Blacklisted AW 15 R4

Hi everyone! I'm dealing with a weird situation with my recently purchased Alienware 15 R4 and would like to know your opinion in this case.

I was in the US a couple of weeks ago. An ebay seller had this laptop for a very good price, I noticed he was located in the same city as me. So we met up, he showed me the laptop, it was brand new in box, I paid him on site through Paypal and all good. I checked the service tag and it had 3 year premium warranty, nice surprise! I went back to my home country and the laptop has worked flawlessly.

HOWEVER, last week I checked again the service tag, and surprise again! In the warranty section, it says "no information available". Weird. So I began contacting Dell, and they are saying that this laptop that I own, should had been returned to Dell. Apparently, the original buyer requested an exchange. Dell sent him a new laptop, but he never returned this one. How is it possible that Dell sends a new laptop without first receiving the one requested for exchange??

So, because this laptop never arrived to Dell, they blacklisted the service tag and removed any kind of warranty from it. So here I am, with a brand new laptop, blacklisted, without any possible warranty or support from Dell. Dell says there's pretty much nothing they can do about it.

I contacted the seller, and he says that people arrive to their store and sells them electronics, they don't do any kind of background or origin search. So that yeah, it's likely that the original buyer instead of returning this laptop to Dell as he should had, sold it to this store and then this guy from this store sold it to me. He swears he didn't know, but as I requested more info, he began to get aggresive, offending me and saying that having a blacklisted laptop it's nothing to complain about.

I paid with Paypal, so I have filed a claim. However, because I'm not in the US any more, shipping this baby back would cost well over $200. I'm not sure if filing this claim is fair for the seller in the first place, maybe he really didn't know? But anyways I'm screwed because if something goes wrong with this laptop, Dell won't give any kind of support.

I apologize for this long post, but I'm seriously lost and would much appreciate any input or opinion.

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

Dell usually sends in the part and then you ship the old part back. This happened to me as well last year. I requested a new 512gb m.2 SSD for my laptop as the one they sent me ran hot and i requested for a samsung. After a few calls back and fort they eventually gave in to my request and sent me a new ssd and i had to ship the old ssd back after a week(they gave me time to transfer my files etc) I could have kept the old ssd but it is not how i deal with people and companies. Also obviously they could void your warranty/support because of what you did. I think it is possible for them to send a new laptop because dell usually deals with "business" consumers who cannot afford to not have a laptop with them so its a compromise on their end. That is why dell is #1 laptop/computer company here in the philippines(possibly) in the world.

 

It doesn't matter if they knew or not. The seller (the store you bought it from) is legally responsible to issue you a refund and take it back. They technically sold you stolen goods. They HAVE no choice but to issue a refund and report the item to the police. Its up to them to either take the case to small claims court or take the loss.

Unfortunately, I think shipping is on you.

 

Paypal will refund you. Item was not as described because it has no warranty. Ask alienware an email confirmation that this laptop has no warranty and is blacklisted. This will help you win your case. And the shipping will be refunded also. I would no worry if i were you.

 

That's a little unlucky however if you buy from a dodgy 2nd hand shop and not direct from a known distributor, unfortunately the lower prices is often offset against the increased risk of something exactly like this happening.

There's a lot of people with expired warranties now for R4 units so I wouldn't be too concerned, if it's lasted this long then chances are you don't have a lemon and it will serve you well so long as you look after it.

For peace of mind I would look to increase the chances of this and repaste / service the laptop now while it's good to ensure longevity. If you're not experienced, give it to a pro and you'll even squeeze out some more performance. It's just not worth the risk without a warranty to fall back on.

 

Thank you so much for your replies, I really appreciate them

Paypal decided on my favor, but yeah, shipping costs are on me because I'm not in the US. I'm not sure I want so spend $200+ to ship it back through a reliable carrier. Then the seller, being how he is, might claim the minimum spot he finds on the laptop to avoid the full refund.

I guess I'll keep it and hope that I never encounter a problem with it that requires a major intervention by a technician.

Thanks again, have a great day everyone!

 

Dell sent me a new 13R3 to exchange my old one. They didn't really listen to me when I told them I'd be on holidays when they wanted to come and pick the old one up. After my holidays, they forgot about it. I called them about it TWICE and they still didn't come. After 3 months I called again and mentioned that I still had the old one and they finally picked it up. So these things can happen. However, I think that in your case the seller willingly sold you a technically stolen laptop.

 

Yep pretty much exactly the same thing happened to me as well . Had to chase them loads for months to get it picked up. Some lucky soul will be chuffed to bits with it though. In the time I waited I used it for practice to solve all the issues, was running sweet in the end and had the most powerful 1080 I've ever seen in a laptop. Firestrike graphics score of 25K!

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