And we're slowly approaching one month as we get to the 16th of January.

I dropped my laptop a while ago and dented it up pretty good. It still worked, but cosmetic stuff was broken and it was a bit louder since you could hear the hard drive. The customer rep. told me that I should have it within 7-10 days. I made sure to tell him that no parts were broken, but to just simply test the hard drive just in case.

Two and a half weeks go by and I don't hear anything from them. I rang up a customer service rep. and he said that I should have it definitely by next week and that there was no update on the status of my laptop. Well, that week that I was "definitely" going to have it by was last week.

I rang up Dell again three days ago and said that I really needed the computer, as school was starting for me on the 6th. He went through his generic routine and put me on hold for about 10 minutes as he looked up the status of my laptop. He then got back to me saying that he heard no new updates about the computer and sent me to a higher-level support dude. Once I got on the phone with him (after waiting 10 more minutes), he said that they were *still* testing parts on my laptop. He then gave me a number to call to check on the status of my laptop at any time rather than call Dell.

That number he gave me was a Qualxserv employee-only number that would be useful to me if I worked for Dell. I needed an employee PIN to access it. It could potentially tell me the status of my computer if I could access it. Point is, the customer service guy basically gave me a number that was utterly useless to me.

I have no idea what to do now. It's like they aren't even working on it. The guy talked about how in "extreme cases" it could take up to two weeks, but this case isn't considered extreme. It's definitely just a dented case and slightly scratched screen; everything else works just fine. What should I do?

could call dells executive escalation team. and might as well file a bbb complaint

+1

Start making a lot of noise, every possible way you can. Forum posts, emails to Dell, online chat with Dell, phone calls, everything.

Update: The computer actually arrived today. And man, am I mad.

I opened the box to find a note saying that extra hard drives were not available for the computer but would be shipped later. First, I was thinking, "Wow, so they sent me a completely useless computer and didn't even tell me about this ahead of time. What crappy service." Then, I noticed something sitting on top of the computer that I overlooked when I first opened it (at first I thought they just sent me another wireless remote thingy). Ironically, the hard drive was right next to the computer uninstalled in a static-proof bag. It wasn't even in a bubble-wrapped part. It was just sitting right there on top of my laptop as if they just kind of tossed it right in there.

My laptop screen was not replaced even though I had asked them to since I had dead pixels and scratches on the LCD from the drop. The keyboard looked funny - upon closer inspection and comparison to my room mate's XPS M1530, a bulge is popping out of the middle of the laptop/keyboard and the power button and stuff doesn't fit right. Not to mention, it looks and feels really odd.

Now, the hard drive made me feel a little nervous about peoples' privacy. So I put it in to get the phrase "NTDLR not found." I found this a bit odd, as that tends to pop up if the MBR is messed up or if you switch out motherboards/directly move a hard drive from one working system to a system with different peripherals.

When I went to restore my data using Acronis TrueImage, it told me that the hard drive didn't have enough space to restore. Now, this was weird to me because this was supposed to be a totally wiped drive. Looking at the space available, I saw that the drive had about 30GB free out of 160 - in other words, Dell actually pulled another hard drive from a separate system, didn't wipe it at all, and gave it to me with all of the previous owner's valuable data on it. You know, that's a little concerning and makes me very happy that I wiped my drive thoroughly before sending it to them. If that had gone to the wrong person, some potential major identity theft could have happened and stuff. Seeing as I am a nice person and a moral human being, I wiped the drive and began restoring my stuff. It just added a lot of unecessary time to my restore process as Acronis boots from a CD and has really shoddy drivers for restoration/wiping.

I've about had it with Dell. I am calling tomorrow and making a complaint with them. I do not have any time to send my computer back to them to fix it - I need it for school. I can't wait another month for them to fix it again. If they won't send a technician to fix my strangely bulging case and replace my clearly messed up LCD, then I will ask for a refund and buy from another company like Asus.

I would ask for a replacement laptop, and tell them you will send the old one back to them when it arrives.

I will say this: Dell's usually pretty good about treating the customer right. It's just that sometimes they (or one of their subcontractor companies) really drop the ball.

Just calmly but insistently make your demands that they do as dave-p said. Always escalate until you find someone at Dell who is empowered to fix it up for you. Once this happens, you'll be very pleased at how fast things progress.

they had my m1710 for 6 weeks, returned it missing the left lcd hinge and cracked screen. and problem remained... dell insisted i send it back with my hd and power adapter to insure they find the problem, over my objections i complied. came back with a dead screen, scratched palm rest, missing hd and adapter and the problem remained... and it took 4 weeks... dell actually wanted me to send it to depot again, i absolutely refused and was sent a refurbished 1710 which was completely thrashed, smelled like an ashtray and was dead.

so yeah, dell is really screwing up lately

I don't know why the Dell tech agent gave you the QualXServ technicians only line. QualXServ has absolutely nothing to do with anything involving the depot or a replacement system, only on-site repairs. Sounds like some Level 1 tech just randomly picked a toll free # from his phone list.

I make no guarantees obviously, but the last time I was tasked with working on a laptop that the depot screwed up (after some genius Dell tech didn't realize the customer had on-site coverage) The system immediately was setup for an exchange when I called in to say that the Depot fouled it up. I'd say give Dell technical support a call and tell them that the depot sent your laptop back to you in unacceptable condition, and that you don't want to give them another chance to screw up again.

Also, NEVER send your hard drive in with your system to depot. Even if the tech support agent tells you this. Dell does not require your hard drive be installed in your system when they repair it. However, there are a couple of exceptions for systems that require major disassembly to remove the hard drive.

I'm a pretty calm person and I hate it when people yell over the phone. I told them in the nicest but most assertive way that I felt that my service was poor and I should have a tech come and fix this. After spending a good hour being transferred to the wrong departments (6 times!!!), I spoke to someone and he is sending a technician out right away to repair my computer and replace my LCD.

I got a call from the tech yesterday around 3:00, but I was gone so he is coming on Monday at 4:00.

The only reason why I sent in my HDD is because the drop happened literally on the HDD and I wanted to know whether or not it was a safe HDD to use in terms of data loss. I made sure to wipe it very well with the Department of Defense standard (not the 100% best, but definitely gets the job done).

yeah, i was told i had to send in my hard drive because they suspected it was part of the problem, otherwise i wouldn't have for sure

My buddy is going through this as we speak. Bought his wife a dell for xmas and bam, blue screens like crazy. Called them and was told to ship back and wait. I HATE Dell support.