Question about Depot process

So I'm sending my Inspiron 1420 back to Dell for depot service, and I just want to clarify a few things. I don't have the original box anymore, so Dell said that they'll ship me a new one within a few days. I have to schedule another pickup from Purolator after I get the box, right?

 

Yes. Dell will send you a box and a shipping label. The 'box' they send blows... you may want to pick up your own packing material. Then again, if anything happens to it during transit, I guess they have to fix it...

 

Ok, thanks for the advice. When you say shipping label, is that where I place the information I received in the email with the address, dispatch number etc.?

EDIT: Also, is it necessary to include my hard drive with my laptop? The email tells me to do so, but I've also read about people taking it out before they ship it.

 

Dell will include a pre-printed shipping label. All you have to do is affix it to the 'box'.

As for the HDD, some people remove them, some leave it installed.

If you opt to leave it in the system, I would back it up using Acronis or another disk imaging application and then wipe it. Then reinstall the OS using the Dell OS DVD.

 

i would remove it... dont want any of my data going to someone else...

unless u do a deep level erase and format, ur data is somehow going to be still there

 

So just to clarify, there shouldn't be a problem taking out the HDD before sending the laptop in? Dell wouldn't refuse to service my laptop for some reason if I do so?

 

no def take it out unless that is the issue of course. dell may in fact restory or format it to do testing and you may loose a lot of data (they did this to a freind of mine trust me they lost all their pictures and school work) also if you have the original box they shipped it to you in imo i would ship it back in that..the depot boxes are crap as already mentioned

i wish you the best of luck with depot both systems ive sent to the depot came back in pretty bad shape. one was scratched up all over the other one had a cracked hinge cover on the lcd and it looked like someone tried to pry the plastics apart with a regular metal screwdriver. dell replaced both systems but i will for sure never buy a dell without in home service again.. depot imo sucks

if it was me i would yell till they sent me the parts to replace myself. i just swapped a mobo, lcd and gpu and i had to agrue for a while since they wanted to send a tech but i said i wanted to do it myself and after a long back and forth phone call they agreed

 

Make sure that you remove the HDD, and the Battery also, some batteries are lost in the depot, If you decide to include the HDD keep in mind that it might be formated. After you got the computer in the box you will have to call DHL to schedule a pick up and they will take it from there.

 

So, does it really matter if I include any of the things the e-mail tells me to (AC adapter, battery, optical drive, hard drive) if the problem doesn't lie within those parts?

 

No, you can leave those out. Just mention what is actually affected.

 

Ok, one last thing. So the Purolator guy picked up my box, when do I receive the waybill? I'm pretty unknowledgable about this whole shipping process, did I screw something up here?

 

Well, the repair process went pretty well. I shipped the laptop Tuesday afternoon, and received in Friday morning. I was amazed I got it back before the weekend . They fixed the broken keyboard, but the Caps Lock button is still wobbly on the new keyboard. Well, at least it doesn't fly off anymore