*XPS M1730 Problems/Dell Replacement Issues*

Hi heres an update .
My laptop was returned to dell on 10/11 and the refund is still not in my account. I was told it was paid on the 16/11 So i have contacted my bank and now will let them deal with it .I asked dell for the details of the transaction 3 times and they are unwilling to provide me with them .
They cant get anything right and i have a suspision they are downright lieing to me regards my refund . Saying my cards failed on 2nd septemember i have no confidence with anything they tell me

 

The higher resolution expert called me and said he would talk to the team in charge of my case and call back. A few minutes later I got the call back and he said he would transfer me to a rep from that team to talk about the replacement.

Then I got the same deal about an m16 or a refurb m17x. Did the "expert" actually tell them anything? I'm now awaiting a call from both the teams manager and another resolution expert, since, when presented with 2 possible people to call me back I told him I would like to talk to both.

At least I have more phone numbers written down, I guess.

From the manager:
Tech support isn't allowed to give out new systems and anyone who told me they could give me a new m16 was in contact with someone from a different department. I told her to add to my notes the statement that m16s are not acceptable and I would not like to be offered them in any future contact.

'Cause by this point I have a lot of people scheduled to contact me.

 

Update: Dell was supposed to return my original system to me but somehow they shipped it to the east coast when I live in Cali. Eventually it got back to them but they received it as a return from me thinking that I had received my replacement which I have not. I just received my secondary hard drive that I had in the system on friday from dell. After 3 days of calling and calling and talking to about 12 different reps, some helpful most not, today I finally got an order number.
Apparently it will be a M17x but with the T9600 processor, 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB and the one 260m card. Everything else is the normal like the W7 ultimate and office basic.

Should I continue to fight for the extreme processor and better ram and cards?

 

Dazr,
You are now entitled to actual cash. I would wait for the funds a bit longer, but if you get nothing, you have a full 'open and shut case for the win' in your hands.

And Meeowth, don't get frustrated, because you will find more SXPS 16 offers. They don't take notes from customers. Hell, they don't take notes from each other, and I have proof.

 

Absolutely. Extreme processor for extreme processor, and SLi cards for SLi cards. Don't let them stiff you on this. Your M1730 spec is really close to the one I had, in terms of processor and GPU. They gave me the Extreme QX9300 straight away with no qualms, but I've yet to get my GPU issues straightened out.

 

Just got off the phone with my case owner. He sent the request to the dispatch team at the depot who apparently are the ones who build the system. He said it shouldn't be a problem since the original system had the extreme processor and sli video cards. I wish there was a way to talk to the "builders directly..

Those of you that have been able to get extra upgrades, who werrw ya talking to?

 

Let this ride for a while. When your system is actually in production, you should get an order/customer number, and you can check your order online, and see what your build looks like. If there's anything in that order listing that you don't like or isn't what it should be, that's when you'll have to contact your case owner and tell him said parts aren't good enough and/or don't match or equal your M1730 configuration properly.

 

Imagine, for a moment, that you have purchased a blu-ray player from Sony. Now imagine the unlikely scenario in which Sony aquires Panasonic and then discontinues it's blu-ray players in favour of a Panasonic branded line of blu-ray players.

Now your blu-ray player breaks in a manner that cannot be fixed but is covered under warranty. You contact Sony and they tell you they can only replace it with their best DVD player. You remind the person on the line that they have an almost exact copy of your blu-ray player in their new Panasonic line, which, after all, is what replaced all the Sony branded blu-ray players.
They don't budge.
------

That's pretty much what Dell is doing here to an alarming number of m1730 owners.

 

Dell's treatement of their customers is reprehensible.

I wasted another two and a half hours today.

Finally I had someone who promised to escalate the matter to their
executive escalation team. I hold absolutely no faith in dell to resolve this matter.

Resolutions are apparently a crap shoot. You either get someone who cares for you as a customer or someone who could care less.

Both people I talked to today over the phone as well as a manager in chat refused to give me their contact information after their promises of help in resolving the matter.

As I have mentioned previously it seems like dell is in this to get people to capitulate since most people can't invest the time to get their machines fixed properly. I'm nearing 20 hours over 7 days in time I've wasted on dell.

I dread to imagine how much time I have wasted with dell since June 08. All because I bought an xps m1730.

If I had the money I'd take the infernal machine and launch it off of a trebuchet and post the video.

Siege of dell headquaters began today with the cermonial launching of an xps m1730 in flames. Look at my smoking grey laptop! Oh those silly gamers!

 

Essentially this. As Kade mentioned, there's only one consistency: the complete lack of consistency.

In other news I've sent my old system back now, though I had to package it up myself (used the M17x box). Unfortunately I had trouble finding a working bootable HDD eraser, so I had to settle for some software that only did a single pass of 00s. Still, there's nothing top secret on there and I doubt the drive would be forensically analysed

 

ok guys i'm stuck.

I've been dealing with the same person at Dell Customer relations for a while now. It seems to be a 19 year old kid who won't even answer my questions anymore, just says 'i've already answered that' top anything I say, even if I just ask for a call back.

He is refusing to pass me on to anyone else, and anyone else i speak to just passes me back to him, and i've tried alot!

He refuses to acknowledge section 10:10 of the Customer Master Services Agreement;

10.10 Dispute Resolution. The parties will attempt to resolve any claim, or dispute or controversy (whether in contract, tort or
otherwise) against Dell, its agents, employees, successors, assigns, or Dell Affiliates (collectively for purposes of this paragraph, “Dell”
arising out of or relating to this Agreement, Dell’s advertising, or any related purchase (a “Dispute” through face to face negotiation with
persons fully authorised to resolve the Dispute or through mediation utilising a mutually agreeable mediator, rather than through litigation.​

and so will not allow me to persue that route.

In fact I have also raised a complaint about him, which ended up with him calling me to acknowledge the complaint and say he will do nothing about it.

any ideas what to do next?

 

My replacement shipped and should arrive tomorrow.

Initiated call 16 Nov.
M17x Replacement approved 20 Nov.
Order # and specs 01 Dec.
Shipped 08 Dec.

Took several chats and calls to get an owner around the 30th Nov. Once that happed things seemed to move good. He was even able to change the CPU in less than 24hrs.

Clearly getting lucky with someone who takes ownership and sees it thru is key.

 

OK First Things First.

I take it your in England, because of the little Union Jack, if your not what I'm going to outline is a waste of time.

1) Write a letter of complaint to Dells UK Headquarters, the address is easy to find on the internet. SEND IT RECORDED DELIVERY

In the Letter, state your grievence's, infact if able list every call and everything thats been discussed. Also add any case ref numbers you've gotten.

Now the Important bit, you need to outline A) What you want from this (new system, refund, flowers, whatever) B) You must give them a realistic amount of time to resolve the issue, I've been told by Trading Standards 14-30 working days is acceptable.

2) Document Everything, ring Consumer Direct (search on google for thier number, it's a free service by the government) and ask for advice, they should give you similar advice as I have given you, but importantly they keep a record of your call and will, if you do not get satisfaction, pass the details onto your local Trading Standards and they will pursue Dell.

3) If your not happy dealing with the idiot you seem to have got, add this to the letter and state you do not want to deal with him due to his attitude.

4) Document EVERYTHING to do with Dell, and I do mean everything, during my time of trouble with Dell I ended up with 15 A4 pages of handwritten notes from the various completely useless phone calls I had with Dell Reps.

5) DO NOT COMMUNICATE WITH DELL VIA EMAILS, this is a surefire way to utter frustration with people not emailing/calling you back, DO NOT ACCEPT CALLBACKS, there is no need for them to do it, just advise that your willing to wait on the phone till the person is free (but if this is a weekend, I'd just ring back on Monday, as no one who can do anything at Dell works on a Weekend)

6) Sit back and be prepared for abit of a wait.


I basically did this, and on Thurday my Aurora ALX Desktop system with 21" Monitor will be arriving.

To say I kicked off at Dell is an understatement, I was polite at all times, but I would not accept any of the rubbish they kept trying to feed me, they constantly lied, in the end the fact I was recording my conversations, and producing a transcript, which I sent them with my letter of complaint, got my issues sorted in the end.

The morale of this story is BE PERSISTANT!

 

i was in the same boat, i tried everything!!! i was unable to get anything done and he was my only point of contact and no one else would ever help me. i finally had to give up and accept a downgrade 16... i don't know what else i could have possibly done. the only other option is hiring a lawyer i think? i almost did that but 4 months without a computer just wore me out...

 

Thanks Vorpal, Yeah Up north in Yorkshire is my place.

Thats great advice. I'll get to drafting up a letter straight away.

Would trading standards be interested? I've been offered a refund from dell for the amount paid (£1200) though they are a bit cagey on the refund of the warranty.
Thing is though I want a replacement, i've been with Dell for 10 years, and even if it overheats and shuts down, the M1710 is still a damn nice laptop and to be honest I quite like Dells, i'd take an M1730, however the only graphics cards they have at the moment are the dual 256's which are worse than my current one. (7950 GTX), which only leaves the M17x as a suitable replacement.

So i thought because Dell are offering the refund, that trading standards might not be interested?

 

I'll be honest with you m8, if I was Dell I wouldn't be replacing £1200 of laptop with £2500-£3000 of laptop, from a legal PoV if you've been offered a full refund, thats all Dell have to do, under UK consumer law they have to offer a refund, less usage, or replace like for like or better.

My m1730 cost me £2500 so thats why I ended up with an Alienware

 

Vorpal, I get what you mean, however the replacement one that would be equivalent would be the very base model, which is only £1600 worth of kit.
If I could get hold of an M1730 from them with a graphics card a bit better than 256SLI then I would, its not really the alienware i'm after, it's just a laptop that works.

They did offer me the M1730 with an upped CPU, however with the 256SLI graphics, which they themselves advised was much worse than the graphics in my m1710, however have been debating this with myself as to whether I should just go for that.

 

I would take the refund. You can find an M1730 for less than 1200£ on ebay with 256bit SLI graphics (or just put the money towards an alienware M15x or something since you dont need SLI).

M1730 is losing value fast.. I would take the cash.

 

in my case ala non payment of refund i`ve sent my stuff off to the bank first and will see from there.

 

So you got an m17x without having to send in the m1730 first?

 

Vorpalchicken has nailed it on the head. You are going to have most luck getting through to someone in an actual office here in UK.

As NickBarbs said, you'd be wise to take the refund. You've got a good chance at getting a mildly used M1730 with 8800s for that price with warranty. I got a great deal myself. Better yet, you could go for a more stable reliable laptop by adding a few extra hundred. Toshiba X505 or the Alienware M15x.

Meeowth,
He wouldn't be the first one. I got my replacement laptop before sending the old one back, ditto for a lot of other M17x owners.

 

Right on, My invoice states I have 10 days to return the M1730 after I receive the M17x.

 

Yeup, though they tried to get me to send the M1730 back first. I told them I needed to copy stuff off it, and they agreed to pick it up after the M17X arrived.

 

Yep, exactly. And for what it's worth, I still haven't sent back my M1730 yet. And it's a good thing too, because my M17x shut itself off after the tech installed that faulty GPU. I guess I could take it out myself, but I'm not sure if I want to do anything to it after that happened...I'll just let the tech take care of it. I would've sent the M1730 back by now, but it's finals week at school for me and I absolutely can't be without a working computer for another week, period.

 

Another failed attemp at trying to get dell to give me the extreme processor. Yesterday my case owner said they sent the request to replace the video card and processor for the 260m sli and extreme processor. I call today and they say that they will not give me a extreme processor beacause the t9800 is better than the original extrme processor I had. The tech said it had been escalated to higher but that the same info was given to him from them. Im going to keep fighting with them hopefully they budge sometime. 38+ days without a laptop although I do have an order number in production. Still cant believe how much you have to nagg and beg to get what is rightfully yours.

 

Get technical and remind (tell) them that the t9800 does not have an unlocked multiplier, which is what defines an extreme processor, not it's HZ.

The dell supplied bios totally let it go in excess of 3 GHZ, which is provably higher than the t9800.

 

Agreed - this is your argument.

 

Thats great ammunition your provideding meeowth. Im currently on hold and am goin to try with that info. Is there anything else I can throw at them technically about the processor and video cards?

 

I've now been told that the people who can get me a new (non-refurb) system replacement are working out my specs, and I am to use the box it comes in to send the 1730 back, so no messy sending in my current laptop to deal with

The me of one week ago would be elated at this point. The me of one week later cynically fears it will become a m16 at the last moment.

 

About the graphics card: They may tell you that the 260 has twice the memory and therefore twice the power. This is not true, the 8800 has, for instance, 96 cuda cores while the 260 has 112 cores. 2 8800s in sli therefore have 192 cuda cores total, which is almost double a single 260.

These numbers continue across most of the specs of the 8800s and the 260, Clock speeds etc.

 

Well on that note meeowth, the argument then becomes (should be from the start) - SLI for SLI. So, keeping with that, the 260 SLI is a fair config item when replacing the 8800M GTX SLI.

Expecting the 280M GTX SLI is unreasonable as they can easily justify the 260 as 'equal to'.

Just wanted to throw that out there as there have been several expecting the 280M option.

 

Yeah, unless the cards where made many years apart, SLI for SLI should be the norm, no argument.

 

That was the reason I gave to dell tech support that I had SLi and I should be getting SLi I didn't get any argument about that.

 

It's strange enough that some of us have to justify a laptop capable of SLI, let alone such obvius things as SLI cards and extreme processors.

 

Well, when my M1710 was replaced with the M1730 I had to break out actual hardware data to support the fact that the 8700M GT was not comparable to the 7950 GTX. But, that is another story for another thread... lol

 

me too, that was a fight

 

So absolutely no movement at all since the supposed escalation to the executive escalation team. No calls, no contact.

But wait! I recieved a dell satsification survey!

I feel like Dr. Evil with a new toy.

A dell satsification survey with a frickin' laser beam!

---------------

Even if dell reps do not give you their names or ID's it's best to just document the time/date/length of contacts. That's what I've resorted to doing since they all refuse to provide me with any information.

If they ever give you another number or extension write that down as well so you can document your attempts.

If you can add up your total hours or keep a running total over a period of time it helps.

It won't look good when you can claim I spent X hours trying to resolve this matter.

In no small part this and a well written letter to dell executive emails is what finally got me my first xps m1730 replaced. Of course this was after 9 months of complete BS and futile replacement parts with dell.

Although Batboy is an alien he is a source of wisdom.
-------------------

Does anyone have those links that compared mobile processors and graphics cards?

I remember seeing them in one of the xps m1730 forums but I can't find them.

 

LOL - Nawwww... I'm the guy who is saying there WAS a strange 'craft' over Mexico City that day. - LOL

Anyway, blood - check out notebookcheck.net and also Nvidia's own site. You can turn up all the relevant ammo you need for comparisons between those two sites.

For CPU comparison, use:
http://ark.intel.com/Default.aspx

(there is even a handy 'compare' feature)

 

GPUs: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

It organizes them from best to worst by default.

Type "gtx" into the restrictions for a relativly small list that proves the 8800m GTX SLI is better then every non SLI setup exept for the 280 GTX, though it still has more cores then a 280, so I could argue against a single 280 replacement.

 

Yes we would all like the 280m sli but yea just too much to expect from dell.

I went to both sites but on the cpu comparison site is didnt show anything about the t9800 not having unlocked multipliers and on the video cards site it didnt show anything about the cuda cores. Im not doubting you at all I just want to have my facts right you know. It sounds like dell is more reluctant about the processor because they dont give me as much hssle as they do witht the processor. So the more info on the comparisons of the qx9300 vs. x9000 the better.

I love forums! Thanks guys!

 

Hey everyone, I've been reading all of these stories just hoping this doesn't happen to me. My xps1730 just started acting up a week ago, knowing a little about computers I did some of the basic diagnostic tests to find the issue. When that didn't work I turned my attention to Dell, who seemed very helpful. He did all the tests that he could think of and when none of them worked he immediately offered to replace my xps 1730 with a new Alienware m17x. I was happy and skeptical at the same time, making sure to not get scammed out. He insured me that it would be the same or better parts, so I accepted the deal. He gave me an order number and said that I should have it in 3 weeks. I said alright then he had me talk to the manager for a minute making sure that I was happy with the solution. I waited 2 days with no email or call about the status, so I decided to chat them up once again to see if I can get an update. The representative that I talked to then said that there is a 10-15 exchange process or something so I was like alright. I really wanted an email confirmation on the laptop so I asked for an email update asap. They said sure, you can get one in 3 days. So I said fine, but I wanted to see if anyone else had the same issues so that I can kinda see what I'm getting into. That led me here, I'm just hoping that this goes through smoothly because by February I'll be overseas D:! I'll update whenever I get some news.

 

Since I received no contact despite continued promises I got into a dell chat and asked for an update.

They wanted me to wait another 48 hours in addition to the two days that have already passed since the supposed esclation.

I politely reminded the technician that I had a NBD warranty not a wait two month warranty.

Supposedly I will receive a call within two hours.

If they fail to call I can now say

"You failed me for the last time, Dell"

Ashame I cannot remotely choke them with jedi mind powers. I'll have to work on that.

Batboy could you pull an independence day and just wipe their corporate headquarters for me?

Even if I learn jedi mind powers it'd take a lot of time to choke them one at a time.

 

Welcome to the club. Yea they keep telling me the same 10-15 day processing period they have, accordng to the customer service agreement (or something), to get me a order number or to do anyhting really. Thats been their answer for many things. Its been now 39+ without a laptop. I have resorted to calling them as many time as I have to a day untill I get someone who tells me something even if its not what I'd like to hear. Hearing something is better than nothing and last time I got an ok tech with an okay somewhat helpfull attitude. Although it is not advised to try to talk to different techs because that can cause issues with one trying to do one thing and another tech trying to do another tech for the same issue.

Hope you have better luck than most of us .

Update, Supposedly I'm to receive a call today for an update on the request they supposedly sent to change out the video cards and maybe processor. I'm trying hard not to call them first. As of this moment my order details still show 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M and Intel Core2 Duo T9800 2.93GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB).

 

The number of cores the cards have is listed in the combined "pixel shaders" and "Vertex shaders" columns. Thats a throwback to a time when GPUs used 2 specialized shaders to do there work instead of the single set of multiperpose ones used today. That's why modern cards can do physx, some of the cores are being retasked.
CUDA is just what nvidia calls the instruction set the cores use.

Actively looking for good ammunition on the cpu front...

 

Dell lies.

It's over 3 hours and still no call.

During the chat they refused to provide me their contact information nor provide me with contact information for the escalations department.
They claimed that there was no way to contact them.

....Right....

How exactly was he reaching them? Semaphor? Communing with spirits?

Oh wait, I have it. It's like the signal fires from return of the king!

 

When I ask, they tell me they contact the escalation department only through chat.

 

First of all I want to say thank you to everyone in this forum. If it wasn’t for you guys I would probably not received my AW m17x replacement laptop. So now the hole story for the ones that got the time:
June 2008: After a month of waiting I received my XPS 1730 T9300 8800GTX SLI laptop. I have really loved the machine and I think it is a great machine in almost every way.
2 November 2009: I started to get bluescreens and sli stopped working. After a driver rollback the bluescreens disappeared (not sure why) but sli was still broke, BSOD at startup. I filled in a “error report” on dell’s website and 1 day later I received a reply that their Swedish is very limited. I then replyed to that email with a translation and after a day they told me that my graphic card most likely was broken. I asked them to send me a new card and that was no problem, it would come in a few weeks. Then I started to google and found this forum with the claim that the card wasn’t expected until January. (ty vorpal) I confronted dell and they said that they just have got that news at well…go figure…and they offered me a 8700m downgrade card. With vorpal’s 6 step-guide in mind I refused and demanded a replacement laptop.
The hole time I was emailing the same tec-guy who now replied that he had talked to his supervisor and since the most important for dell, of course, is customer care they offered me a alienware m17x which was a good match, and a little more, for my current system. Two days ago I received my alienware so in five weeks I received the replacement. After reading some of your stories I guess I was lucky to get in touch with a nice guy straight away. Even if it was a bit frustrating that every reply took at least 24 hours I cannot really complain about anything. But again, if it wasn’t for this forum I would probably still been in step 1 of vorpal’s 6 step guide.

 

They tell me the same thing! Btw, could the escalation team and the dispatch management team be the same group of .... team? I get the no way to contact them line for both of those. All we can do is email through our system, they say. Robotz.. :I

 

Congrats on your system and definetly thanks to vorpal or I too would be in step one or with some crappy system. What are your specs fr3de?

 

About extreme processors unlockedness proof, This product brief(pdf) from intel has this at the beginning of the second column:

"For experienced entusiasts who desire more capability, the intel core 2 extreme processor bus ratio locks (overspeed protection) have been removed. This offers additional technical flexibility in customising the system - even beyond the specification limits"