I am sure there are some that will disagree with me but hopefully there is someone who can understand why I have resorted to this. This is a little embarassing, but I am confident that I am not the only person who has been victim to this.
I purchased a Dell Inspiron 8600 Lap top in mid 2003. I purchased the Premium warranty for it at the time of purchase. My warranty ends March 2007 ...so not much time left.
After almost 3 years of this LEMON, I have had it. It is worth persuing litigation simply on principal alone!
I will provide history.
When computer arrived I took it out of the box: Bad Key board and mouse. Called Tech support. It was not one call...it was serveral. Try this, try that. Hold this button and reboot....round and round and round.
They sent only a key board after approx 10 days of the phone games, i installed and got machine powered up and function only enough for me to discover that the RAM was bad. It would not do anything. Kept getting the low sysem resources message and the "end program" box. Remind you...this is a BRAND NEW machine never functioned enough to be used and I had owed it 1.5 to 2 months at this point. Also i had to buy a usb mouse since that touch pad was still broken and they never sent a replacement part.
Another small detail,...I am a self employed Mortgage Loan officer so I purchased the computer so that I could work from a home office. Well my hopes of working from home didn't happen. For those of you familiar with Oahu, Hawaii traffic....I drove 2 hours in the morn and 2.5 hours in the eve to get too and from the branch office so that I had a computer to use which is an ESSENTIAL piece of equipment in my line of work. Add childcare expenses and a deployed husband so I often had to pay "after hour rates" for the late pick ups of my son...and me not making an hourly wage....and the housing market being practically at a stand still....Yea,....lovely visual huh. Oh,....it gets better. Read on.
So they sent 2 new ram cards to me.(why two? I asked myself this same question. they could send one 386 or 384 RAM card (however the increments go) instead of one 128 and one 256) Ok so got the One 128 MB and one 256 MB ram cards installed them. Would not boot. Eventually discovered that only the 128 RAM card was good by process of elimination while playing the Tech support phone games for several more days. Waited another week for replacement parts (everything takes longer to get to Hawaii to make things worse) and finally they came....i installed and...WOW a whole whoppin 386 MB of ram that functioned! *sarcasm* The computer booted up and I could actually open a program for the first time after apporox 4 months of ownership.
At this point I was DONE with Dell and it was effecting me on an emotional level. The way I have been treated is so incomprehensible by any standard! They were already playing the game with making sure it wasn't the same problem they were "fixing" so that I could not go through arbitration for a replacement. Darling isn't it?
K moving along. Computer operated ok for about....3-5 months, sluggishly. Then it began suddenly shutting off out of the blue. I spent 9 hours on the phone with tech support with them having me run frivilous diagnostics only to have the machine keep shutting off and not being able to complete it. I know they had me "just try again" 50+ times only to have the computer shut off within seconds. I mean...it was so assinine I could hardly hold myself together to complete the phone call. And I WISH I could say I was exaggerating about this. Their solution, send a new battery and ac adapter since it "seems to be a power issue". Ok Got those parts about a week later. Guess what. Still kept shutting off....so here we go again. Back on the Merry-go-round of tech support phone calls that endured another 7-10 days and this time they "tried a fan replacement...maybe laptop get too hot and thats why it shut off k?" Oh heaven forbid they send another battery....or ac cord because that would get me a step closer to being able to file with arbitration. Clever Slimey little devils.
Ill spare you the details and just say...another 5 weeks or so passed...tech support merry go round and it ended up being a bad a/c adapter, not the fan,...at least I think. At this point I am really not sure if anything on that computer is functional...at least not as an integral part of a computer system.
Oh....the saga continues.
Then the keyboard had keys that stopped responding and had to replace that AGAIN. Wow...amazing a computer that does not function to be USED has keys "wearing out" huh? And yes...it was implied that I was being dishonest and just being "rough" on the computer. I think this implication was the most amusing in this entire ordeal.
Then the touch pad mouse stopped responding...yea again...they replaced it once already through all of this. I lost count of how many times they had me reinstall drivers, run diagnostics, write zeros to the drive and start over etc. etc. F.Y,I. this mouse is still broken...has been for just shy of 2 years now. I gave up calling and demanding a replacment part only to have someone who barely speaks english insist that we just do "one" more diagnostic,...take the battery off, hold power button for two mins, put it back on,....say 3 hail marys while patting yourself on the head and rubbing your tummy in a circle yada yada. I started writing letters to every level of management. Certified mail return reciept. I khave ept pristine records of all replies and the little signed green cards confirming the receipt of my mail.
And YES I spoke with supervisors and higher level management only to have the same answer repeated to me. "Ma'am we have diagnostics we have to run to rule out any other potential problems since it may not be the mouse but a software issue" blah blah freakin blah. Yea...uh, you take my money....but this computer is MY problem and I am at your mercy.
Its a good darn thing I am secluded out here on this island because there were moments that I thought for sure, if I owned a weapon...and could hop in the car and take a drive,....I woulda made front page news to say the very least.
So.....about 14 months ago I purchased a new Toshiba laptop. LOVE IT! Not a single problem (using it now...runnin like a champ and all I did in terms of upgrades was add an extra gig of ram so its runnin 1.5 GIG...and got a 400 GIG external so im not clutter up the system with ny work files). BUT dispite having a functional computer in my possesion.... I was still making payments on the Dell that didn't work then and does not work now and they pratically refused to hold up their end of the warranty by ehausting my patience to the point that I lacked the ability to speak to tech support without totally losing control. I quite literally lose all good sense and can't think when I call these people.
As of today. When I power up the system....it powers up.....but shuts off sometimes before the boot completes,...sometimes within seconds of powering up...bu itt never stays on longer than 5-10 mins before it konks out again. Mouse still does not work...and it has one functioning 256 mb ram card. These are just the items i KNOWare broken.
It is 6:12 a.m. right now where I Live and I have been on the phone with Dell since 7 p.m. last night. 11 straight hours and 2 pots of coffee. I finally got them to send me a box to ship the system back to the Depot for "repair." THREE YEARS LATER. *SCREAM*
I want to make SURE when it gets there it is irrepairable and they have to send me a new system. Maybe short circut it, melt motherboard? (Assuming that is not already the case.) Clearly this one is defective to the point of non repair and they are not going to full-fill the warranty I paid for and provide me with an operable computer that I paid for unless they are forced. It has to look like it happened naturally...I cannot allow them ANY ROOM to say they are not going to cover the repair or replacement.I paid $2700 for the computer and warranty....PLUS Dells 32% interest rate. It ended up being an almost 7K computer by the time I paid it off.
I am not looking for a hand out. I just want the computer that I paid for and it FUNCTION. So what if it is practically obsolete at this point. I just want what I paid for! If anyone knows how to help me out...Please, I would love to hear from you. Also, I have spoken to a couple attorneys and have been advise to photograph the machine and compose a journal of Case #'s and Dispatch reciepts to establish a history of my experiences. I will be doing this. I have also been advised to have a local computer repair shop that is going to take a look at it before it goes in the airborne box and on its way back to Dell so that I have an itemized list of defective parts from a professional impartial 3rd party. I have been advised that I do not stand to gain anything (meaning money, computer or restitution) no monetary gain...but I can make my point and level the playing field so that maybe no one else will have to go through what I have.
With that said,...I don't want to have to go to court and Dell cost me MORE money...but I WILL if left with no choice.. So please....if anyone can help me do what is necessary to avoid litigation and get this computer replaced,...please please help.
And I am not a computer whiz so if you are giving instructions on how to do something,....be fairly detailed in your presentation if you would. Thank you soooo much in advance!
Roxie
