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Hello all
I don't know where else to turn. This one is LONG, and I really need the advice, so any brave soul out there willing to read through this mess and offer an assist, I thank you in advance.
Almost 1 year ago, I ordered a Dell Inspiron 6400 series system. I ordered it with a wsxga+ screen with true life - 1650x1080 resolution.
I used the system at work at first, and there was no wireless issue at that time, since there was no wireless network at work.
3 weeks later, I was laid off from that position. The company was not going to reimburse me for the system, so I decided to sell my old notebook and keep the new one for my home business.
I finally get the unit to my home and mostly set up the way I like, and I proceed to set up my wireless. I can browse any other unit within the network, but could not browse the internet at all.
I found this incredibly strange. Except for a few programs for work and codecs for movie playback, there was no change to the OS. I got rid of bloatware and that's it.
I recovered the unit with the recovery discs, then tried again. Same issue. I then tried to do it with a blank windows Vista environment. Still the same problem. Every other system in my house that was using vista at the time worked fine, but my brand new dell could not. I figured the wireless was probably at fault, but I wanted to be sure.
I wiped the system completely and installed XP Media Center Edition.
Everything worked fine.
I wiped and put back Vista Home Premium. Problem was there again. Wiped and did a dual boot setup with XP and Vista Home Premium to flesh out more troubleshooting.
this was over the course of week 4 and 5 of owning the system. I'm pretty technical, and knew how to troubleshoot, but this was beyond me at this point.
I called Dell tech support. I told them what had been going on, and that I had tried the same hardware with 2 different operating systems, and that I only had the issue with Vista. I then told them that I had the system set up with a dual boot so that I could troubleshoot with both.
Dell tech support stopped helping me at this point, saying I had voided my warranty, and that there was nothing they could do. They said that it was going into the notes that I dual booted and that it voided my warranty so I would be unable to get help.
I said fine, I want my money back. They told me I was 11 days outside my 30 day return period, and no one would do anything.
I gave up at this point, very angry.
Eventually, through a lot of driver changes, I was able to make the wireless work somewhat in Vista. Later in the year, the wireless card started shutting itself off randomly, and required a complete reboot to turn back on again. Also, a diagonal line showed up on my screen, lower-mid left hand side, that was not a scratch...it was as if a piece of lint or something had gotten into the screen. I lost 2 of my rubber feet as well.
I tried to call back in. I didn't mention my previous call, or dual booting, or anything of that sort. I did mention that i had problems since i bought it with the wireless. That tech and I could not re-create the problems with the wireless shutting down while on the call. I considered sending it in for repair, but since I was told I voided my warranty, I didn't want to send it in and have them charge me for a fix, so I just dealt with it.
In March, I received an email from Dell, telling me my warranty was about to expire. I still had problems with the system, but lived with them. This email, though, was too much. So I called, and I ranted about the system, telling them I wanted either my money back or a replacement unit that worked correctly. I was passed to a Case Manager named Amanda. She listened to me and told me there was nothing she could do. I said "you mean to tell me that after nearly a year, i could have gotten the system fixed, and no one told me? That tech informed me that I voided my warranty!!"
She looked into the notes of that tech call and sure enough, she found that the tech lived up to his word....he put in my notes that I had voided my warranty by dual booting. Amanda said that based on that fact that she saw in the notes where the tech stated my warranty was now void, and due the issues I had with the system, she would offer me a replacement from the Dell Refurbished line. Amanda told me it would be 10 days or so to find a system, and that the replacement system would meet or exceed my original specs.
I accepted that option as a resolution. This was March 26th.
On March 31st, I received an email with an order number in it. Upon checking the order, i found that the specs were good in all aspects except the screen....the system had a Wide Screen XGA+ with a resolution of 1280x1040. I quickly called and emailed back to Amanda, my case manager, and she verified that the order did in fact have the wrong screen. Here is what she wrote:
Because the screen was so important, I said to go with option 2. The next day, Amanda emailed me back, letting me know that she started the process over again, and to allow at least 10 days to find a system. If finding a system failed, a brand new system would be built to replace it.
I waited. On April 14th, I emailed Amanda back, asking if anything had moved forward.
I got this reply:
I waited more. On April 21st, I received this:
Notice there was no contact info? Notice how it wasn't Amanda?
I wrote back, pointing out how it had been 15 business days since the mistake was found, and that it had been even longer since resolution was first discussed.
4 days later, I received a phone call that I couldn't answer. When I checked the voicemail, I found that dell had called and left an order number. No contact info was left however.
I went online to check the order number, and found that they built a brand new system for me.
With the wrong screen. Again.
I immediately stopped what I was doing and called my case manager. I also went and sent an email. This was a week ago last Friday, around 3pm pacific time. I needed to make sure that they didn't try to ship that system to me since it was still wrong.
All weekend long I continued to send emails. I even went on to the refurbished site myself and found systems with the correct screen that matched or exceeded all of my specs, but didn't give me any upgrades on purpose. I did this by setting the filters to match hard drive size, dvd burner, ram, and wireless card types. with all those filters in place, I looked at what it offered and each time the screen was correct and it had my 9 cell battery, I copied down the info into the email.
After I had 3 refurb units listed that had it either right or very close to it (they would have to upgrade the battery), I configured a system on the dell website that also met or exceeded my specs. On this one, I added in an extra GB of ram, a fingerprint reader, and a better sound card.
I copied all the information down and sent the email, pointing out that I had heard positive things about refurbished units, and had even found some systems that would work out, but that from this point forward I'd need whoever was working on my case to confirm the specs BEFORE placing it.
To date, I never got another actual email back regarding my case.
I called dell again on the following Monday. My case manager's line goes directly to voicemail. I called another number to try to get to someone inside case management. I kept getting routed to India, and I never talked to an actual case manager. When I got home, I checked the order. It had already shipped. The tracking number told me that it would be delivered on Tuesday.
The next day, I called again, and got told by someone in India that they would personally take over my case if either of the people who were listed as owning my case got back to me in 24 hours. He sent an actual email that had someone else's email address in it, and he mentioned that he saw all the emails I had sent out regarding the case.
That day, a friend advised me to refuse shipment on the package because if I kept it, dell would try to say that I accepted the system.
Since I had not heard back from my case manager, and since I did not know what else to do, I refused shipment on the system. I continued to email all the email addresses I had, and I continued to try to call Amanda.
It arrived back at Dell yesterday.
Today, I tried to call in again fresh, using a different number.
I got on the line with Mary, who apologized for the fact that no one had been in contact with me. Mary looked over the case and asked me what would make me happy. I pulled my dell out and proceeded to try to navigate the refurb site, telling her as i did so what selections i was making to the filters so that she could look at it with me and verify that I wasn't trying to upgrade myself but simply trying to find a matched screen where everything else was also there.
As I explained everything that had happened so far to Mary, and she informed me a few new things:
1. Amanda no longer worked in that department.
2. Dell had a new policy, implemented after I accepted resolution from Amanda, that said that unless there was a documented issue within the first 30 days from the date of the invoice, they would not do an exchange/replacement.
3. After talking with several people and trying everything she could think of, Mary told me that replacing my system was not an option.
After arguing my point back and forth, and with Mary even stating that she agreed with me on the case, Dell was not going to replace my system. On top of that, my warranty is now days from expiring, if not expired already, and that I would have to pay for any repairs.
I told Mary that if they were not going to replace the unit now, even though that resolution was already set between myself and another case manager BEFORE that new policy took place, that I wanted a refund of my money. She pointed again to the new policy and that the first documented issue with my system was 11 days after the 30 day period, which meant that there was still nothing dell would do.
At this point, my phone was ready to die, so I begged her to be my advocate and see what she could do for me, and to call me tomorrow at noon to discuss it further. She agreed, but stated that they do not have a direct phone number for me to call them, and instead gave me a number that would lead to a voice mail.
I do not know where to go from this point. A resolution was set by a case manager before this new policy went in to place. That case manager is no longer at Dell. If the case manager had looked at the right specs the first time, I wouldn't have been talking to Mary. If the 2nd system had bothered to check the specs or called me, I wouldn't have talked to Mary.
Mary was really nice, but she tells me that Dell is taking back their word and agreement with me back over a month ago because of this new policy, implemented AFTER I agreed to a resolution offered.
Can anyone who has had experience in this sort of thing offer any advice as to who to talk or tell this story to so that I might finally come to resolution?
Thank you for reading.
I could use some help regarding this return
Discussion in 'Dell' started by AMurderOfCrows, May 7, 2008.
