*XPS M1730 Problems/Dell Replacement Issues*

I was in a similar boat before I initiated the exchange process, except I was never offered a refund, just an exchange for the XPS 1640 or wait til next year for the 8800’s. I was told repeatedly that the m17x was not an option for exchange. It was only when I initiated the exchange process that they then offered the m17x. I started the exchange really just to take the fight to a new level and was surprised that they never mentioned anything other that the m17x. I will point out that I am still in exchange hell and that my original exchange was cancelled (see my post on page 19) and a new one is in process. If I do not get the new order # over the weekend as promised I plan on calling and then hitting the Unresolved Issues button Monday.

I will tell you what they told me yesterday when they offered me a refund (for the first time) in lieu of the exchange. They stated that I would be refunded the full purchase price minus sales tax and the extended warranty (which I didn’t actually purchase until I had the system for 2 months). So, if you paid $5800 for you current XPS then a refund might actually get you more than enough to build a much better machine. At this point I personally will take a refund and fight for the warranty and sales tax if my exchange goes south.

Also, in the many hours I have spent on the phone with them I was told lots of things that turned out to be misinformation.

Hope that helps and good luck!

 

Frist off thank you guys for all your help.

Hey Starstryker, they didn't offer a "full" refund. The manager on dell chat explained the refund like this and I qoute. "The adjustments would be related to items like Data safe which you paid approximately 17$ for 1 year. So the team would do these minor calculations and arrive at the final amount." That was the qoute from the manager, so as I understand it, they are going to take a percentage off of everything because I've had it for that one year. And your right a full refund wouldn't be bad but I didn't take the refund because as I understand it it's not a full refund and I won't accept anything less.
Right now they aren't even offering an exchange, not for a 1640 and certainly not for a m17x, so who knows at this point. As was ementioned earlier I will try to unresolved issues form and see where that leads me. That same manager said the he would get back with me on Tuesday about the refund and possible other options but as has been the case before they never call back.
thank guys

 

Dell finally placed my order after 11th day. However, they got some parts wrong. I am going to refund this and buy one again with the right things.

 

Thank you batboy for your help. I filled out the Unresolved Issue form on the Dell website and left a pretty lengthy messege about my situation. Hopefully i'll hear from them this week.
Thank you again for your help

 

No worries - look forward to your update.

 

Ok...i spoke too soon. my order just got cancelled for no reason...now more waiting to come

 

Your stories are all very upsetting. I am in the same boat, only i didnt ask for an Alienware m17x. I was just told i would get a system replacement. I then 2 days after, checked into it and realized they no longer make the m1730 so i went back on Dell Chat and said that you guys dont make that anymore, so what am i getting. The dell tech kindly gave me an order number which showed Alienware m17x with all the goodies. It says In production, this was after 2 days. None of all these problems you speak of. I was all excited till i found this thread. Now i am thinking it will not happen. My order was not cancelled, i got dual 260 SLI cards, to replace my 8800's. they also told me i should have it within 7-21 days. I am still hopefull, but possibly your order is getting cancelled because of all the emails and bickering you guys are doing?

 

1 224-5378 Black Metallic
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-8570 Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Burner (BR-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 317-0818 Intel Core2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
1 317-0856 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1 320-1000 1GB Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M - SLI Enabled (NB10E-GT1)
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 330-5063 Standard Nameplate
1 330-5087 RESPAWN DVD
1 341-0013 640GB (320GB x 2) 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) - RAID 0
1 410-0178 Microsoft Office 2007 Basic-English
1 410-0204 MCAF,15MTH,MUI,ANW
1 410-1883 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANGUAGE
1 412-0359 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve
1 421-0360 Avatar1
1 421-0361 Wallpapers, C03W
1 421-0368 Time Zone, PACIFIC
1 421-0389 Window Style, DFT
1 421-0398 Power Plan, BAL
1 421-0405 Automatic Updates ON
1 421-0726 ALIENFX BLUE
1 421-1304 CyberLink PowerDVD 8.0 Software
1 421-1305 Nero 9 Media Burning Software
1 421-1399 Genuine Windows 7 Professional, 64bit, English
1 430-0628 Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1 430-3558 Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO

 

Hanming, I am sorry to hear that. Did your systems config have Windows Vista or Windows 7?

 

Jve33, you situation gives me encouragement actually because I see you have Windows 7 on that and the time frame jives with what I was told Friday (contrary to the 3-5 days that was originally promised). I was specifically told that my order was cancelled because it was submitted with Vista and needed to be submitted with 7 (and the AV was wrong too he said) and therefore was being re-processed. When did your order get processed and go into production?

Also, I really had a smooth process with the exchange department (although it was heck getting there mainly due to miscommunication about replacement video card availibilty etc) and didn’t start bickering until I found my exchange order cancelled Thursday afternoon and until Friday no one could tell me why.

Anyway, thanks for the info and good luck!

 

i got that info on Friday. I too was waiting on a video card replacement and got told a bunch of lies in the early stages and then the back order deal. Then one day a tech came on and said he got approval for a system replacement which i did not ask for, but was happy to take it. So i got order number on Friday and yes, i saw the Windows 7 deal. I wanted Ultimate, but I am in IT and have ultimate already so i wont rock the boat, will let my new laptop come in and upgrade if i want to. Anyway, good luck to all of you.

Also, onto the guys that got their order cancelled over the weekend...is that even possible, they dont update the status over the weekend do they?

 

Mine was cancelled Thursday the 29th at 3:25PM and it took me until Friday to get to the bottom of it. I was promised a call for yesterday with a new order number but that never came. As for staus updates, mine orginally went into production on Friday the 23rd but didnt show up until Sunday the 25th, so I am not sure about weekend status updates.

 

I wonder if Dell will get in touch about my unresolved issue this week... for those that have used the "unresolved issues" form, what kind of wait did you experience before they contacted you?

 

I only had to use it (US website, not sure on UK policy/practices) once. Initially I was contacted via email by the Dell Web Escalation team the following business day. Initial contact was not a voice call. Once you are contacted by the Web Escalation folks, you can request a voice call if you desire.

 

It takes a few days, but the matter gets elevated to their Senior Support Staff, who actually have the empowerment to get things done for you. Only problem is that you can't cal them, you have to wait for their calls.

 

Well hopefully we will start seeing the replacements shipped out, my is still in production and the order was put in on the 28th of Oct.

 

Mine will come with Vista, Black with high gloss finish( they forgot the leather), and Dell 1520 wifi card( ? I don't even know that they have this). Too mess up, this makes me so angry now. they told me they cannot change the configuration, then now, the new system has different configuration. Bunch of liars

 

Looks like people are starting to get replacements agreed, I got agreement to replacement now should get offered first spec tomorrow or Tuesday. Will post once I know more, hopefully wont get the problem like some cancelled once agreed but that really seems the Dell reps speccing Vista over Win 7.

Please to see more positive posts, like most of us its been an up hill struggle.

 

Thanks BatBoy and BHunterSEAL.

7 weeks now ... can I beat the high score of 8? Only time will tell!

 

This is from Whirlpool Oz

BZZZZZZZ! Not true.

 

My card failed on the 2nd of september so im going into my 9th week with no solution in sight

This is a rundown of my joke nbd warranty looks like dell have "owned" me

Description: **ETA** Vertical Lines / video corruption
Support Request Number:_________
Status: Owned
Initiation Date: 02/09/2009 13:47:55 System Details
Journal information pertaining to this Support Request

Date Description Service Call Number

28/10/2009 05:33:47 Reopened Escalated Issue N/A
02/10/2009 07:52:44 Reopened Escalated Issue N/A
02/10/2009 07:43:52 Reopened Escalated Issue N/A
02/10/2009 04:54:45 HW Dispatch (this is where they try to fob me off with 8700`s)
01/10/2009 09:28:58 Reopened Escalated Issue N/A
01/10/2009 08:58:30 Reopened Escalated Issue N/A
30/09/2009 09:07:49 Reopened Escalated Issue N/A
30/09/2009 08:53:12 Reopened Escalated Issue N/A

 

On Friday, I phoned Tech Support. They had no record of my previous call on Thursday - no surprise there, after the reaction from the Tech Support guy and his supervisor of registering my dissatisfaction, "there is nothing we can do". Yet again another LOL moment.
Anyway, the Tech support lady from Friday, spoke with her supervisor and told me to expect an e-mail on Monday, with the specs for a replacement, that I would clear for processing. Of course, experience tells me, that I'll be phoning again later asking where the email is... :/

 

What the ...

My ticket has just changed to "Closed-Resolved". Er ... that doesn't seem good ...

Here's mine

02/11/2009 Reopened Escalated Issue
28/10/2009 Reopened Escalated Issue
26/10/2009 Reopened Escalated Issue
23/10/2009 Reopened Escalated Issue
22/10/2009 Reopened Escalated Issue
22/10/2009 Reopened Escalated Issue
22/10/2009 Reopened Escalated Issue
22/10/2009 Reopened Escalated Issue

 

Ye LynxUK, I meant to get that email today too... lets hope.

 

I received a voice message from Dell tech support saying that they have put in for the exchange for an Alienware (which I already knew from the website) they said if I wanted any other information I can call them, I will call them today to see if they can give me an ETA.

 

I will save you a phone call. They wont be able to tell you anything other then 14-20 days. which sounds about right unless you are part of the unfortunate that gets the exchange order cancelled, Mine is still swimming out there, lets see. I can not point this out enough, IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SET UP AN EXCHANGE OR HAVE A TECH THAT IS BEING HELPFUL "DO NOT DEAL WITH ANY OTHER REPS BESIDE THE ONE YOU ARE DEALING WITH NOW" I LEARNED THE HARD WAY. By the way I mean NO OTHER REP for any reason even to ask about an order just be patient.

 

Question: for those of you who have gotten exchange systems, do they close the old ticket before opening up an exchange?

In other words, is my ticket being set to "Closed-Resolved" a good thing, or a very very bad thing?

 

I was given their phone number and their extention and was told by him only to deal with them and not anyone else as he said they would take ownership of my case.

 

Update: Well I finally got an email with the specs of a replacement system....basically the same machine but without Raid and with 8700M GT's.

What is the next suggested route of action people took after receiving this email, as obviously it is not acceptable?

 

i phoned up and told them to cancel it right away . the only thing is they also canceled my service call (smart move from them) so i had to get them to set up another . Please do not accept 8700`s they are after your 8800`s so they can send em off for repair

 

How do you find this Service call journal? Would love to check mine. Thanks!

 

On the UK site at least, you go to support home and click on "Support History & Status" on the left hand side.

 

they tried to give me the 8700's as well, and i actually agreed with the knowing that i would get my 8800's after Jan 1. After a week of waiting on that, they told me those are also on back order with no end in site. then they offered me a system replacement in which they happily are giving me the Alienware M17x in which i am very excited about.

 

Nice result I would be pleased if thats what happens to me.

 

ok guys need a quick response here. had 880gtx dual sli, they want to give 260's should i push or not? big boost or no?

 

I also had the dual 8800M GTX cards and they're giving me the dual 260Ms. They're a lot better than the 8800s. I wish I could have talked them into the 280s, but I'm happy with the 260s.

 

They are amazingly stubborn

 

Called up support just now, apparently the customer service team sent me an email about an Alienware replacement today (which I didn't get, and my spam filter didn't kill it either).

I mentioned this and the rep arranged for a callback for tomorrow.

Seems I'm getting somewhere ... slowly.

 

OK much better
They ordered this
1 224-5967 Black Metallic
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-8570 Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Burner (BR-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 317-0818 Intel Core2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
1 317-0856 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1 320-1000 1GB Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M - SLI Enabled (NB10E-GT1)
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 330-5063 Standard Nameplate
1 341-0013 640GB (320GB x 2) 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) - RAID 0
1 421-0360 Avatar1
1 421-0381 RSS Feeds,AW
1 421-0389 Window Style, DFT
1 421-0398 Power Plan, BAL
1 421-0399 Time Zone, CENTRAL
1 421-0405 Automatic Updates ON
1 421-0726 ALIENFX BLUE
1 421-1304 CyberLink PowerDVD 8.0 Software
1 421-1305 Nero 9 Media Burning Software
1 421-1400 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
1 421-1724 Soft Contracts,Dell In Home,Alienware
1 430-0628 Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1 430-3558 Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO


i complained im now getting quad core and gtx 280s along with my customized name plate that they forgot the first time.

APPROVED!

 

Nice!

One thing I'd advise anyone who's been waiting ages is to file an unresolved issue. That really got the ball rolling for me.

 

do these things take the same adapters at the xps?

 

Approved and ordered.

1 224-5378 Black Metallic
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-8570 Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Burner (BR-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 317-0820 Intel Core2 Quad Q9000 2.0GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
1 317-0856 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1 320-0762 SLI Dual 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce (NB10E-GTX1)
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 330-3924 Name Plate Engraving
1 341-0013 640GB (320GB x 2) 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) - RAID 0
1 410-1883 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANGUAGE
1 412-0359 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve
1 421-0360 Avatar1
1 421-0368 Time Zone, PACIFIC
1 421-0389 Window Style, DFT
1 421-0398 Power Plan, BAL
1 421-0405 Automatic Updates ON
1 421-0726 ALIENFX BLUE
1 421-1304 CyberLink PowerDVD 8.0 Software
1 421-1305 Nero 9 Media Burning Software
1 421-1400 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
1 430-0628 Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1 430-3558 Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO


They really are push overs.

 

how did you manage to get the quad core cpu?

 

Here are my specs, I only put in the good stuff, Im sure you dont want to know what color im going to have it defaulted to but if you do the default is usually blue

224-5967 Black Metallic
1 313-7711 Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 317-0821 Intel Core2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53GHz (12MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
1 317-0856 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1 320-0762 SLI Dual 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce (NB10E-GTX1) <--280 GTX
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 341-0000 320GB 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection


I actually requested the ATI cards but they have those on back order so they gave me the option of either the 260 or the 280. Only complaint is that I have a blu ray burner and they are not giving me one on this build but I need a computer so that is another days fight

 

Congrats on getting it moving, guys. You're about to get a real beauty of a laptop.

Kono - regarding the power adapter - it's totally different. In an amazing irony, it's actually smaller than the 1730's - about half the size! The reason I say it's ironic is that the M17x itself is a good 2lbs or so heavier and larger to boot (thanks to its awesome aluminum exterior).

P.S. - be sure you OC the sucker once you get it. I advanced FSB from 1066 to 1333 and have had zero issues with heat or reliability. Simply amazing.

 

Heh, waste of the RAM to leave the FSB at 1066.

What kind of temps do you get during gaming?

 

Ok, Noob question or maybe not even the right thread to start this question but how does one do this? Thanks in advance

 

It's in BIOS settings. Pretty easy actually - just keep OC'ing by 50 mhz for both RAM and FSB until you hit 1333 .

The Extreme is unlocked, so you could OC it further in the BIOS as well.

Temps - I rarely see the system board go up to 80. Even less so for the processors. And usually that's when the main fan under the laptop is blocked. Fans kick on max and really do a great job. Right now, at idle, my cores are around 30C. Video cards are idling at 38C. onboard video is at 45c. Pretty sweet, eh?

 

So as I sit here I think I screwed myself slightly since when they offered me the system exchange I was more than excited but also I was in the middle of a class so I had to get back to it as soon as possible.

In the conversation I was told it would take 21 business days... I must have spaced when this was stated, so now i'm stuck waiting till Nov.18.

Only after that point am I allowed to complain.... well here's hoping that nothing goes wrong in the 2 1/2 weeks, as it sits right now its "In production" and has been since Oct.21.

 

First, I would like to say how great this forum is and how much I have learned about dealing with Dell from all of you. Having bought a XPS1730 in October of last year, I have had the motherboard,video card etc. replaced three times... suffice to say I was fed up and thought Dell had the best of me. Then I found you guys last month and it was great to find others with my issues and having to deal with Dell's endless bull. Suffice to say after learning from all of you guys, and giving me the knowledge to combat the evil corporation known as "Dell", I now have a new M17x laptop on it's way. Thanks a bunch everyone, will continue to come by and help out if I can.

OLD
T9300 2.5, 4GB, 8700M SLI, RAID 2x250

NEW
1 224-5378 Black Metallic
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-8570 Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Burner (BR-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 317-0818 Intel Core2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
1 317-0856 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1 320-1000 1GB Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M - SLI Enabled (NB10E-GT1)
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 330-5063 Standard Nameplate
1 330-5087 RESPAWN DVD
1 341-0013 640GB (320GB x 2) 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) - RAID 0
1 410-0178 Microsoft Office 2007 Basic-English
1 410-0204 MCAF,15MTH,MUI,ANW
1 410-1883 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANGUAGE
1 412-0359 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve
1 421-0360 Avatar1
1 421-0361 Wallpapers, C03W
1 421-0368 Time Zone, PACIFIC
1 421-0389 Window Style, DFT
1 421-0398 Power Plan, BAL
1 421-0405 Automatic Updates ON
1 421-0726 ALIENFX BLUE
1 421-1304 CyberLink PowerDVD 8.0 Software
1 421-1305 Nero 9 Media Burning Software
1 421-1399 Genuine Windows 7 Professional, 64bit, English
1 430-0628 Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1 430-3558 Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO


P.S Avoid this son of a b*tch, fought with this guy for two weeks about a replacement,
he never gave in forcing me to contact someone else.


AVOID:

Manny
Badge: 490923
Resolution Specialist