azurelunatic | (no subject)

(no subject)

I am livid. I said No. She said it is only a factory replaceable part. I insisted on a technician. She said there are non

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This is pretty much what you'd expect. If it's not designated as a user-replaceable part, they won't give you any assistance on replacing it yourself. Apart from being out of warranty, it could open them to liability if you damaged yourself or the laptop.

Your best bet is to see if they have any close-by repair centres that you could physically take it to - otherwise, look for a complaints manager and see what you can get them to throw in. (Bigger drive? Cash compensation? Some Dell-branded accessories?)

*nod* They should be able to do something, since they've clearly screwed you over. At the very least, I'd expect free express shipping on it. Try for a bigger drive, and maybe a shiny or two.

Bigger drive would be very nice. I could really go for an 80gig, eh? And since HDs are going at about $1 a gig these days (and obviously their costs are lower than end-users'), that might be about equivalent to the $50-odd that a monthly payment on the thing is. (I was broke when I got it, so I'm making computer payments as well as car payments.)

She is the "escalation manager" and she said that after her, there is no one. From her accent, I am guessing that she is not US-based. I may call Sales and see if Sales can connect me to the complaints department. I want cash compensation, for one full billing period and counting. (It was out of my use for a whole month and now then some, and so that's what I want at a minimum.)

That's what you'd expect - we use the same terminology at Nokia. The 'escalations manager' will be the person responsible for punting it further up the food chain to people that don't take calls.

Yes, everyone gets pissed off that they can't phone up and talk to these teams, but if they took calls all day from irate customers it'd take them even longer to get things done.

I deal with this from the other side every day, so trust me when I say that getting angry at people won't help. Angry shouty people get hung up on and notes placed on their file. Pleasant people get everyone going out of their way to help.

Also: billing period? If you have your laptop on credit, it's likely through a third-party company. Dell won't want to know about your repayments. (Much like Nokia don't care about what you're paying to the cellphone network while we fix your phone.) It might be a lot easier to go for upgrades and toys instead of cash money - although definitely try for the cash money as well.

Trying to fight Dell on this is going to be like spitting in the wind. You're asking them to endorse you violating the warranty without losing the warranty. No industry is going to do that, whether it's cars or computers.

Better to focus on what you can squeeze out of them, like

wibble suggested. One thing I would definitely demand, if you don't already get it, is free overnight shipping to and from.

I figured that either I'd get my way on this, or they'd be willing to negotiate for some lesser (to them) option.

They pay for the shipping. I am going to talk to Ms. Esclation Manager and see if I can't get faster shipping.

Dell used to have technicians that would come out. Then they decided they didn't care about their customers any more, or something. They also shoddified all their laptops around the same time. I hate to see a good company go to pot.

Snarky Lady got a dell tech out the other day. I was so jealous.

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