Pissed off! 4 dead HD's in < 3 months from Dell. What should I do from here?

How should I proceed? 4 hard drives have failed on me in less than 3 months from Dell.

I purchased a Dell Inspirion 1501 during the labor day special for $499. Everything was working fine up until January. Here is the time line

January 28th – Original hard drive shipping with laptop dead, clicking noises
February 3rd – replacement hard drive dead, clicking noises
February 24th- 2nd replacement hard drive dead, clicking noises

Laptop was sent to the depot for servicing. I was told that if the laptop gets serviced the problem will be fixed. There is a “1 in 1000” chance of the problem re-occurring. Received the laptop back several days later with a piece of paper telling me that the system board, hard drive and fan was replaced.

March 26th – 3rd replacement hard drive dead, no clicking noises but it failed the system diagnostics test when I was on the phone with Dell.

They offered to send me a 4th replacement hard drive. I wasn’t going to have anymore of this bs. I was pissed off as hell. Who wouldn’t be? In a span of like 10 weeks 4 hard drives have died on me. I have lost over 200GB in data. The rep on the phone told me that if it happens again they will escalate this case to superiors. I didn’t want any part of this at all. Basically they are asking me to wait for it to fail for a 5th time before they will escalate this issue. It was like 1:00am and I didn’t feel like talking anymore on the phone so I said ok just send me the 5th hard drive. The next morning I called up Dell again ince it was during business hours I thought I might be able to have it escalated right away if I kept pushing. Well I spoke to a rep, he then passed it to his supervisor, who then said he would escalate this issue and to hold on the line. The supervisor returned and told me that unfortunately the people he wants to escalate to were in a meeting. He took down all my information and gave me his word that he would get back to me on this within 2 business days. This phone call took place last Thursday. It is now one week later and I have not heard back from this assclown. I sent him emails and still nothing from him. I am furious! As you can imagine I am really frustrated from being jerked around left and right by these guys sitting on the other side of the globe probably somewhere in Bangalore. What should I do from here? I basically want them to either replace this lemon with a brand spanking new laptop or give me a full refund and they can have this piece of junk back.

I used to work for Bell and they had a department called Executive Response. Basically they handled all emails and phone calls that were directed to the President of the company. Does Dell have anything like this? Can I file a complaint to Customer Care or something? Any advice would be great. Thanks.

 

wow, sorry to hear that.. harddrive failure is really shocking... i get trauma from having a harddrive dies on me, and now i'm really paranoid.

what is the brand or model of the drive?

personally, if that happens to me, i would demand for a complete refund/replacement/upgrade to something from XPS series. if they do not comply, or say that this cannot be done, insist that you want to speak with their manager and explain that how many times your computers dies on you and you loss plenty of precious data (school work, projects, business) and its costing you; you're precious time and money.

if you have a voice recorder, it might be worthwile to record your conversation with them.. as i have multiple *ahem* i'm not meant to be racist or anything but... *ahem* Indian phone rep, yelling at me for NO APPARENT reason, and hang up on me

**i'm not meant to offend anyone but this is the truth!

 

Sucks! Hopefully Dell rectifies this issue!

 

I am not sure as I have already sent it back to Dell. They were several different models from what the technician told me. I know one was a Hitachi which was the 2nd replacement.

 

Wow that's pretty strange

4 HDDs? Dang

 

Since the end of January 4 have died. I have only owned the laptop since September.

 

I called them back again this morning and complained again. I asked to speak to a supervisor or manager and the rep told me someone will call me back in 1 or 2 hours. It's almost 2 hours and I have yet to get a call back

I have not demanded my money back yet but I have asked for a full out replacement which they have already told me no.

 

just email [email protected] he will take care of ya.

 

I highly doubt that. It would be forwarded to the customer service department again

 

It has been about 5 hours and no phone call.

I'm calling them again now to do some yelling.

 

Ok now...that is the worst thing you can do. Del's obligation to you know is only to send you a refurbished laptop as a replacement or to replace the part.

They will sense your anger and react accordingly. Quite frankly, your rights are very limited.

My suggestion.... politely get through to a supervisor not a CSR, possibly at a customer resolutions level. Next, be prepared to put it on paper and not in an email. I will check through my contacts (as I am Canadian) but cannot promise anything as they are closing down in Edmonton and all such service is becoming international.

 

I"m on the phone with them now. No I didn't yell at them because I know it's not the reps fault on the phone.

Yes their obligation is to send me refurbished hardware. However this is a special case. FOUR dead hard drives in like 10 weeks! System has already been sent to depot and send back. Another hard drive has failed since it was serviced. System board, fan and hard drive were replaced at the depot. This laptop is a lemon! And I don't want to deal with it anymore. I want it replaced entirely.

I'm on hold waiting for Customer Care right now.

 

The manager of Customer Care has authorized a system exchange.

I'm getting this unit replaced!

 

^^^^ awsome.

 

Fantastic!