Dell's "Next Business Day" warranty is an empty promise...

2500th post!

TL;DR: Dell promises to fix issues the next business day, but I've been waiting for a repair for two weeks, with no ETA for repair, and now the reseller is suing me.

Long version:
I wanted to share here the altogether horrible experience I've been having with Dell's NBD warranty, after being pretty much a Dell fanboy for the past 6 years.

My fanboy-ism with Dell started when I bought my Dell Latitude E6400, some 6 years ago. At the time, it was only sold with Dell's Next Business Day (NBD), and I wanted this laptop, so I bought it. The laptop had quite a few problems (I suspect it was damaged during transport, the cardboard box was quite clearly dented), and every time I identified a problem, Dell indeed went to my house or workplace and fixed it the very next day, sometimes requesting one extra day to accommodate my schedule. At the end, verifying that the multiple fixes were too much, they gave me a new model and extended the warranty one extra year. It was impeccable service which convinced me that I would only buy expensive electronics with such a warranty.

Recently, I decided to replace my aging E6400 (which is still kicking!) with something lighter. A natural choice was the XPS 13, so I plunged into a max-specs model: i7, QHD+ touchscreen, 8GB RAM, 512 GB SSD. And of course, a NBD warranty. Total cost was 2200€ and I was given 30 days to pay by the reseller (Dell does not sell this model directly in my country and I wanted my country's keyboard).

For the first week I simply loved the machine, it truly seemed to be a laptop with very few compromises. Fast, portable, great screen, sexy, and relatively future-proof. I only had time to use it briefly but every time I used it, I loved it.

Then the problems started. One night while simply browsing the web (not doing anything intensive at all), the computer froze, forcing me to a hard reset. Upon reboot, I got a message saying "no bootable device found", and none of the options (retry, boot menu, diagnostics) solved the problem (see attached photo). The diagnostics actually came up fully OK. Turning off the laptop, and turning it on some 10 minutes later, solved the issue.
(This has happened roughly 10 times total by now, in one month of ownership.)

The second time it happened, I knew something was wrong, but I didn't panic: this was exactly why I paid for the extra warranty! So I called Dell and asked them to come and fix the laptop.

The first clue that NBD is not what it used to be came when the rep on the phone said I would need an SSD replacement, and said I would have to pay 5€ for the OS reinstallation. I promptly refused and said this was Dell's faulty product, not my fault, so I would refuse to pay a single cent. He immediately apologized and "asked his supervisor" for permission to waive that fee. Fee waived, so I left my contacts and was told I would be contacted the same day to schedule a visit from a technician to replace the SSD. But that call never came. The Dell rep kept saying that Dell was out of stock for the SSD, so they could not fix it, nor were they able to estimate when they would be able to do it. I waited for a week, then started insisting more, only to be met with the same canned response: no repair and no ETA. I demanded to return the laptop (no refund, since I hadn't paid), but that was denied too, since the legal period for returns (14 days) had passed.

And now, one month after buying and two weeks after the issue was identified, here I am, with a laptop that crashes every now and then. I have a confirmation that I purchased Next Business Day support, which means that the number I call to hear that Dell won't fix the issue is different. But it gets worse! I am being SUED by the reseller, since I didn't pay him. He says he understands my problem but Dell refuses to accept the return, so his only option is to sue me to force me to pay!

So now I have two options:
- pay 2200€ for a laptop that is not in proper working condition, trusting that "at some point" Dell will fix it, at which point it will be outdated and significant time from the warranty will have passed
- refuse to pay, be sued, and waste tons of time and money in a legal battle (where probably I'll have both Dell and the reseller against me)

Not quite the ProSupport I remembered from 6 years ago. I recommended many users here at NBR to purchase Dell laptops with NBD warranties. I got PMs from 4 users thanking me personally for my recommendations because they had problems with their laptops and the warranty service was stellar.

Things have apparently changed so I will now start recommending against Dell and its NBD ProSupport option. Between NBR and Amazon I am fairly certain I will harm Dell more than the 2200€ I will pay (yes, I will pay -- I have no desire to be dragged into a legal battle about this, I have more important stuff to do in life).

@dell, if you're reading this, your rep Paulo Trascaianu is doing a poor job upholding your supposedly Next Business Day warranty despite multiple calls and emails. I also posted twice on your Dell Community with zero replies after two weeks. Your resellers (mine was FPinheiro) threaten to sue your buyers when they refuse to pay for faulty products which are not serviced on time. And finally, you (Dell) are selling faulty products and refusing to service them despite confirming that I have a Next Business Day warranty.

Thanks for reading. Any feedback, comments, etc are appreciated!
HK

 

Well, you did buy a laptop in a country where Dell doesn't sell direct. Is the reseller an authorized reseller by Dell? Or are they a grey market reseller, where they are distributing products in countries without official Dell support?



Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

They are an authorized reseller. At least, Dell acknowledged that the laptop has a NBD warranty, recognized the service tag, etc. And Dell's webpage for Portugal lists the XPS 13, although you cannot buy it from the website (you have a button which lists possible resellers, one of which is this one).