Precision M90 and accidental warranty help

Hi there folks,

Been lurking around these forums for sometime, unfortunately it seems my first post is slightly depressing.

I had an accident with the M90, cola spilt all down the back of the M90, and what made it worse is that it was done while i wasn't there, had left it to render. So don't know how long it was sitting in this puddle of coke, (I suspect the cat or toddler as culprits!).

Anyway, turned off straight away, phoned up dell as I wasn't sure if I had accidental warranty, bought item second hand, however I did transfer warranty successfully, shortly after point of sale. Now it was only then that I found out the warranty included complete care, (my heart started beating again) and the service rep arranged a pick up for the following business day. Even though the machine had a next business day warranty, he said it could take up to a week as spillages often require long diagnostic tests. I wasn't fussy, I just wanted a repaired machine.

About 5 days later I thought I would find out what the status update was on the repairs, logged onto dell support chat, and was told machine would be with me the next day. Out of curiosity I asked the agent what was repaired, and he looked at the engineer's report, and said LCD Back Cover Assembly, Keyboard, Motherboard and the Video card. I thought that was a quite the thorough replacement, and was expecting a pretty much overhauled system. How wrong was I....

Laptop arrived, took it out of box, and, still stickiness all on the base, and lcd back cover, (that they were supposed to replace.). Loaded up machine, and checked the repair report, and it stated only motherboard, keyboard and memory were replaced. Right.... something was a bit wierd here. Anyway booted into windows, tried running a 3D cad application and noticed there was artifacting going on.

Also, trackpad buttons, (left, middle, and right mouse buttons) are sticky and hard to press down. Also LCD screen is liquid damaged stained on whole of bottom right corner. There is also a scratch on the LCD that wasn't there before and the optical drive doesn't exactly pop out when ejected, it slowly exits a tiny amount, and must be pried out with fingernails, and no smooth release, it is a very stiff pull out.

Where do I stand with this? I understand and recognise that this is not acceptable, although I am afraid if I complain I will be met with the response that considering the damage, Dell have honoured the warranty by making sure the laptop is operational, (not entirely though, due to artifacting of graphics card.).

Really fuming at the moment. Any help/advise on what avenue to take would be most appreciated.

 

If you are entitled to warranty service and feel you did not get it, then call Dell and stick with it, politely, until you are satisfied. And I would wipe off the stickiness before handing over your notebook for service to encourage a positive attitude from the Dell tech.

GK

 

I have been, (and intend to remain) polite. I also wiped the whole of the laptop down with a damp wipe and ensured there were no remaining sticky residue. But still found it ridden with sticky parts when I received it back. Must have been droplets coming out from the inside of the laptop casing? Not sure, but I definitely sent it for repairs in much better condition that I received it. Nonetheless, very good advice GK.

I have spoken with Dell again via the hardware chat option on their site. And the agent was very understanding, and realised I should not have experienced what I did. He offered to send out an engineer and replace all the parts which I am not satisfied with, we agreed upon a graphics card, lcd, optical drive, and whole bottom casing/palm rest replacement. He tried to get me to send it into the depot for repair, but after my previous experience, and the fact that I do have next business day warranty, I pushed for an engineer to come out to me.

After we agreed on all the parts to be replaced, I found myself wondering why they dont just replace the machine. Wouldn't it save them more time and hassle? Looking at various forum threads here, it seems that many people get their machines replaced due to Dell not selling their existing model anymore. However this precision M90 is end of line and not found on Dell's site or outlet site, how are they able to source parts for it? Just find that pretty strange. I mean it is a 3 year old machine.

 

So I thought I would update this with what has happened with regards to the repair of this machine.

Yesterday, an engineer turns up with a pile of boxes and proceeds to replace said parts in my previous post. Graphics card, lcd, lcd casing, palm rest, underneath casing, etc.

He opens up the laptop and sees all the mess the coke spillage left behind and asked what has happened. I basically got him up to speed with what had happened, (he had no indication, was just told to replace said parts) and when he went to turn on the machine he was met with a series of beeps and an error message. This coupled along with the state of the laptop he agreed I should never have received it back in this condition. He went on to phone back to headquarters and order the rest of the parts which would tally up to a new laptop. It would mean the repairs were to be put on hold, and told me he would be back tomorrow to finish the job. Right, one more day without a laptop, but at least I would get a completely new one, (in parts).

He came back today, (with more boxes) and rebuilt this laptop from all the parts he had with him. Went to turn on, and wouldn't come on. He then spent about an hour going through troubleshooting which were instructed to him over the phone. And then finally decided to give up. He said he will be back tomorrow with more new parts.

Where exactly do I stand with this? I mean at least prior to these visits, the machine was working, not knocking the engineer, he was a nice guy, very courteous. But before he got involved this thing was kinda working, (when it wasn't randomly crashing, or throwing up artifacts on the screen.) He seemed to know what he was doing, although he scratched the new LCD front bezel, (next to the dell sign/logo) while trying to pry open the rubber feet to expose the screws.

Should I wait for tomorrow to see if there is any joy? Or should I contact Dell now. Can I request a new machine to be sent out to me?

Getting slightly fed up now, been without my work system for nearly two weeks and have got work piling up now, (can't exactly continue my 3D cad work on the wife's latitude with intel integrated graphics.)

Any advice?

 

My advice would be to speak to your Dell Rep (the one who you spoke to regarding this case) and politely express how much inconvenience it has been and how unhappy you are with the situation.

In my experience they usually say "If it isn't fixed this next time, we'll get you a new one".

 

Feel like banging my head against a brick wall at this point. Engineer turned up, (completely late) on Friday, quickly replaced the motherboard, (again), and cpu and system now booted up. He left me to reinstall the operating system, he was in too much of a rush to leave. So later that evening, once all my software was back on, noticed some glitching/artifacting going on. Completely unhappy as this was just dragging on too much. I get onto the technical hardware chat on Dell's site, was told by the agent that since it is after hours on Friday, the earliest that this can be escalated is Monday morning, and that I should contact them if I have not been contacted by Monday morning.

Over the weekend the problem gets worse, random crashes, system refuses to turn on straight away and must wait until it powers on again. Eventually on Saturday night the system dies, and even now wont power on.

So, this morning I haven't received a call, I contact them via hardware chat, get the same agent who is working on my case, give her an update. I am just met with, let us arrange a collect and repair. I try to explain that this has now gone on for over two weeks, I question their logic in trying to replace individual parts when even their own engineer agreed that a replacement system should have been issued initially. I am just met with, "please let us arrange a collect and repair"

I try to explain that the last time this happened the machine was returned in a worse condition than was originally in. I am met with the same response, "please let us arrange a collect and repair". Remaining polite I ask to speak to a supervisor, who also tries to arrange a collect and repair. When I break down the whole situation to him along with my apprehension to send in to repair, and query as to why a new machine was not issued he said that it does not qualify for replacement. He finally convinces me to send in to repair, by making the bold decision that he will overlook every aspect of repair himself. When I ask if he will physically be there, he answers no, but will be notified of every stage. Right.....

The next problem was arranging a collection, we arranged for a wednesday collection, after much time shifting, I was able to confirm that I would be available that day to have the machine collected, (I really went to long lengths to ensure I could be at home between 9am-5pm) and then the conversation ended.

A few hours later I get a phone call arranging delivery of one dell laptop for tomorrow, (Tuesday) I try to explain that it was for Wednesday, the person on the phone is not having any of it. So much inconvenience to me.

The fact that I spoke to a supervisor, does this now mean the case has been escalated? And what exactly qualifies for a replacement machine?

 

Received the precision M90 back today. Upon inspection I have noticed a long scratch on the right hand side of the screen.

Also I'm not sure what these engineers qualify as a system test. I even mentioned to the service agent that the graphical artifacts occur whem working on various 3d models and that the engineers should run similar sort of tests, to which the agent replied the engineers do sufficient tests on all hardware. Well clearly not as it is still glitching on certaind 3D tasks.

After 2 collect and repairs, 3 engineer call outs, 4 motherboard replacements, 2 graphics card replacements, 2 sets of ram replacements, 1 cpu replacement, an lcd replacement, lcd housing replacement, full plastic housing replacement including palmrest and a keyboard replacement. And the machine is still not working as it should be.

I have now filled out an unresolved technical support issue. And don't really want to speak to the people who were previously dealing with this case as they just want to keep replacing bits of it.

 

Wow, I'm sorry to hear you're having so many issues. I hope an Unresolved Issues rep can help you out. Good luck!

 

Hmm, So lots has happened since my last post. And I thought it only fair that I keep everybody updated with Dell's redeeming actions.

So as mentioned from my last post, I had received the system back from repair and found a scratch on the LCD screen. Also the graphical artifacting continued. Not only did I fill out an unresolved technical support form, but I also emailed these three emails addresses:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

I outlined my whole experience from my first contact with technical support, to the most recent damage to the system from the collect and repair. I went into a lot of detail and it turned out to be a very long email. As with all my correspondance with Dell, I remained polite, good mannered, yet stern. I really did emphasise on all the problems I encountered, as well as the damage done to the system after sending off to repairs, on both occasions, as well as the problems still remaining.

The next day I received a call from, and I quote, "the personal offices of Michael Dell". The individual asked me to explain the ongoing problems and then once I had finished, he suggested a complete system replacement.

This wasn't the first call I received that day, quite a few people from Dell were calling, from different departments trying to resolve my problem, or what seemed from certain calls, to push along this system replacement. By Thursday I received the full specs of the new system. Due to Dell not selling the Precision M90 anymore, they were proposing the replacement of the system with an M6400. All the system specs seemed fine, but I noticed that they really were going out of their way to make sure they didn't give me anything extra over my old system specs. For example, the hard drive for the new machine is 80gb, the same as what my original system shipped with. But if you go to the precision M6400 product page on Dell's UK website, the lowest spec hard drive you can get with the lowest base standard M6400 is 160gb. Strange I thought.... Also they have done the same with the ram, on Dell's UK website, the lowest spec ram it ships with is 2gb, but they are sending me only 1gb, the same as my old machine. Oh well, everything else is an upgrade, I'm not complaining.

One thing I thought I would mention is that the spec of the LCD was the lowest, 1440x900. I really wanted to go upto 1920x1200. So upon receiving the spec, I contacted technical support and requested the upgraded screen. I was met with a blank no. It just wasn't possible I was told, due to the nature of the system build being a system replacement. I really did want the higher res screen so I asked how much it would cost to the get the higher res screen fitted by a Dell engineer after it was shipped to me. By then she realised that I was genuinely after the upgrade, rather than trying to get some freebies added in. She said she would make some calls and get back to me. The next day I got a call from a Dell service rep, who said it would cost £300 to get the screen upgrade! But due to everything I had gone through, they would only charge me £260! I tried to explain that this same upgrade on Dell's UK website would only cost £106! His explanation was that it wasn't the same type of upgrade due to this being a system replacement. And it wasn't going through the same processes as a normal system build. It smelt like BS to me, but I thought, hey I'm getting this new machine, £260 ain't that much to pay overall considering alot of the upgrades I am getting compared to my old system spec.

So just this morning I made the payment for the upgraded screen. And about an hour ago I receive confirmation of my order. And the progress of my order is at phase 5, Delivery!

Not sure what's going on, but I'm pleased that it's gone to delivery so quickly.

If the system arrives and has no problems, I think it would be fair to say that Dell have redeemed themselves in my eyes. I have had to deal with Apple warranty care a few times over the past few years, and they don't hold a candle to Dells warranty care. Even at Dell's worst, they were still better than the service Apple offered.

Thumbs up Dell.

 

Right, so I thought would just bring some closure on this whole situation. My replacement laptop arrived at the beginning of the week. About 4 days later than the estimated delivery, but any annoyances were forgotten once I saw the machine.

The design of the Precision M6400 is simply amazing, and after years of Dell churning out machines which looked like your run of the mill systems, (to be fair, they did the job!) it's nice to see that they are paying attention to aesthetics now. Especially when sometimes, that is the selling point for some consumers, (eyes up Apple crowd)

The only problem I have is the price I paid for this upgraded screen. £264 for an upgraded screen from wxga to wuxga, thats it. It's still a CCFL lit screen, I was under the impression, (more hoping) that the screen would be upgraded to an RGB LED screen based on the price they quoted me. On Dell's uk website, it only costs £104 for the same upgrade I paid £264 for. So am currently waiting a call back from a customer service rep to try and sort all that out.

Overall, they redeemed themselves in the end. One happy Dell customer.