Dell Outlet seems to be a lie / fraud lately ...

Just had a bizarre experience with Dell, that leads me to believe that they are using the outlet to dump defective machines on to unsuspecting customers.

First machine I purchased was refurbished (allegedly), and received one with a defective screen. This was clearly the reason why this machine had been returned by the original customer, and Dell, instead of actually refurbishing it, simply put it back in circulation, presumably hoping that the next customer wouldn't notice.

Second machine was scratch-and-dent (allegedly), and received one with a keyboard that kept popping out at a corner. A closer look revealed that some Dell employee had noticed the defect, and stuck some sticky tape underneath to keep it in place. Again, instead of refurbishing the machine, a blatant attempt to pass off a defective machine to the next unsuspecting customer.

I have been a long time customer of Dell. I have trusted the company to do the right thing. But this kind of behavior is simply fraudulent. Who knows how many other customers have been duped. They have certainly lost me as a customer, and I hope others will stand up and voice their anger as well.

 

Dell doesn't own every dell store it's is own by individual person who might be the real culprit all you can do is to contact dell company directly through their website i am sure they will replace your laptop with a brand new one.

 

Reading how many problems some of their latest machine have been suffering from (coil whine, overheating, various screen problems, build quality), this isn't a surprise to me. I mean, If the quality in new machines is so lacking, what should we expect with refurbished one?

Dell should really work this problems out, as on paper their machines are just great.

 

Which machine was it?

 

Easy solution... Buy something else

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Are you buying through some 3rd party store, or from Dell's official Outlet? If the former, that might very well be the reason why you're getting problems.

Otherwise, just raise a fuss with Dell and get a replacement laptop (provided that it's covered under warranty), repeat until you're happy with the product.

 

I gotta chime in here with my experience. I used to use dell almost exclusively (still do at work, but then again their hardware is close to a decade old, lol) up through my vostro 15 which was a good machine but then I ventured into other hardware, macbook pro, asus g73sw, etc. but have returned to dell in a big way, and most of my purchases have been through the outlet in one way or another.

Machine 1 - XPS 27, i7, 640m, 2566x1440 touchscreen.
I picked up this machine through amazon marketplace for about $1100 total... which was a great deal... got it home and checked it out... the touch screen was a little out of calibration and I noticed a 2" hairline crack in the glass. Called dell, outlet machines come with one year on site they tell me and the next day I receive a new screen via FedEx and techs showed up... we completely disassembled the unit and reassembled it in the new case. Beautiful job and It got my familiar with the innards because I swapped the HD for an SSD not to long after that. New screen worked flawlessly. Saved myself a good $1500 on the purchase, and dell probably spent several hundred more making it right. Dell also sent me a USB recovery drive with the latest software on it for free.

Machine 2 - XPS 18, i3, 500gb , 4gb. 1080p touchscreen
Got the machine through the outlet store for around $550. arrived quick, machine was flawless. When i took the back of to swap the HD for an SSD I noticed a couple screws were missing... so contacted dell... they sent me a XPS 18 repair kit, with screws and such in it and a USB recovery drive with the latest software. I use this thing daily. Screw notebooks... 18" gorgeous screen at 5lbs and 6hrs battery life with SSD... for the price of an iPad. Woohoo.

Machine 3
Sometimes you just need BATTERY, and I needed a low end windows machine for software testing so I splurged and bought a Baytrail Dell Venue 11 Pro for $449 through the local Microsoft Store. It was and is flawless. Next I ordered the slim keyboard from dell... they didn't think that thing through, when its attached and folded back behind the tablet the screen won't rotate and the on screen keyboard won't popup. basically its designed to pickup and use as a tablet but you can't. I talked to dell, told them the issues and they exchanged it even for the more expensive mobile keyboard. Not as mobile as the slim but 14-16hrs battery life on a machine as powerful as a core2duo a few years back is nice. No problems at all with that keyboard.

So in about 15 months ive switched to all dell. Quite happy with their service... and see using the outlet as a great way to save some money because if there are problems dell will make it right. Seriously, I saved about $2000 by buying outlet.

 

I have had good experience with Dell aftersales in this country (Malaysia). Instead of calling or chat online my prefrerence is to use email. There is some lag in communication because Dell malaysia tends to reply to mails rather late in the day. That is not really an issue to me because had them matters been urgent I would have called. Dell has outsourced them tech visit to replace parts or do repairs but they are flexible. I could even reroute the tech to another address when needed as long as it is in the same general location. I do have the general impression that Dell do honor their obligation. We have no Dell official outlet in this country but I do know that there are some resellers and acquire Dell outlets product and resell them at attractive discounts albeit at reduced warranty period due to time lag. I can sense that there is pressure to maintain general level of efficiency in a shrinking market. PC manufacturers are not selling as many PCs as they used and it is understandable that some areas will get cut. I am just thanlful that Dell still have presence here because I still dont quite like other alternatives. HPs are too expensive and thinkpads builds are not quite to my taste.