my last dell service calls / rant

got new dell studio xps 1340. in may

may 2009
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i originally thought they improved the dell power adapter by having a ball joint between the power cord, the blue light, and the jack. i was wrong. i got a bad power adapter and a couple weeks after getting the computer, the wires were exposed. dell sent a parts only order for the adapter overnight.

june 2009
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slight liquid spill ruined keyboard.

fyi
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accidental damage = send the unit to dispatch and wait a week

warranty = on site service by qualxserv. 48 hours or so

i kept my mouth shut about the spill, but it took me a good 3 hours arguing with "xps hardware support" to get them to send over the onsite person to fix the keyboard. when the keyboard has a major problem with stuck keys it will tie up your computer. it will tie it up so bad that windows will take weeks to boot perhaps never. it caused the clock to stop on the cmos screen. my computer was basically running at 1mhz. also i was getting false battery and power supply errors on post due to interrupts being hogged by the keyboard.

they kept ordering me to remove the back plate and reset the ram, and try going to safe mode (which was impossible), or trying an external keyboard (also impossible because internal keyboard is enabled also ).

i tried to give the dell people a basic lesson on how interrupts work, and explain to them how the only troubleshooting i could do was to remove the keyboard, but that requires removing 28 screws!

after the 3 hour phone call/argument even including threatening them to cancel payments on my dell card,, dell eventually gave up and sent out qualxserv.

qualxserv never called me to schedule an appointment. i called dell to find out they had the part ( they advised i call dell 5-6 days after not hearing from them, but i called them in 48 hours ). qualxserv dispatch is 24/7 but the service technicians only work till 6pm..

advice : call early in the morning, don't wait for qualxserv to call you. and you will get same day service.

qualxserv sometimes gets really busy. i was on hold for 45 minutes.

dell said they wouldn't give me the number to qualxserv dispatch. if this should happn to you. the number is 1 866 856 9899. press #3 for dell and give them the dispatch number given to you by dell

sorry for my boring post, im sure it has some useful information in it, heh

another thing to gripe about is i was unable to actually find the number to 'premium xps' support on anything that came with the computer or on dell's website. if anyone needs the number it is 1 800 232 8544.