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College Kid Learns Lesson About Dell's Warranty | 42 comments (42 topical) | Post A Comment
A Daughter away at School as well [ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#25)
by Anonymous User on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 02:32:55 PM PDT

I bought a Latitude D610 for my Daughter going away to Princeton from where we live on the west coast. I bought the best unit available at the time and was the same unit I used at work (Boeing). I paid exter to have it under warranty for 4 years with complete care on it for accidental damage. Thinking that I would not have to get involved with it further. That she would start with the best and fight her own battles. I was wrong of course the unit went about four months before she had to call into Dell tech support. She had a bad hard drive. I had read about the bad WD drives and she had one. But that first call turned into 8 before they would replace the hard drive and even then said it was a best guess. It lasted another 2 months before she had to call again. This time a wireless card. And third time a couple of months later for a battery. Which they only cover for the first year of the warranty by the way. Even with a complete care warranty. This got her out of the first year. The second year more of the same. After 3 formats and a reinstall for a BSOD error. A motherboard was replaced. Followed by the ram and another hard drive and about 35 calls into Dell. The third year another BSOD so a "hero" kit was sent that was a motherboard, memory, processor. Needless to say that by the third year my daughters work was suffering and she was no longer at the top of her class. Because of some missed assignments or lesser grades for late assignments. So now that we are in the fourth year I am calling for my daughter no more letting her fight her own battles because she is losing the battle if her work suffers. I called in and was escalated through the layers of Dell support. Never dropping the Boeing Bomb on them. But just giving my daughters information. I was finally escalated to Dell Corporate in Round Rock. To the REC as they call it. Resolution Expert Center is the real name. I talked to a escalation rep by the name of Jeffrey Scully. I told him of my daughters plight with her unit. And he could see from the logs under her account. Which were massive. And without even asking for it he blurted out the he thought it would be a better business decision to replace the laptop due to its extensive repairs. As to carrying on further and roll the dice that your daughter would have a dependable unit for the remainder of her warranty. Which was 8 months to go. And that he would replace my daughter's unit with a brand new D630. I asked him why the others had not drawn the same conclusion were they not Dell employees also? And he said that generally they do and they are getting better. But he was the only Dell badged person who had entered notes into the log to date in all the entries. Which meant that I had finally reached a Dell person. When I call using Boeing I get a Dell person within a minute. They man our help desk. The new D630 arrived 6 days later. And has worked flawlessly since now in its 8th month. I called and had the warranty extended for a fifth year for graduate school. And yes my daughter did graduate and at the top due to her turn around her final year. Which I can directly contribute to her finally having a working unit. Through all of this I would actually buy a Dell again. And have done so for my son. Sometimes computers will fail and there is nothing that can be done about it. Even replacing what amounts to every part they will fail. But it kind of restores my faith that and don't get me wrong now I was angry before. But talking finally to someone whom actually worked for Dell. And did the right thing just by reviewing what had transpired goes a long way with me. That is what I wanted people told me "no" the same people whom were pushing another repair on me. I get to the real Dell. I am taken care of. Sorry Jeffrey for mentioning your name. But it is your fault for being there and also being the only one who can help.

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College Kid Learns Lesson About Dell's Warranty | 42 comments (42 topical) | Post A Comment
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