BluRay burning feature until yesterday; how many of us can honestly say that they try every single feature on a laptop in week 1?

But thanks for trying to help; it's appreciated

 

Thanks ans04. I've now talked to Dell, and I'm getting a call back on Monday, they say.

As Bikerboy feared, they initially doubted that they would do anything after 14 months; but when I said I could prove it was Dell's mistake, they promised to look into it further.

My main worry was that as the current Studio XPS is a sad emasculation of the beast I bought, with no i-anything processors any more, nor even a BluRay reader, let alone a writer, whether they could source me a BluRay writer.

And I was very clear as to what I wanted; this laptop, with the BluRay reader replaced by the BluRay writer I initially ordered.

But the tech assured me that if I'd had a BluRay writer, and it had failed, they would be able to send out an engineer to replace it.

And that's the basis I want them to proceed on, except of course that they'll be getting back a good BluRay reader.

This assumes, of course, that it's all in the actual drive, and there aren't other hardware changes too.

But even if there are, I want, as you say, what I paid for, and it seems as if getting this is feasible, as well as reasonable.

Good advice not to get angry (Rule 1 of complaining); hopefully, I won't need to, as I've heeded Rule 2 (know what result you seek) and this can all be sorted.

I'll post back when I know some more.

 

The story continues, and has a happy ending:-

Dell's second response to my assertion that I'd ordered it, paid for it, but not got it, and that this was down to them, was "Can you send us copies of that paperwork?"

Which I did.

After which their third response was "Oops, we goofed, we'll be sending a tech to swap in a burner".

And their fourth was a manager, higher up the food chain there, ringing to make a further apology, and check I was entirely happy with the proposed course of action.

The tech came today, just as promised - 50 minutes to strip down my 1645, swap the optical drive for the correct one, put it all back together, and run the Dell optical drive diagnostics to check it worked as it should.

I'm burning my first BluRay on it right now.

All kudos to Praveen and Duleep at Dell for making this right

 

Congrats!
Glad you got your happy ending without too much hassle from Dell's side.

 

COOL glad it worked out