DELL Dubai throwing me around for a simple query

So I wanted to buy a laptop for my aunt and I only want a DELL laptop. I found a nice Inspiron with an i7 CPU + nVIDIA 840GT + 16GB RAM

It also comes with a 1 TB HDD + 8 GB SSD

I assume the 8 GB SSD is an mSATA and can be easily upgraded right?

Now the main question is, I called DELL Dubai which is not really in Dubai it diverts the call to a call center in Egypt that is filled with people who know nothing about computers and very unprofessional.....

I got a guy called MINA so I asked him, "If I buy this laptop and then open the back panel to replace the HDD with a 2.5' SSD would that void the warranty?"

He answers: " I don't know, this is technical support you need to call the service center on XXXXXX"

Great! So I call the service center and they tell me that any alteration to the hardware will void the warranty!

I explained that I am not gonna open the laptop entirely just the back panel to replace the HDD not going deep to the internals of the laptop! I never had any issues with doing this on ASUS and Alienware laptops...

He explained that he has been working with DELL for 4 years and any change to the original hardware WILL void the warranty..

To me this doesn't make any sense and makes me not want to buy a DELL.....

He also told me at the beginning of the call that he is not meant to answer my question DELL is! I told him well they told me to call you now you tell me to call them! what the heck! He only answered my question as an extra help from his side but according to him he wasn't obliged to....

DELL really needs to stop outsourcing their call center calls to that unprofessional Egypt call center because it is making them lose business! all they care about is to get your email and service tag without even listening to what you are about to say! they're like robots.....

so now I need an official answer from DELL, would a simply HDD to SSD swap really void the warranty? and how can I prove this to my aunt now she is skeptical about this purchase......

 

You don't have two hard drives, you most likely have just one. Most likely a seagate hybrid drive - 1 tb platter hdd with 8gb of nand flash memory soldered on

Solid State Hybrid Technology: HDD SSD SSHD | Seagate

 

oh ok, but what about warranty? would it void the warranty for a simple HDD to SSD swap?

 

I am pretty sure it doesn't void the warranty but keep the original drive in case you need warranty on the system and they demand that you have the original harddrive, I have replaced lots of harddrives in my notebooks under warranty with no problems I do get some tech support people telling me I have to put the original drive back in before they will proceed with any diagnostics but have never been refused service because I changed the harddrive or upgraded the warranty.

I am in Canada so it may be different in Dubai.

 

Im in Canada as well, however to my knowledge all Dell business units and almost all consumer units call the HDD, and RAM user serviceable and do not void your warranty at all.

Dell warranty and upgrading - does it void the warranty? - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

you can also send an inquiry to Dell Global or even their European center for information as I have never dealt with your regional support.

Will replacing the hard drive or RAM void the warranty?

as others have said keep your original drive and put it back in if it needs to go back in for warranty repairs, they will not support third party drives etc it was not sold with, however if they are in there and are not a cause or issue will still fix the unit for you, but have been known to take them out and replace the parts with original if they are an issue or cause.

 

Thanks a lot! that's the answer I've been looking for.

Cheers

 

Reply from a manager of DELL:

He apologized for what I experienced and assured me that adding new hardware to a DELL laptop DOES NOT void the warranty, the only thing is if I ever have a problem with that piece of hardware DELL are not responsible and I have to seek help with the warranty from the component's manufacturer which makes sense obviously.

 

The answers from KCETech1 and the manager at Dell are correct. As expected, outsourced help is worthless and incompetent. This is status quo for almost all businesses that outsource to cut costs. It is difficult enough to find and hire competent employees and hold them accountable. You can fire individuals that are incompetent and refuse to produce the results your business expects. Using a third party and/or independent contractors is like herding cats. Holding their individual contributors accountable for being worthless and expecting an excellent outcome on a consistent basis is unrealistic. You would have to "fire" the whole company, which may not be easily doable once you start down the slippery slope of outsourcing. You need to have a contract with strict key performance measurements, aggressively audit their results and build severe financial penalties into the contract for not meeting expectations. Even that is not enough to achieve consistently excellent results with outsourced grunts. On top of that, the effort in trying to be the quality police can be more effort intensive and expensive than having internal controls in place with direct employees, so that diminishes the financial benefits of outsourcing... ultimately, there is typically an inherent weakness in quality control and customer service when outsourcing in involved in order to keep it cost-effective. In customer-facing circumstances, this can be very damaging to a company's reputation.

 

I totally agree with you but yet again, all companies seem to be doing that. Our telecom company here in Dubai called ETISALAT used to have the best customer service ever! the moment they outsourced their calls and baam! the quality went from 90% excellent service to 0.

Now with that said, the above example is just one of the incidents I faced with that call center. I could write an essay about how unprofessional they are but I won't bother because I know nothing's gonna change. Had that manager hadn't had gotten back to me, my aunt was going to buy a Lenovo laptop! That's a whole $1300 USD lost for DELL and I'm just one example that voiced his concern online. Imagine what happens with many others who would simply walk away from DELL.

What's worse, is not only does that customer service center had the wrong info, the store salesmen are the first people who told me that if I open the back panel to replace anything even if its RAM my warranty is void, so I called the call center who claimed this is not their matter to handle then gave me the number of their outsourced service center! how can an outsourced service center know anything better than the so-called DELL representatives? But again, the outsourced call center said this is DELL's call not theirs they simply fix laptops based on DELL's instructions!

The manager I contacted through e-mail promised me that DELL takes stringent measures against such issues I hope he really means this.....