m18x arrives - the good, the bad and the ugly...

First off, it all started with an m17x-R2 that was replaced over and over and... it's all posted here on this thread called; "The most HORRIBLE Customer Care Experience EVER!!" which is now closed for reasons beyond my comprehension. It's a good read and it has some very valuable information posted in there regarding how to deal with Dell's horrible customer care. Anyway, a very long 7mo ordeal short, after a couple replacements and 80+ hours of sitting on the phone and getting hung up on and disconnected and the endless fighting, I filed a complaint with the BBB of Central Texas where Dell is located and I now I have an m18x. Of course, it arrived a week later than promised. But I'm over it... mostly. It's here now - that's all that matters.

I'm not going to post any pictures because I think there are plenty of pictures posted already. If you have a request for a picture, I can surely post it and I still have the R2 here for comparrison. It will be shipped back to them very soon so send requests for photos asap. Ok, so here's my short review. Most everything has been posted already, so I'll make my post short and sweet and to the point regarding my opinion on the machine.

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The Good

The first thing I noticed is that the m18 has a slightly different colored black than the R2. It's kind of got a purpley/brownish tint in the right light. It's more metallic looking. Not shiney, just more metallic.

After unboxing and gettting her fired up I am really impressed. She looks great and they seem to have fixed all the little querks from the R2. I like the new buttons for volume control for sure and the macro buttons will come in handy later... I just need to get used to them. Everytime I try to hit escape or shift or something... I hit the macro. That will take some getting used to.

The R2 was plagued with getting a scratched screen when the lid was closed because it sat flush on the keys... the m18x has small rubber pipes on both sides of the screen that prevent this from happening. Very cool!

All the rubbish about the "bad" screen? Don't worry about it guys! I've got the RGB on the R2 and the m18 sitting side by side and the only real noticeable difference is the resolution, but with the screen size difference it kind of makes up for it. I was expecting that with a larger screen and lower resolution, it was going to look horrible... but it's not bad at all. I'm not complaining and I complain about everything, LOL! As far as the color goes... sure there's a difference, but I'm telling you that it's not that big of a deal. I promise you that you won't be dissapointed. Personally, after some tweaking... I think that the m18 screen is nicer. I never noticed before that the RGB has slight redish tint to it. This m18 screen is very rich in color once you play with it's settings. I personally love the screen and I think the difference in the two is just purely preference.

The rubberized palmrest and mouse pad are awesome. It feels great. I'm concerned about it's longevity, but it does feel nice and functions better than the hard plastic. One thing to note is the mouse pad buttons. They feel so much more "real" than the R2 and they are split. The R2 was a single toggle-style button. This is actually two separate buttons with a nice feel to them.

All the questions surrounding whether or not RAID 0 works in the 1TB (2x500G) setup... no worries guys. It works just fine. At least, it does so far. I've only had the machine for a couple days, but I've dumped 500G worth of videos, music, photos, and programs on it and it's working flawlessly.

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The Bad

I haven't heard anyone complain about this yet... but my m18 has HORRIBLE keyflex right in the center of the board. If you hit the H button, the whole center of the board sinks a good quarter of an inch. I had the first gen m15x and it was bad with keyflex... but this... this is beyond bad. This is horrible. This must just be my particular machine because I can't imagine others not complaining about this. Probably a bad seat job. I'm not suprised that I was the lucky one to get the awesome keyboard. Dell really does hates me. *update* They've got an order in with the onsite tech to replace the keyboard next week.

Lastly, I very specifically ordered the RAID 0 setup with the 1TB dual SSH-HDs and like most others - they just ignored that. So I'm pretty ticked that I have to blow everything out and set up the Raid on my own. I ordered RAID 0 because I didn't want to dink with it myself and now I will be stuck for a couple hours blwoing out a brand new machine. Not cool. *update* After blowing out the system and setting up RAID 0, it's showing that I have 899 G of space left... meaning it took up 101G of space due to Dell's partition that apparently wasn't cleaned out with the RAID setup. I called it in and they said there was nothing they could do, lol... gotta love Dell's awesome customer service!, LOL!

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Wrapping up...

As far as performance goes... this thing is a beast so far. I've finished setting up the RAID 0 and updating everything to my specifications and dumped about 500g of HD video on there that I've needed to edit for like 6 months (wasn't able to do so because I didn't have a working machine). So I'll be starting that soon. I downloaded one game which is Star Wars Galaxies and I cannot seem to get it to operate yet. The screen starts to flicker and then I get an error message about Direct3D not working... I tried re-downloading DirectX but got another error message. I will post more once I figure out what the problem is.

Screen - 9/10
Performance Thusfar - 9/10
Build Quality and overall look and feel - 10/10
Dell's factory and customer care - -1/10
Overall m18x Score (from a guy that has had 4 other AW laptops) - 9/10 (and the one point missing is held on reserve until I get to test out gameing performance!)

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The Ugly

All posted here but really doesn't have anything to do with this system in particular. Just my history with Dellienware and their awesome customer scare... I mean customer care.
For anyone havig any warranty issues, refer to this thread and specifically my personal steps for getting your problem resolved. It's posted on the NBR forums here.

 

no faulty keyboard here. mine doesn't even flex when typing normally. if i press hard it goes down but maybe 2mm max. this laptop is 10x better than the m17x r1.

 

Argh... I ordered the 1TB RAID 0 hybrid drives as well. Ill let you know in about a week if it actually came RAIDed or not. I will not be a happy camper if that's the case. It'll be about 30 days from order to arrival and won't be waiting yet again if they mess up.

 

Agreed. So far this machine seems far superior to any Dellienware machine I've had in every way. Good to know that the keyflex is not a problem with all of them... which means it can be fixed. Just crappy that it's going to have to be pulled apart already, lol!

 

word of the day on Notebook review?

Dink or dinking with it.

 

That's the word of the week, yo!

Ok, I've double checked and it is for sure NOT setup for RAID 0 as ordered.

I am on the phone with them now. "Very sorry sir bla bla bla" Also mentioned the keyflex. Waiting for response.

 

Don't expect much for having to do the RAID configuration yourself. I got a politely worded email telling me there's nothing that can be done.

 

Wait. So they are selling the option for hybrid drives to come in RAID 0 but they can't actually work in RAID 0?

 

I would politely ask for an RMA and see how much the offer you to keep it as it is.

 

Is it confirmed that the 2, 500gb hdd's in raid 0 don't actually work?

 

Are they replacing your keyboard?

 

I'm running 2x momentus xt hybrids in raid right now on a m17x R3. It can be done. Its just silly they're making you do the work yourselves.

If all your data is only on one drive and the other is a blank drive, just launch intel RST and create a RAID0. It will handle the file migration for you without any reinstall necessary. You should be able to use your computer while the array is being built (takes hours) so don't turn the machine off.

You'll have to use diskmgmt.msc to extend the partition once the RAID is created.

 

honestly, what is the big deal about keyboard flex??? It doesn't affect your typing, and if you're typing hard enough to make the keyboard flex, then you're going to have other problems to worry about rather than keyboard flex (like the insane amount of wear you're putting on the keys from such heavy setted typing).

I haven't had a laptop that hasn't had keyboard flex including the M17x R2. But all my laptops, Gateway FX, Asus G71, Asus G60, HP 5430w, Inspiron B120, Alienware M17x R2 - to get the keyboard to flex you have to put an unnatural amount of pressure on the keys. I fell like putting that much pressure has the potential to damage the keys very quickly.

Granted I've never owned nor used the M18x, but I honestly don't understand people's qualms with keyboard flex. (and many people have complained about it for the R2 as well. Like seriously, to get the thing to flex I gotta put probably 1.5 pounds of force on the keyboard. Who on earth types that hard? And even still, how will that affect your typing if the middle of the keyboard moves down less than 0.25 inches?)

And TC, I thought you vowed to never get another alienware system again. What happened?

 

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 which is about 3 years old, and it has absolutely ZERO keyboard flex. The only flex there is comes from me pressing very hard and having the whole plastic body of the laptop flex, but that requires some very unnecessary force. If this can manage no flex, then I would expect a $2,000+ laptop to have none also. Having the keyboard flex makes it seem cheap and that's not something I'd like with an Alienware.

 

Yes.

Slight keyboard flex is acceptable and expected especially for this type of machine, but you are not here to see what I am talking about. It is really bad. It is not seated properly. I compain because it's a replacement machine of a replacment machine. We also have a $300 emachine with NO keyflex. For a $4k computer, it shouldn't be squishing down by barely touching it. It looks and feels tacky and it is not supposed to be this way. Period.

I had to blow the machine out and set up the RAID 0... wish I had the above post before I did it. Anyways, RAID 0 is working find and it even increased my Windows score by .1 point if that means anything to anyone, lol! It's running fine so far, but the big problem is that it didn't totall wipe Dell's original partition or something because after setting up the RAID and installing NOTHING BUT Win7 Ultimate... it took 101G of memory. That is ridiculous. I have RAID 0 setup on my m17 and even with my games and photos and music I'm only using 70g of space so there is something clearly wrong. I called it in and they basically told me to "deal with it" and that it was fucntioning as intended.

Yet another case that I will be forced to escalate. I've called two outside techs and they both agree that that is not right and that something is wrong. The point is that I shouldn't have had to deal with any of that anyways. Now I lose the option to easily restore my machine to factory settings as intended. Yet another ridiculous problem with Dell.

Beyond that and the crappy keyboard that is being replaced on Monday... the machine is FLYING. Super fast. I love it.

One other thing I don't think that others have mentioned is that the R2 had a problem with the screen getting suffed when it was closed. The m18 has rubber stripes on both sides of the screen the protect it from touching the keyboard. Very nice. I reall really dig this machine. I just hate Dell because it took them almost 7mo to give me a good machine and they still screwed up the keyboard and RAID. Unacceptable that this BRAND NEW machine will have to be pulled apart to have the keyboard swapped/fixed.

 

I also have an old Inspiron 1525. When I first read about flex, I tested it out on my inspiron, and it was a ridiculous amount of force to make it flex. I was a bit surprised at the amount of flex on my m17x r3, but since it doesn't affect my typing at all, I'm fine with it. I have to apply a pretty decent amount of force, and even then, it sinks at most .1/.2cm

 

I have also an antique (museum like) Inspiron 8600 fully actualized, that really rocks... (work for 7 years 24/7... without complains) it's impossible to flex its keyboard even if I try hard...

 

Yeah, even my old first-gen m15x didn't have the keyflex like this m18x. And everyone knows that the old m15's that first came out were really bad.

I think from what I'm gathering here is that the keyflex isn't a typical problem with this machine. I think I was the lukcy one with the bad seat job. That's always my luck. They're coming out to install a new one early next week so I'll let you all know what's going on with it. I'm tell you now though that this is really really bad... like a big bubble in the middle of my keyboard, lol! If I can get all my softward installed this weekend, I'll bust out the HD video camera and shoot a 30 second hi-res video of the flexing.

 

Can you please upload some video or at least a picture detailing the amount of flex? Your keyboard doesn't have a metal basis under the keys?
Thanks!

 

Will do... going to charge the HD vid camera for the night and I wll post tomorrow.

 

Sorry it took me longer than planned, but here is the video as promised. Nothing special at all, just very cut and dry. Sorry about the background noise - the wife was vacuming on the other side of the house and I really didn't think it was going to pick up the sound so well, lol!



Anyways, you can see that I'm barely pushing the keys on the m18x and then I'm mashing them hard on the m17x-r2. The R2 barely flexes. My original m15x barely flexed as well. Also, I didn't shoot it in HD because I was worried about the file size, but the quality is still pretty nice.

 

That is bad flex. It would be like typing on a sponge. Thanks for the video and the heads up.

 

No problem. That is what I thought... I know that many many others get perfect machines, but I swear every machine I get from Dell has a hardware/build problem right out of the box. Sucks. :/

Anyways, the good news is that I haven't heard anyone else complain about the m18x keyflex so this is probably just an isolated incident... or else it doesn't bother other people. But it bothers the crap out of me.

 

You are not alone! The kB of mine is flex as yours and I got 3 dents on my central control panel and aslo the GPU temp is higher than the other. I already requested exchange. another 3 weeks wait...

 

The flex is definitely there, and it's not an isolated issue. Mine flexes the same way. However, it doesn't flex during normal typing, neither it affects the tactile feedback of the keys.
You can improve the flex by using some ducktape or even putting a thin aluminum plate under the keyboard.

 

Bummer.

 

Wow... that's just too bad. It's always something, lol... always something. I do alot of video editing and some gameing, but I'm not much into the benchmarking stuff... I need to know how to check my temps and make sure I'm running good. Not sure I want to know if I'm running hot - it seems whatever problems plague these machines, I get them all, LOL!

 

That is a lot of flex, not 1/4" though, looks to be 1/8 or 3mm at the max if you don't include the amount the key moves to activate normally.
Would annoy the heck out of me if there was that much flex on a $4k machine even on a $500 one.

 

You say 8th inch... I say quarter inch... tomato tomoto, right? lol I suppose you're probably right. 1/4" is probably an exaggeration, but we both agree that it's irritating as hell.

Starting to have some wierd "lock-ups" going on. The first time I logged into a game it crashed on me. No BSOD.... just locked up and had to do a hard boot. The second time, it went into screensaver mode and locked up - again had to do a hard boot.

I literally JUST got this thing tweaked the way I wanted it. Not suprising though with the RAID setup. I tried telling them that it wasn't right with the RAID taking 101G. May not have anything to do with it at all, but I've had so many HDD problems direct from the factory that I just start assume all my porblems are HDD right off the bat, lol! I'll stick it out and see what happens. Had some decent benchmarking scores so that's good. I'll continue to post as I keep working this baby out and stretching her legs.

 

You do know that a 1TB hdd does not actually have 1TB of free space right?
Its probably more around 930GB of space. Means that Windows install is usually around 10GBs without updates and stuff (and no hibernation file). Add in games and updates and that doesn't sound too far off to take up 30GBs of space.

 

Yup, fully aware. This was 101G after fresh install. Bare bones. No games. No programs. No updates. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I mentioned that earlier on. I even called several local techs as well as the Dell onsite tech whom I trust and they all confirmed that this was not correct. No one could explain it of course, we could only speculate... but we assume it has something to do with how they walked me through with the RAID 0 setup. It's almost like the factory settings are still there in a separate partition and then you've got my setup on top of that thus doubling the typical barebones install. Honestly, I have no idea why it's doing this. The point is that it was supposed to come from the factory with a RAID 0 setup and it did not and I was forced to reinstall everything and it's not working properly. Maybe I missed something on the install. Not sure. Wouldn't have been possible for me to do so if they did their job at the factory though.

 

Man... Mav... get them to send out a replacement if possible. This system is too much money to have those issues right outta the box.

 

It IS a replacement!!! They said I couldn't get any more replacements... I know. Crazy right? Like it's MY fault that I keep getting jacked up machines.

 

Lol... well here we go again. They refuse to do anything about the HDD's or the fact that I lost the ability to flash to factory settings. They don't seem to care that my brand new machine has to be pulled apart to have the keyboard fixed either. THREE machines in a row - all with problems, lol!

Performance wise... I have to still give credit to the m18x so far. It locked up on me a couple times I think due to updates/updating but other than that it has been running great. It does get a bit warm under the left palm rest, but other than that - she's running fine.

 

That is really too bad that you are having so many issues with trying to get a working computer, hopefully once you get the keyboard replaced everything else will work.

Did you extend your warranty?

 

Ya Mav. Take it as a sign bro. Go get the x7200! hahah Sorry though that you are having so many issues with every single machine sent your way. dell. .

 

Its unsurprising that Chewy has keyboard flex.

'I suggest a new strategy R2 , let the wookie win.'

 

Yeah, well sorry for the late update... they JUST installed the new keyboard. Did it fix the problem? Nope. It appeared to be somewhat better, but I was half asleep when he did it and after comparing to the video and after the work was done... there is not much difference at all.

Get this though, I've been having BSOD's randomly when under a load - seemed GPU related. For instance... watching a Youtube video and then BAM... BSOD. So I call it in and they wanna redo all my drivers bla bla bla. I just installed them all and got everything working fine but they insist like I don't know what I'm talking about. So they uninstall the old drivers and ATI Catalyst... but when it's time to reinstall - get this.... it says it cannot install the ATI Catalyst because my hardware is incompatible. !?!? I opened up Device manager and it shows two VGA cards. When looking up the BSOD error report code - it says there are problems with the NVIDIA GPUs. Yeah, NVIDIA driver issues, LOL! The tech can't explain it of course.

I haven't done alot of research here on the NBR, but I really just don't even feel like it anymore. It's like buying a new car and leaving the lot with it putting down the road while the salesman promises you that it's normal. Then you get it home and continue tinkering with it with no luck. You take it to their shop and it comes back in worse shape!

I get treated like an inconvienience from Dell. Even countless members here on NBR act like I'm some sort of con-man. My last thread got locked because of some cry baby going on about how I'm taking advantage of Dell by getting an upgraded replacement out of the deal. He was afraid people would catch on and we'd all make the prices go up with Dell... lol wow. Hey, call me crazy, but maybe... just maybe, if they didn't send out defective equipment - they wouldn't be in the position to give out upgrades as compensation for hardships caused by their lack of quality customer care. Guys, I've been going through this for the last 7 months. I'm so tired of this. Tired of being treated by my fellow consumer as a compensation- and tired of being treated as an inconvienience to Dell. It's not my fault guys! I just want what I paid for - plain and simple. Can't give me that? Give me my freaking money back!!! Policy won't allow that? Then make it worth my while to keep the POS and make sure it functions properly!! My god man!

Ok... now I'm going to go beat my head into a brick ball for a couple hours. It's either that, or call dell again and still beat my head in the wall except I get no results from them. :/

 

well that sucks because it has been nothing but great customer service for me (I've had at least 40 calls going back and forward with Dell). You are supposedly extremely unlucky.

And as for the nvidia issue the only thing nvidia that should have in your system is nVIDIA physx. games like mafia 2 and unreal tournament 3 etc...

All in all, the laptop isn't even hard to maintain. It's just like any other computer I've had in the last 10 years.

Step 1. Reformat
Step 2. install all windows updates or drivers first (doesnt matter which order)
Step 3. install games

I suggest you install the 11.5 RC6 drivers and see if that helps with anything. They are the newest drivers.

If you ever want 100% satisfaction down the road for a long amount of time buy that item with a credit card and not a DPA .

 

I'm sorry for your pain Mavericke. I definitely don't think you are a con man at all. Luckily my m17x r3 has had very few problems whatsoever (little flex, media keys pop up, random black screens-2 total). I'm sorry dell is giving you the run around; honestly I would just ask for cash back. Then take that cash, and buy something from someone on here, something that you KNOW works.

 

I bought it on a friend's credit card. I'm trying to buy a house so I couldn't have it on my credit because it affects my income to debt ratio. So he had a card and wanted to help build his credit a bit so we threw it on there and I make the payments. He and I don't talk much, he's super busy and was hesitant to do this anyways. Last thing I want to do is burden the guy by forcing him to fight Dell with me. What does "DPA" stand for anyways?

I appreciate your suggestions on how to fix it but I've already had to do this once in the last two weeks because they didn't set up RAID 0 at the factory. I'm not doing it again. I have 500g of video that took me HOURS to get setup on this machine with all my editing software. There has to be a better way than to just blow it out again.

And call me over-sensitive, but what do you mean by,

Not sure if "supposedly" is the word I'd use, but I'll take what I can get. The point is, there hasn't been a problem yet that has been due to owner error. Possibly this driver issue, but hey, if they installed it correctly at the factory with the proper RAID 0 setup, then I wouldn't have had to spend HOURS reinstalling everything myself thus possibly messing up the drivers. But still, I know what I'm doing and I did everything correctly. It wasn't until I did things THEIR way that I my system started having MAJOR issues.

Of all the issues I've had over the last 7 months with the two R2's and this m18x... I'm digging deep here.

• First R2 came from the factory with messed up Bios/drivers and I couldn't play games for weeks as they kept trying to fix it. They had be blow it out three times and do their way before I finally said to hell with it and did it MY way. After I installed everything my way, it ran fine for awhile. Then, a video card died and then the HDD's died. Both manufacturing problems - nothing to do with me. System was replaced.
• Took them THREE tries to get the right build sent to me and the last one still didn't have dual GPUs and it took them almost two months to get it to me. They sent me the second GPU THREE times and it was the wrong one every time, lol! Then one day the machine wouldn't power on. After two weeks it needed a new mother board. They replaced it and it still wouldn't power on. Then they replaced everything inside the machine and scratched up the casing pretty bad... and STILL forgot the second video card, lol! This machine was replaced finally as well.
• Then after another 2 month wait, I get this m18x and it has the wrong RAID setup, BAD keyflex and crashes right out of the box. They replace the keyboard and it doesn't fix the problem. They tell me to blow out the machine to set up RAID 0 and not to worry about losing the factory image or AlienRespawn and don't worry about wasting several more hours reinstalling everything on a BRAND NEW machine. So I lose out on programing that I paid for. Ok, no big deal - machine is working, I don't care... or is it working? Then the BSOD's happen more frequently and they do their "magic" and make everything worse.

Yeah, I "suppose" I'm very unlucky when it comes to Dell's machines. That's why I filed a claim with the BBB.

Thanks man, I appreciate your support. You have no idea how hard it is to keep dealing with this crap. Everyone around me keeps telling me I'm stupid and that I should just demand a refund... heck, even you think I should get a refund. I used to argue that I can't find another machine like this anywhere else and that if they'd fix it - it'll be the best ever! But I'm beyond that now. Now pretty machine is worth all of this. My wife's $300 imachine has never had a problem with ANYthing and it gets abused by her and the kids. My machines stay locked in a smoke free computer room. They never leave the desk where they are stationed unless we go on vacation. I spent the vacation money this year on this machine so... it has never moved anywhere, lol! I'd love to just get my money back, but they won't do that. Not to mention, I put it on a friend's credit card and I've been making payments on it for the last 7 months and I'd never get my interest back. Call me cheap or whatever you want, but I'm not rich... and never going to get there if I let places like Dell screw me out of money. But again, they won't give me a refund anyways.

Anyways guys, I'm trying to figure out this driver stuff here. Thanks!

 

Dear pal, Mavericke, I can undestand your feelings. For almost two years I have been writing, suggesting, complaining... about the lack of a reliable, responsible Total Quality Manufacturing Control, Total Quality Assurance and Total Quality Post-sell Service before delivering. But, I must say it, even here that it's supposed to be a generous open forum, many have dismissed (even with some anger) my posts in this regards... So I can understand very well indeed how you feel, at least, cheated.

It's not a matter of how much an AW costs. Even if you buy a bread, you have the right to receive a great bread... or at least a perfect one in perfect (checked) conditions. We are not suppossed, in any economy, to start dealing with (even minor) issues right out of the box...

Yes, I'm the same one that have (from long data experience) very good things to state regarding the unique Dell's Warranties, not the same with their Customer Service and with the almost totally missing "Customer Listening"...

I wish there was a truly forum that coordianted with Dell will allow for Dell's representatives and customer where we all can read how they manage the issues and give credits for it or... (you can complete my phrase). Yeah I know of the Dells forums but really there is no dynamic of truly listening and answers there. Dell has to weake up! It's a world wide leader! not just another backery in the corner... and

P.S.: look at this 'poll': http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m18x/580274-m18x-owners-you-pleased-your-purchase-12.html
If only +/- 42% of this 'sample' (which many will try to dismisse too) declare that are happy with their purchase... It must light on RED LIGHT on Dell's path... or do we need an Emile Zola to shout his "J'accuse"!?!?!?

 

You're absolutely right. No matter the cost or the item... it should be functioning perfectly when you pull it out of the box. I never paid attention to that poll... funny. :/

 

IMO dells installs suck anyway which I could care less if I don't use alienware respawn. I can download that program anyway if I want.

At this point if you don't want to reinstall anything then just do a system restore and go back 2-3 days.

Install these drivers after that is done:

[email protected]

After that install CAP 4 ati crossfire profiles

http://www.rage3d.com/cap/profiles/AMD_Catalyst_11.5_CAP4.exe

If you still have issues at this point then I'm afraid God hates you.

 

Please don't involve God in this. It's just falling aliens (or falling Dells...)

 

LOL, I'm begining to wonder. I will try those out and get back with you all! Thanks!

LOL!

 

With all due respect, that's a totally inaccurate portrayal of the poll results. 42% say they are HAPPY, but 36.51% say they don't know yet (and only 17% say they aren't happy). Plus, that's out of a whopping 63 respondants. So if my math is right...11 people out of 63 are currently unhappy, 27 are happy, and 25 think it's too early to tell. Still, the majority of people who responded are happy.

And yes, I think 63 is too small a sample size to accurately predict the overall satisfaction from Dell's customer base with the m18x, be it positive or negative.

 

I'd recommend perhaps contacting the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and just go through an official complaint. Someone else here seemed to have good luck with that.

With the time/cost Dell spent to resolve your case, it's probably cheaper just to credit your friend's card back and reset everyone. I think "fixing" anything at this point sounds like a waste of time.

 

My case is pending. I filed the earlier part of May. This seemed to speed things up in the begining but we're now at a stand-still again.

It would be pointless to have them refund the money to a CC that has already been paid off. And what about the interest I paid on that card for the last several months? Why should I suck up a single penny when this is all due to their defective equipment? Anyways, they offered me a refund today for my original amount... of course this doesn't include the interest or the money I spent on accessories that will be worthless if the machine goes back, but I'm so fed up at this point - I'd be fine with a refund if they'd send it to me in check form. That's not asking too much. I've paid my bill and I'm not going to have over $3k credited to someone elses card.

 

Id imagine that someone else is a friend why not just credit it to his cc and have him write you a cheque for that amount From his cc? simple and easy.