How can I convince Dell to replace my Laptops battery

I've had my 1737 since Dec 19th of 2008 so the battery is a month or so past being 6 months old.

And on the battery health meter, the LED's on the back when you hold it in for 4 seconds it shows 5 bad LED's meaning its significantly degraded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m65yBJylgZ8

this video will help show what I mean.

What words can I use what should I say to try and convince them?

 

Just tell them that your battery is so badly degraded, and tell them of the 5 light thing. Batteries are covered for a full year, so you shouldn't really have to do any convincing at all.

 

Yeah true, but they really go out of their way to say this is a normal thing that happens to all batteries.

Nevertheless, 7 months is way too short.

I would rather just tell it has the 1-3-5 LED dead signal shown in that video.

Or possibly state the truth all 5 of my LED show the battery is at its worst state possible.

And I know they will ask and trouble shoot.

Does it hold a charge Yes, does it work, Yes.

its just really degraded as your own tests show.

 

It shouldn't be at 5 levels of wear in seven months. Hell, my 1535's 6-cell, which is well over 7 months old, has no wear LEDs yet. When they ask you if it holds a charge and works, don't just say yes, say "barely".

 

Good luck with this My battery isnt as bad (yet) as yours, but I'm afraid it could end up there. I'm watching it closely... According to multiple different battery monitoring software packages I've used, the battery has lost 17.2% capacity in just the approximately 3.5 months I've had the laptop. I was on chat with Dell once for something else and when finished I thought I'd mention this, and of course the tech guy responded with something like "oh thats normal, its ok!".

Best of luck...
~Aryq~

 

Almost 20% over less than 4 months is not normal. Talk to someone else about that.

 

That was exactly the point I tried to offer up to Mr. Dell India Tech Support Man, but I don't think he got me I'm still watching the battery closely (it hasnt dropped any further in a while, actually) -- and I know at least I have a full year warranty on it, so I can keep trying to get them to listen to me every once in a while

That guy I spoke with didn't care what the meter said about capacity loss, all he cared about was what Windows told me I could get for battery life. Oh, Windows says you have 6 hours remaining? Well thats more than we advertise so your battery is fine!

*eyeroll*
~Aryq~

 

Batteries are covered under the warranty for one year. You've only had your laptop since December. They should be sending you a new battery no questions asked. Good god Dell. -_-

 

Resurrecting an old thread to add an update to my own personal battery story...

On 7/22 I reported my battery wear was around 17%... It didn't really "move" much since then, until about 2 weeks ago. Then it was up to 21%... and then 23%... and now today, 27% battery wear.

* When it jumped to 21%, I tried to get Dell to replace it... no go.
* When it jumped to 23%, I tried to get Dell to replace it... no go.

Finally today, I was able to get Dell to agree to send me a new battery. The battery is less than 6mo old, and using the "hold the button on the battery" trick, currently shows 2 bars of degradation. I think mentioning this is what finally got them to listen to me.

They didn't care to hear what BatteryBar and any other 3rd-party tool reported about the battery... or the fact that my battery life had already dropped x%... etc, etc. I can understand why, but it would have been nice had one of the agents suggested I try the button trick and see what the result was.

Anyway, in the next 1-2 days I should receive the new battery. The agent then gave a REALLY hard upsell on trying to get me to upgrade/extend my warranty... lol. I mean REALLY hard upsell. Kinda funny I probably will extend it, but not right now I just dont have the money, and boy he/she sure did not care to hear that.

Anyway... Just my .02...
--Eric