Bought E4300, many problems, but still have faith in Dell

So, I bought the E4300 from Dell Outlet. Took it out of the box yesterday and see a bunch of scratches on the surface of the cover. I open it up and the edge of the battery is deformed, the part by the power button. It looks like someone tried to pry it out or something. I look at the screen and it is filthy. It looks like it was cleaned with oil, there are streaks and smears all over the thing!

So I hop on Dell Chat, after 10 minutes of explaining, I lose connection to chat... I was having issues connecting in the first place, so they definitely need to fix this. I get back into chat and after about 20 minutes of explaining and such she says that my replacement system will be there in 15-20 days. I figure it's fine, I'll use this laptop until I get the replacement and no big deal. So, props on that one.

I use it yesterday and get the low battery warning. No biggie, it's late, so I just throw the charger in and go to bed. Wake up in the morning and open it up, I see that it has not received any charge whatsoever. Take out the battery and it won't even turn on while it's plugged into the wall... Oh crap. Looking online I see that there have been a few issues of this, and it usually results in either a new adapter or a new motherboard. Since this is new, and I would hope that they test the product they ship out, I don't think it is the adapter, but then again it shouldn't be the motherboard either...

So I get on chat again and tell him this. Of course after 10 minutes of explaining I lose connection again... Now, I am just going to call them later so I hope they help me out on this one.

I am not real sure what they are going to do, I can't wait 2-3 weeks for a new laptop, as I need this one NOW.

I still have faith in them, but I'll let you all know how it goes =\

 

Wow I have never heard of one in that bad of a shape. When you join the chat do you not type in a contact phone number as well? I know usually when I ask for support and we get disconnected they will call me.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure what happened to this one. I've ordered 2 laptops from them before and there was nothing wrong with them at all.

Some tech support people ask me for a number, in which case I give it to them. Some don't. Oddly enough, both times I did give them my number and never got a call.

Will be calling them shortly here.

EDIT: Well, pretty disappointed... There is no way to get the laptop faster than 15-20 days from now. My only option would be to send this computer in to the depot to get it fixed (motherboard needs to be replaced, which I figured) which he says would take roughly 10 days. by which time the new system should only be a couple days away, so that is a waste of time...

Not sure where to go from here... call a CSR maybe? It makes me pretty upset that I order a system from them, it comes scratched, dented, and with a defective motherboard and the earliest they can have it replaced is 2-3 weeks from now? I had the thing for about 8 freaking hours! I could order a new system and return this one and have my money faster than that! Which I would if I didn't already have another $450 waiting to be returned for the last laptop and they had the same system in the Outlet.

More time on the phone I guess...

 

That's what I ended up doing when I had a M1330 that died within hours of turning it on. Too long a wait to turn around a replacement. Easier to return for refund and order another one. Both 'new' laptop and refund in under a week.

 

Would love to do that, but 1) I don't have the money to have another $600 tied up; they are already holding $450 waiting for a refund on a different laptop and 2) I spent hours looking for this laptop that had the specs that I wanted and I would rather not do that again haha.

I finally am getting to talk to Customer Care and nothing is happening. Yawn...

My faith in them is completely gone. I realize it's a refurbished product and you need to wait to get another with the same specs to send to me, but my god there was no offer to even send me a laptop that has lower specs than mine has now and offer a refund or anything. Just "you have to wait or return the product"... ridiculous. Unless something dramatic happens I can't see me ever recommending a Dell or buying one myself, and right about the time that my parents are looking to buy 2 laptops for themselves. Shame.

 

I'm very sorry to hear all this. Dell REALLY dropped the ball here.

I've ever only had good experiences with Dell, save one or two instaces. I hope things work out for you.

 

7 days into the 7-20 days (I was told 7-10 (multiple times), 10-15 (multiple times), 15-20 days) and I am told "don't worry sir, it is in the authorization phase and it should only be another 10-15 days", Me: "I hope you mean 3-7 days becuase that is what I was told before and I was unhappy with that time frame". So he contacted someone who should be getting in touch with me tomorrow, he truly was a helpful guy so I hope it works out.

 

If not usually if you huff and puff in those scenarios you can speak that moment to a manager. Least a few people I have known that were in your same spot did that (keep in mind not being rude just more frustrated) and their transactions were sped up.

 

Finally talked to someone that wanted to help. Spent about an hour ont he phone with him and he offered to help me set up a replacement.

Unfortunately it turned out to be an e5400, which... I'm not sure if I will like. But I have the same specs of computer except the following
a 250gb hdd vs the old 80gb,
it sounded like the cpu was lower (2.26 i think vs 2.4),
i got 2 years NBD onsite + accidental vs 3 year mail in on 4300

edit/scratch that, he flat out lied to me... there is only 1 year warranty and its mail in not on-site. the ram is 2 dimms of 1gb vs 1 2gb dimm. that's enough to cancel this. grrr Dell! estimated delivery it 10 days after what he told me, no backlit keyboard like he said which is a major turn off. coupled with the fact that I consider the e5400 inferior to the e4300 in the first place and it definitely needed upgrades to make it worth it.

Probably just cancel this one, and return the 4300 and be done with Dell. ~15+ hours on the phone getting lied to, the run around, and just general terrible customer service on something that is 100% their fault is getting extremely old.

 

Yea I would have never accepted that deal. What I do not understand is that they have a bunch on their outlet why could they not send another one of those to you?

If they did not have that then you could say you want an E4200, which is less powerful but super lightweight, they come with SSD's and can hold alot of memory.

 

Alright, I gave in. Return label is being sent to my email.

I have no idea. You would think that having a customer would be worth giving a slightly better laptop to keep him happy (not that I want better, I want mine, that's why I bought the thing...), but who knows with Dell's customer service

 

M Kapral- did you escalte to the client, resolution team - I have a e4300 that was sent as a warraty replacement for my work laptop ( D420) that was overheating, the first one - was refurbished- it was p9400, 2.4 ghz 4gb, 160HDD,... the the screen was dimm. the palm rest was loose, there were some other issues. - I got a new build, e4300, p9600 2.53, 4gb, 160hdd. Hardware reader, 5100n, - it was really no hassle.

 

I talked to 3 supervisors directly, sent emails to 2 Dell employee email address that I found on Dell Outlet's Facebook, sent an email to Unresolved Issues, spent hours on the phone. Oh and sent an email to a manager when they sent me an email asking how their employee did.

I did not receive 1 email back, not 1 call, nothing.

Do you happen to have the number of the customer service rep that you talked to? Maybe they could help me?

 

yes- send me a PM and ill give you the contact persons name-email and tel
craig