Poor customer service

Actually posting this on behalf of my cousin who I have been helping out with his laptop.

He spilt some fluid on his laptop so phoned Dell about a possible repair. They told him they have a fixed repair price of something like £160 here in the U.K

He agreed to pay it and a few days later his machine was collected and it took around two weeks to get it back. It switched on and would only give 7 beeps.

He contacted Dell yesterday and they sent an engineer to look at it today who basically said it was goosed. He advised my cousin to call Dell about it and request either a replacement machine or a refund for the repair work. The engineer phoned Dell himself while he was still at my cousins explaining the situation to them.

I was sat with my cousin just now when Dell phoned him. And boy the way he was spoken to! Firstly he was told that he had spilt fluid on it and "it was a big job and they had only charged him £160 for the repair" as though it's my cousins fault that they have a fixed fee?

Then he was told that they can either send another engineer around or he can send it back to them again. Meanwhile he either has to take a day off for another engineer (who can do what exactly that the previous one didn't do?) or he can take a couple of days off waiting for couriers and be without his laptop for around another two weeks.

The gist of the conversation was that it was still my cousins fault for having spilt something on it in the first place. He acknowledged on the phone that originally it was his fault. But since Dell had replaced the motherboard, CPU and several other components, it was now entirely down to them, which they didn't seem too happy about to be fair. And kept pointing out how expensive it would have been for them to fix!!!

All seemed very odd as usually when I have spoken to Dell they have been super helpful. A manager was put on the phone who told my cousin none of his requests were "going to happen mate" and that he can either have the home visit or wait for a courier. Both which require him to take days off work at his own expense when it is no longer his problem.

Dell's argument is that if he sends it back they guarantee to fix it. But they have guaranteed that once already. There is potential for him to keep getting a machine back that keeps being faulty unless they literally end up changing everything. All seems rather poor to me.

EDIT: This is getting worse. Someone from Dell has just called him back and told him he must send the laptop back. BUT....when my cousin called them initially, they told him repairs came with a 3 month warranty. I know because I was sat with him listening in on the conversation.

He has now been told that repairs don't come with a warranty at all? And that in all likelihood because it was a liquid spillage, the laptop will have more problems in the future. This WASN'T explained at all when he spoke to them, as I would have advised him NOT to have the repair done at all.

The guy said "we don't usually explain that to people" when e spoke to him just now. So basically you can pay for a repair and if they miss any issues you just keep paying and paying? That is nuts and surely should be explained to the customer? I know I'll never be buying a Dell again after hearing the way my cousin has been spoken to today.