I called Dell about the bad power cord on Friday. Monday morning a whole new power supply arrives at my door.
The repair to my laptop hinge had me out of service for a bit longer, since I had to send them the machine, but in both cases Dell has been very helpful, hasn't tried to evade responsibility for the warranty (i.e. they don't try and argue that I've abused the machine, which I haven't; well-used maybe, but not abused), and understood in a systemic way that people need their computers working right now. They do try and keep the customer service phone number hard to find on the web site in the hope that you'll stumble across the solution to your problem before you initiate an expensive support call, but that's about the only thing I can really complain about — once you're on the phone with someone they treat you very well.
I do recommend you spring for the three-year warranty, though. The hinge failure happened just before the one-year point, and the power cord just after, and it's very comforting to know that the next two years of potential problems are covered. Yay Dell!
Posted by russell at November 04, 2002 02:37 PMUnlike HP, where I had to send in my laptop no less than four times to be repaired: OK, the thing no longer runs for more than 10 minutes...hmm...not long enough to back up the harddrive, so I remove the drive and send it in for repair. They send it back with a new hard disk and a note saying "hard disk missing" as the repair (despite the case notes and printed notes attached to the unit). Thanks for the free extra drive, but that wasn't the problem. Send it back again. They replace the motherboard. Still not fixed--in fact, it doesn't run more than 30 seconds. Apparently they don't bother turning them on after working on them. They replace the motherboard again. Original problem fixed, but now it won't run off the battery at all, and charges the battery indefinitely. They replace the motherboard again. They claim they only use NEW parts, but I'm suspicious of refurbs being used here. OK, but now my battery is fried from overcharging from the previous motherboard. They replace the battery. Months later, it's finally a happy camper. Apparently if this last time didn't fix it, they would offer me "other options" for repair / replacement, but I never found out what that was. Whew! They were nice on the phone, but man, their customer service dept bites. At least they only charged me $300 flat rate for out-of-warranty fees, including fed ex shipment both ways (four times, no less). (and thankfully AMEX paid for the repair through their warranty extension plan! amex rocks).
So, while waiting for all that to settle out, I bought a Dell. :) Sprung for the 3yr warranty, given the HP experience. Been quite happy with the Dell...
likewise, i bought a dell 2 years ago with the 3 year warranty (1 year onsite), after a year my usb port fell to bits, called them one afternoon, next morning a guy came round and changed my motherboard in 10 minutes! no small feat when you consider he had to change the processor, ram, graphics and sound cards over too! after 18 months my monitor started resetting itself every 5 minutes for no reason (apparently this is common?), again called them, and the next day they delivered a newer version of the monitor. all this was for no extra charge (other than the original 3 year/1 year onsite warranty cost). its hard for me to lick the butts of big corporations, but i have to say that i am astounded at the excellence of their support!
Posted by: Gregg on November 9, 2002 05:52 PMJust a note to anyone tempted to leave a comment here: this is not a Dell tech support forum. It's also not read by more than about 10 people. If you want to bitch to or about Dell, there are better places to do it.
Posted by: russell on March 4, 2003 06:37 PM