Need advise URGENT (A repair that was initially free is now requiring payment)

Hi there,

A friend of mine has a Vostro 1400 laptop. He asked for my help. After checking his laptop it seemed that his nvidia GPU was faulty.

We called the vostro support team (UK) and were told that Dell will do the repair free of charge under the extended warranty. Dell sent an engineer onsite and replaced the motherboard on my friend system (This happened last Friday). This past Monday in the afternoon; i.e. 4 days later my friend was called by Dell which informed him that they did a mistake. They initially thought that his laptop was still under the extended warranty, but since his laptop is not anymore under the extended warranty he has either to pay them over £270 for the repair or give them the replacement board back.

Needless to say that my friend and I are upset about this situation. What can/ should we do?

 

Call them back and tell them they can't change the quote like that. If they originally said it was free, you accepted the service and the cost of that service. It's a binding agreement between your friend and Dell.

You can also give them an option for the other option they gave you, which was return the replacement board. Tell them that they can have the board back if they dispatch a technician to put your original board back in (which would be impossible to locate if the technician returns it to Dell for refurbishing). They can't take the replacement board back without returning your original board.

If you give them these options, they should waive the fees. There's no way around it, they are trying to breach a contract. If you need to, ask to talk to a supervisor. Good luck!

 

I wouldn't even give them the second option.

The first one is all that's needed:

Just stick to that, there is nothing can do. They are clearly in the wrong and just trying to get money out of you.


Also, just to clarify, when did the systems actual warranty expire?

Should it be covered by the warranty extension for the nvidia cards (1 year extra than the warranty that came with the system)?

If it has been more than one year since the systems actual warranty expired then yes Dell made a mistake saying it would be free. However, the price quoted for the repair was 'free' and they cannot go back on that.

If it is less than a year since the actual warranty expired it is definately still covered by the warranty extension. Here is the list of systems (from Dell's blog) which are covered by the extended warranty: http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/Direct2Dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2008/08/18/nvidia-gpu-update-dell-to-offer-warranty-enhancement-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx It clearly states the 1400 is covered by it.

Either way stick to your guns, your friend does not owe them any money and they do not need to have -your- (not their's anymore!) motherboard back.

When they call just ask to speak to a supervisor/manager and reiterate the point quoted above. Don't back down and pay anything, even if they try and reduce the price as "a good will gesture due to the situation". You owe them nothing!

 

I made the call to Dell to sort out the repair. The guy I spoke too (let's call him Mr X) asked a lot of questions. he also asked for the tag number of the laptop. So he knew that the laptop original warranty expired in 2008. Since as pointed out by tomberries the extended warranty is only one year, the laptop was completely out of warranty after 2009.

Mr X was the person who called on Monday to inform us that the repair is not free anymore. My friend suggested to Mr X to send the engineer again and to take back the replacement board. I'm unsatisfied with this option because the engineer sent the first time doesn't even work directly for Dell. He works for a company which is contracted by dell to do the repair. So there is no way for us to check that the board that they will bring back is the one that was initially in my friend's laptop.

I helped my friend to write a complaint email to dell using the link below, but so far they haven't replied back.
https://support.euro.dell.com/support/emailcustomercare/emea/anyproblems.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

P.S.
I was here when the engineer came to do the repair and I was a bit shocked.
1) He didn't clean the CPU and the heatsink from the old thermal past and didn't replace it with a new one.
2) he reused the blue thermal pad from the faulty board.
The engineer said that he is replacing a considerable number of motherboards on Dell Latitude and XPS laptops. No wonders since they don't even bother replacing the old dry thermal past.

 

I don't know about other countries but I believe all Dell's repairs in the UK are outsourced to other companies.

The defective part was the graphics card (embeded on the motherboard) so you're unlikely to get far by saying the technician didn't clean the cpu and used the same thermal pad (especially as those would not have been covered by the extended warranty anyway). It would be good if he had cleaned things etc, but he's probably not paid much and has to rush to meet targets, he would be been told to replace the motherboard and do no other work.

I would suggest you contact Consumer Direct regarding Dell trying to charge you for the repair: Consumer Direct - Contact us

They will take your details and ask what happened and then advise you on what your rights are with regard to the situation. They're government funded and wont charge you anything for the service. They'll most likely suggest you write a letter to Dell's head office stating your rights as a consumer. They will help you compose a letter and say exactly what to write regarding consumer law. If Dell still pesters you get back in touch with Consumer Direct and they will help you out with where to go from there - but honestly the letter should shut them up.

Dell can ask as much as they like for "their" money but you agreed a fee of 'no charge' and only after the work was carried out did they change their mind. It will be Dell's company policy to try and recoup the costs of their mistake by charging you. But it is -not- the law.

Good luck with everything!

 

Hi tomberries

Thanks for your reply. We emailed Dell complaint department 6 days ago and haven't heard from them yet. I think we will give them untill the end of the week and they they didn't get back to us by then We will contact Consumer Direct or the Citizen advice bureau for help and advice.

Thanks again I really appreciated

 

Were you given any receipts regarding the repair details?

They cannot just do that and you are in every right to refuse to pay. They entrapped you into this service and that is against consumer law.

Call up customer service again, threaten and demand. Trust me it works, ive gotten so many fees waived just by saying the right words.

You can offer to put back the exact board they took out. It has to be the exact board and it has to be done free of charge.

Dont expect an email back from Dell for a few weeks...

 

My friend came to me almost crying today. This was the first time he used the laptop since it was serviced by Dell's engineer. The wifi button was stuck in the off position, and he couldn't hear sounds through the speaker or a headphone. I initially though that there was something wrong with the drivers. I re-installed them but that didn't fix the problem.
I then took the laptop apart and I found the following:
1- The speakers cable was not pluged
2- the cable that connect the headphone/microphone board to the motherboard is missing
3- The wifi button was not alined with the wifi switch on the board.
4- The board where you can place a phone sim card was also not connected to the motherboard.

I alined the wifi button with the switch so now the wifi can be switched on and off.
I connected the speakers cable to the motherboard by I still can't hear any sound coming from them.

What should we do now about the non-working speaker and the missing cable? contact dell again or wait until they contact us about the complaint?

Thanks for the help and advice.

 

It's unfortunate he didn't try the laptop until now as it has been a while since the repair took place.

Nevertheless,

I think the best thing to do at this point would be either to write to Dell's UK head office or phone them (and speak to a supervisor) stating the entire situation:

- You called up on dd/mm/yy and explained the problem
- The rep checked the warranty and said you qualified for a repair under the extension program and the repair would be at no charge
- The repair took place on dd/mm/yy
- On dd/mm/yy you were contacted by Dell and told you now had to pay for the repair as they had made a mistake
- However, after the repair A,B,C did not work on the laptop
- State that you expect them to come and fix the laptop at no charge and leave it in the same condition it was before the initial repair.

Reiterate that the initial repair was quoted as 'no charge' and that not only did they attempt to charge you afterwards but the repair broke other parts of the laptop. If they say they can't do anything or still want to charge you just ask to speak to someone who will be able to do something.

If they say that your demands are not possible be firm and tell them that they need to fix the situation for you. They have created the mess and it is their responsibility to put it right at their own cost.

Again it wouldn't hurt to call Consumer Direct as they deal with hundreds of issues like these every day.

 

I don't care what Country you live in. If you tell someone it's free then after the work was completed they said it's not, that's their problem and their loss DO NOT PAY..."See them in Court".

Commonsense would dictate why agree to a repair or service without knowing the price of the repair up front to determine whether the item is worthy of repair.

Escalate the hell out of this situation even if it involves going to Court or emailing Mr. Dell in the US.

 

I highly doubt they are going to pay another tech to come out to replace it with the original board. They will most likely cut their losses and let you keep it. They are just saying you need to pay to scare money out of you. They can't force you to pay anything.

 

I've emailled costumer direct in behalf of my friend and they send me a quite long email. I have browsed through it an it seems that Dell doesn't have the right to charge for the repair since they said it was free.

Dell hasn't contacted my friend regarding his complain. I think we will give then untill mid next week then give them a call.

Thanks for all your advice. I'll keep you posted.

 

Now I understand why Dell is so bad in the support side of things... This is like buying a bag of chips that are on special at a supermarket, then getting called over once you walk out being notified they made a mistake and I had to pay full cost... I'd tell them where to go. - Really bad example, because if they make a mistake, it's a full refund, but meh, it work's!

I do sincerely hope it works out in the end, Good Luck! (I was about to write Google then )

 

Hi Guys,

The guy from Dell who called us about the fees (let call him Mr X) phoned us yesterday. It was about the complaint letter we send Dell around three weeks ago. He made us run few diagnosis. At the end he proposed to send an engineer to replace the missing cable. I declined and told him that we would be able to install the cable ourselves. As he required, we emailled him few photos to show him the location of the missing cable. When we spoke to him on they phone he sounded as if Dell doesn't have a specific part number for the missing cable. The photos are to help him locate the right cable.

When we run the diagnosis I've notice something weired. In Vista we can't hear any sound coming from the speakers, but when we run the diagnosis the speakers seemed to work fine.

Mr X didn't not mention anything about the fees. Does this mean that Dell is not anymore asking for to £270+ for replacing the motherboard?

Once more, thanks again for all your help and support.