Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
If you're just gonna tl;dr, read the first two and the very last paragraph, and look at the specs in sig.
I searched pretty thoroughly through the forums when I started my completecare process, but found no info, so I think this might be helpful for other people wondering what the Complete Care System Exchange / Replacement Warranty process is like.
So I've had a number of parts placed on the e1505 I purchased in summer 2006, every single component and plastic at least once except for the screen itself, a wsxga+ 1680x1050 - they literally don't sell these in laptops anymore.
It took a catastrophic spill outside my house on April 21st (i think), I tried to save it, but couldn't - screen had shattered, back left corner had bent up about an inch (heatsink assembly included), right hinge torn apart, but it still booted! I could plug in an external monitor and get somewhat though the boot phase (never bothered to fully boot back into windows after that)
Called in on the 22nd, they next-dayed a box, and i shipped it out on the 23rd.
Depot got in on the 28th according to FedEx, but I hadn't heard from them so I called in on the 29th to find out that the depot had in fact found there was fatal damage, and they were waiting on approval for a System Exchange.
April 30th, I received a garbled voicemail during a meeting from a man who identified himself as my case manager indicating that my exchange had been approved (yay!), but provided little other info. The name either didn't come through clearly, or was just a garbled-sounding name. I call in an hour later to get more info, but there wasn't any to be obtained, just a very rough time frame of 2-3 weeks, then 7-10 business days, then 30 days. All these estimates were from the same cs rep, on the same call. I give him a list of the most important specs, which he recorded. I wanted to be contacted as soon as the approval went through to speed up the process, so the rep promised to have the case manager call me. I gave him my phone number and a very wide window to contact me on May 1st.
May 1st, no call whatsoever, but I was too busy to follow up with them until Monday the 3rd
May 3rd, I called in midday for status updates since the the service history on the website told me absolutely nothing. I was assured I would get a call by Tuesday, and it was likely I would get a call back that very night.
May 4th, no callback, very irritated at this point - using a netbook as my primary, broken promises, no transparency --> bad mood. I jump on dell chat because I'm tired of running up cell minutes and berate the tech support rep for the lack of transparency and the constantly broken promises. He asks if I want his supervisor to call, so I say sure, assuming I'm being given the runaround. Lo and behold, 10 minutes later I get a call back from a VERY helpful man (Samir, I think) who apologized for the lack of contact, and told me that I should never have been promised to have been contacted in the first place. Apparently SOP is no calls, no e-mails, no info unless you initiate the contact yourself. I really would have preferred to know that off the bat. Anyway, he takes down a list of the specs that are important to me (everything about my e1505), and puts an expedite order on the exchange. At this point, I don't believe anything he says, based on recent experience. He tells me I won't be contacted, but to check in on the following Monday, since that's the likely turnaround time for finding a system.
May 6th (today) I come home to find a Dell box. "?" is running through my head. That's unpossible. I unpack it and find a refurb Studio 1558, no bells and whistles, but very shiny and new-looking. I suspect it was a return, not a scratch and dent or problem unit (so far I've only running the full set of diagnostics though). Specs are below in my sig, the only problem I have with it is the screen resolution - 1366x768, which I abhor. I called Samir back and left a voicemail, he returns my call in 10 minutes (this guy is freaking awesome). He regretfully informs me that the WSXGA+ screen I had before was an LCD, this is an LED, so Dell had fulfilled it's obligation with regard to getting the same or better components. If I really wanted the 1080p screen, which he could not guarantee would get approved, and which was unlikely to get approved, I would have to ship the laptop back and wait it out. Can't have someone come onsite to replace it, it's apparently a depot-only replacement. At this point, I've been using an AspireOne 8.9 netbook as my primary for nearly 3 weeks, so I might just throw in the towel. I use a secondary monitor for most of my stuff anyway, so it might not be a fight worth fighting. But, if my programs are having issues (some specialized ones are annoying tall), I can call him back (have his vmail ext) and see if we can work something out. But if you look at the specs I'm on now vs. what I had, you can probably see why I'm not exactly crying over it.
Dell CompleteCare System Exchange experience, e1505 --> Studio 1558
Discussion in 'Dell' started by woofer00, May 6, 2010.
