Venting about Dell and my laptop - Page 10

i hope you get this resolved.


I'm going ape sht here!

congrats

Just curious, how does the 7950GTX go up against the 8800?

If my M1710 were to die right now, would I have a reasonable argument to say that my card is better than an 8700? I believe the 7950GTX is on par with the 8800, so if my M1710 died I would think I would be entitled to an 8800 or a M17x eh?

Just goin' off memory, cause I coulda sworn someone made a thread about that already (something to do with the bus or whatever).

yeah, the bus speed is 256 on the 7950 gtx, 8700's are 128 each. it took me 3 months to convince dell, and it has been a nightmare because the 8800's melt so quickly... and the 1730 is done so dell would have to replace your 1710 with a 17x, or maybe a dell business laptop but that isn't common

F@iNT got the AW replacement. Hope you'll get it soon Woodstock.
cheers ...

IT IS JUST RIDICULOUS... next Tuesday the rep is supposed to call with an update. it is crazy that dell thinks this is completely acceptable. i just dont know what to do at this point...

i don't have the time to spend hours on the phone now.

thanks, me too!!

hey woodstock i feel for ya did you already try the bbb route?

not yet...

I talked with another supervisor today and I told them that I don't know what to do. I have no trust in a unit that was supposedly tested for six days, and won't power on. What problems will the system have later... I told him I won't be satisfied with going through trouble shooting with replacement parts for another 9 months like I did with the 1730.

I also told him I expect some compensations for my time now that it's been 3 months I have been in Dell Hell.

Well See. . .

My Dell Hell story

Hey all,

This is my first post on here. I Love the site and have had alot of useful information with regards to my 1730. Here is my story, you may not beleive it or judging from some of the horror stories you may beleive it too fast and that may be the sad part (for Dell anyways).

I purchased my 1730 A while back from Ebay and was pleased to find out when I received it that it had a warranty (complete care package with next day on call) that was good until 2011. I started contacting Dell chat for assistance and the first conversation was a little rough but the rep was able to transfer the ownership of the system into my name and address. I received confirmation from dell Tag support and started my, what has turned out to be a rollercoaster of a ride with Dell support. At first I would call up and after refusing to accept their usual mumbo jumbo about my issues being caused by software I had numerous parts replaced. I have never spent less then 2 hours in a chat with tech support. After replacing a couple of parts I had an issue where I had to deal with a "RESOLUTION REPRESENTITIVE" AKA "go F your self rep", After that interaction and the rep gave me a reduced price on a blu ray burner for my 1730 I had to call back only to find out that they decided to not recognize me as the warranty owner any longer. I spoke to several support people including the ownership transfer team and explained that I had emails of the chats and actual confirmation emails from dell informing me that the ownership was transferred, on top of that I had had the in home tech come to my home and replace numerous parts. They would not accept anything that I had to prove that this had been done before and basically told me I was S.O.L. I threatened to take them to court and I was informed to have fun with that. I left it alone and vowed to never get another Dell and tell anyone who would listen my story. Two weeks ago my Laptop just started flashing RGB colors when I would boot it (GPU Failure once again) I felt soo upset because I had paid over 2400 for this machine a under a year ago and now had a paper weight.

I read an article about Dell being sued for failing to make good on their warranty support and such issues and tried to contact them once again to see if they would finally support my issue. I spent time on the chat with a rep who offered to send me a new mobo, gpu, lcd kit and processor ( basically everything except the case) then he asked me to verify the address and again the "your not the owner" crap started happening once again. Immediately after I was contacted by a supervisor who wanted to have more information, I explained the situation and offered to send him all the proof that I had and he agreed to look at it. After looking over my proof and contacting who ever he had to, once again I had my warranty (big sigh of releif) I was told all my parts would arrive on the 23rd, I received 2 confirmation calls that the parts would be there and the tech would call me. On that morning I received a call informing me that my parts had been back ordered until the 5th of October. I contacted the chat support and wanted to know what part was causing this delay and they had no idea and asked if they could call me back. the guy called me back 2 days later instead of the next day as agreed, atleast he called me back, and informed me that the date of the 5th was accurate. I wrote my supervisor and informed him that that wait was incredible and if something could be done to expidite the issue. He checked with some other dept and called me up and let me know that I could either accept an exchange for a 1640 or wait until the 1730 parts are available, I mentioned that after reviewing their site I felt only the AW would be comparable to my system and he chuckled informing me that he had no control over what they are going to send me, it could not be the AW but in my case he usually notices that they are replacing 1730's with refurbished 1640's . I agreed at first because I was not aware of the specs on a 1640. After I hung up the phone and looked up the specs I thought to myself "ohhhh helll to the naaaaw" even the most maxed out 1640 can not compare to the power behind my beast and was basically an unfair downgrade. I immediately contacted my supervisor VIA email and broke down the specs to him, he called me back and let me know he would cancel the previous dispatch and inform the exchange dept that I was requesting an AW but he could not commit to that actually happening. My current supervisor has been nice so far so I did not want to get "FIRM" with him and just said that my only wish is that I receive a comparable system. So, now I wait......

My current xps 1730 (paperweight) specs

Dual Nvidia 8800M gtx SLI
Ageis Phys x Processor
x9000 2.8 extreme
dual 160 GB hdds @ 7200 in raid 0 config
Blu Ray Burner
17 inch display (1920x1200)
4GB running win7 64(RTM)

Thanks for reading guys I feel better now that I spilled that out on here

like you there are alot of members here that is still fighting dell to get the right thing done some almost have it some still in the mix of the fight, i've only seen one person who had no problems with the exchange but that's because he was a high profile customer. i myself almost took the 1640 but was advised not too. best of luck on this.

here is some of the things i found that helped in my case

do online complaint pay off?
http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2004p109id81997.htm

i followed this to the letter

Service Tips: 7 Ways to Win at Whining
There's a right way to get good service, and any number of wrong ways. Here are some tried-and-true methods for getting problems solved before you resort to a gripe site.

1.Reread the fine print. Is your problem really covered by that warranty? Make sure you're in the right before you start a fight.


2.One word: escalate. Don't assume that the first person you reach is your last resort. Ask to speak to a manager. Keep going until you find someone who can fix what's wrong.


3.Create a paper trail. Keep everything--receipts, e-mails, shipping confirmations, a phone log--and be ready to produce these documents when they're needed.


4.Keep it clean. Hurling insults and sarcasm may be cathartic, but it'll get your complaint tossed in the circular file. Stick to the facts of your case, and you'll better your odds.


5.Don't get mad, get help. Is the company a member of the Better Business Bureau or a trade organization? Look for a logo or a link on the company's site. Many such groups can intervene effectively.


6.Say what you want. Do you want a refund? A replacement product? A handwritten apology from the CEO? Most companies say they'll be happy to make you happy, if your request is reasonable. So tell them up front.


7.Call in the feds. If nothing else works, contact the authorities. If the business is legit, you'll certainly get its attention. And if it's not, you might help bring it down.

email the CEO

If you would like to contact the CEO of Dell to tell him how much you enjoy his company's products and services, his direct email address is Michael@dell.com. We've previously posted michael_dell@dell.com, and that, while it arrives at his office, does not go to him personally.

good luck.

what did they say?

http://www.bbb.org/

I missed his call and he won't leave a call back number. Said I should get a call back sometime today.

I was fairly clear in what I wanted. I said I want a laptop that works out of the box, and compensation. He tried to say the "upgrade" to the Alienware line was compensation. I turned that back on him and said the GTX 280's are a slight upgrade, and the design of the unit just fixes the heat problems of the 1730. When you get down to it, they are the same machine (same cpu, slightly better memory, die shrunk gfx). So I either want dell cash, or another alienware built tested properly, and with everything set to max specs.

I think I deserve after 3 months of no laptop, and really almost a year (My problems with the GPU started last October) without something 100% functional.

Thank you so much for the information. I really appreciate it, I was venting and wanted to share my story but do not expect to have anyone from Dell contact me or anything like that. I am trying to work with Dell right now and will see how far being nice gets me before I try and contact the BBB. So far the supervisor helping me out this time around has been great. I will keep you posted on what happens from here on out, I hope I can join you in that mx17 club although I liked my 1730 when it was working they definetely did not think far ahead enough and release it with proper cooling in mind, I had the card replaced 3 times alone and the processor twice.

agreed.

that is terrible. i remember when i got my mi730 i thought i would have no problems at all but obviously that was naive... in a year will everyone be complaining about what a lemon the m17x is? hope not...

Woodstock,

I have read great reviews on the mx17 and from my troubles with the 1730 and looking at the Vents of the mx17 I am pretty confident that the people with the alienware mx17's will probably not have to contact hardware support for sometime. Also please keep in mind that the 8800m gtx and the 8700 had probably one of the highest failure rates of any card out there. It is basically almost guaranteed to fail. I have had 3 of them replaced since 03/2009, amongst other parts. this is also due to the fact that dell uses refurbished parts, they deny this and say it is refurbished because they have to label it as such when they take it out of the packaging and place it inside their own but a used video card is a used video card and you dont have to be a rocket scientist to see that what is being put in is definetely second hand.

:c ensored:

went in to have my 8800 gtx's replaced. came back with 8700's and nothing about that on the work order at all, no one asked if i would settle for the 8700's or anything, they just did it... replaced the screen even though mine was perfect with a terrible lite leakage pos with several dead pixels... numerous scratches and broken bits... and it was at depot for almost 2 months....

so furious......