return/collection of laptops and responsibility?

Hi there,

I was wondering who is responsible when a Laptop, that needs to be collected for a replacement, goes missing in between the postal service that Dell hires and Dell.

A few weeks ago, the postal service contaced me to come and pick the Laptop from my house. They said they would pick it up at a specific time. They never came at that time and I was not home when they came. They left a note that they will be picking it up tomorrow. I left the Laptop with a friend at my house, the postal service guys picked it up from her and everything was fine. Yesterday I got a call from Dell here in New Zealand that they did not get the Laptop and that they would like to organise someone to pick it up. I told them I dont give birth to Laptops, nor are there any on the tree as it is winter you see. I got quite pissed off as I already went through this.

Now Dell said they are investigating where the Laptop is and sending their CSI unit as they never got the Laptop, the postal service says they never picked it up, and Dell here in New Zealand dont know anything. Who is responsible in this situation? Will I have to fork out another $4000 NZ because of somebodys stupidity?

NB: That the contract I signed between Dell and myself for my replacement was that I would return the faulty notebook with all the power cables, cds and manuals that it came with. So that means my replacement maybe sent back as they claim they never got the "faulty" laptop.

Sorry I forgot about this thread.

Dell are still looking into the 'investigation'. I have been constantly talking with one of the customer care reps who has been really good. She has been talking to the returns here in NZ, and also been talking to the Courier. We have Courier here in NZ which use electronic signatures and names when picking up the package. The interesting thing is, my friend said that nothing was asked. The guy said that he was there to pick up a "package" for Dell. It was a Courier van so she handed over the Laptop in the box. She sadly cannot ID the Courier as it was a month ago.

Dell said they are contacting their management team and will get back to me by Monday with an answer on what happens, who bares the responsibility.

Even if Dell ask me to pay, which I hope they dont, it will be interesting to see what they say considering the returned laptop was practically as useful as a brick. The motherboard was fried, the screen panel cracked (through one of the Dell technicians attempting to change the screen and damaging it) and the video card possibly faulty rebooting my laptop during games.

Apparently it was a Courier called BAX. The Van was yellow to the best of her knowledge.


I do not think that is the case. It is an issue of process. Liability, as per the law of tort uses the test of negligence. That is if I could reasonably foresee that giving the Laptop to my friend, who would give it to a Courier van would result in the Laptop going missing. Clearly I could not reasonably foresee this. Therefore I am not liable.

I rang Dell today as I was really sick and tired of this issue dragging on. I told them that I was not liable for any loss and that I had followed every single instruction that was given to me to return the laptop. That I did not act negligently and could not be liable for any loss as I was not to blame. They told me that they agree that Dell's return process was confusing and not clear. They said that Dell would bear the cost of the Laptop and that they would be sending me some coupons as a result of this dragging on. So seems like everything is being sorted out finally.