the dell experience

[royston]

Has anyone had any poor performance from a Dell system ?.
I bought mine in July. Must admit that it was the cheapest on offer but still it performed very well until last week. On Monday last I received a call from Dell to ask if I wanted to extend my warranty for 3 years at a cost of £90. I declined this and this invoked "Sods Law". On Tuesday whilst working at my PC the screen went blank. Various tests over the phone proved that the monitor had given up the ghost. I contacted Dell to be told that they only supplied a 90 day warranty and that there was nothing they could do other than sell me a new monitor at between £230 and £250 depending on the type.
I told them that I was not satisfied with this and certainly expected the equipment to last longer than 5 months. I intended to contact local standards etc. However about an hour later Dell phoned to say that they would send me a new monitor and indeed it arrived within 40 hours.
I cannot fault their final action but had they stuck to their original statement would have indeed taken every action available to me.
I do not know if my reaction stimulated a renewal, but would have thought that they would want to know the cause of such early failure.
Any comments very welcome. Roy

[Mark]

90 days sounds a little on the short side if you're in the UK ...

quoting from Dell's website's Term & Conditions ...

Unless otherwise stated, Dell guarantees to you that Dell-branded Products will be free from defects for 12 months from delivery and spare parts for 90 days from installation or delivery date, whichever is the earlier. Should Product be defective within this period, Dell will repair or replace Product within a reasonable time.


Mark

[Steve Steere]

It is normal practice for the manufacturers of some monitors to give a three year warranty. Obviously yours was badged as a Dell but probably manufactured by someone else.

It certainly pays to investigate should a monitor fail, normally a 'Google' on the model number will get a hit.

I know the scam of selling extended warranties for monitors after the retailers year is up, was investigated some years ago by the Watchdog TV programme. I know they were still at it despite knowing that the manufacturers give a three year warranty.

I do not know know if this applied in your case, but perhaps mention of Trading Standards did the trick.

[Ed Bradford]

I've had good luck with the Dell computer that I purchased some time ago. I did have a hard drive go bad in it long after the box was out of warrantee. It was 4 years old at the time. I did check with the drive manufacturer and found that they offered a 3 year warrantee on the drive but I had exceeded that as well so I purchased a new one from the local computer parts store.

By the way, I noticed in the business section of the newspaper that Seagate bought Maxtor. That will reduce competition I expect. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the price of drives go up. So, if you’re thinking about upgrading your drive, I believe now might be the time.

…………….Ed

[roadrunner465]

I must be one of the lucky ones. I have had excellent service from Dell, they have replaced too CD drives and are most polite.
I took extended warrenty because it pays. I guess it depends on who you are.

[Dennis Harker]

Royston,

My understanding of UK Consumer Law is that, if a product goes defective within 6 months of purchase then it is assumed that it is a manufacturing defect and any retailer has to prove different. It used to be the other way round that the customer had to prove it was a manufacturing defect.

It would seem that, as you were within the 6 month period and were standing up to Dell, this company were willing to try it on but changed their mind when they realised you meant business. Not an uncommon stance with UK businesses - I've been there a couple of times.

If you, or anyone else, is ever stuck on a similar problem then Computer Active have a section in every edition of their fortnightly magazine which explains your rights and how to go about ensuring correct procedures are followed. There are a lot of myths about Consumer Law, most of them propagated by certain dealers (again I've been there) but this magazine makes it clear how to proceed.

It's a sad reflection that we often have to invoke Consumer Law or use Trading Standards but is, unfortunately, something that we have to deal with sooner or later.

[Lindad]

Having spent the last seven a bit years working in the Education and Health sectors, both of whom appear to be blinkered about buying anything other than Dell (probably because they are 'cheap' and Dell offer 'good deals' to the Public Sector)... when it comes to spending my own money and buying my own computer for home... I'm afraid I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!! I've had more computer problems whilst using Dells than during the previous 20 years of using a variety of other PCs put together.

I haven't been impressed at all - but then, of course, I have colleagues who swear by them and wouldn't use anything else!

Just as computers users either love their 'PC' or their 'Mac' it seems users either love their Dell or their... Definitely a case of either or, rather than both and!