Dell frustration

Up until about a year ago, we were nearly an all Dell shop.  Recently, we've found more attractive offers from IBM/Leonvo, but we still have a lot of Dell equipment under maintenance contracts, and I've felt good about suggesting Dell for home users.  A few days ago, I found a problem on the Dell notebook *I* use -- one of the hinges was cracked.  (As an aside, I use my notebook a LOT, but I'm very careful with it.  This broken hinge is not from abuse.)  So..we started the process to get this hinge replaced under the on-site warrantly program. 

Here's a picture of the problem.  The outside plastic break is just a symptom on the inside metal break.

Dell's response: "that's not covered under the warranty."  Argh! I think I'll change my recommendations for home users.  Very frustrating.

The hinge has now completely broken and the notebook has become almost unusable as a portable device -- I have to leave it proped open.  Withdrawal symptoms are tough, too :-(

Comments

[Jim Walton]

Tony,
I am on the verge of buying a laptop for myself as I get more into church consulting, as well as small business consulting. I'm on the fence between Lenovo and Dell and leaning toward Dell, but I may lean the other way now! The new Lenovo 3000 line is pretty sweet, plus it comes with the fingerprint reader.

[Sam Barrett Sr.]

Meh. You probably don't have complete care through Dell. That's the real issue with your warranty woes. With complete care Dell always has your back.

[Bob Brown]

My old Compaq has suffered the same problem. It is on its side in a closet at home until I build a support for the monitor.

Any recommendations on how to support a laptop with a broken hinge? I am looking for something on the cheap since it is just going to be used for home use. It is from 2001 and the battery lasts about 15 minutes so it stays plugged in.

[Sam]

Sounds like typical dell. I have a dell at work and hate it. You should look into buying a Mac, they are like a foreign car well made and hold thier value. Oh i almost forgot if you like getting viruses and your computer crashing you can install windows on the new MacTells.

[Jason Powell]

Don't the mac evangelists get the fact that comments like these are pointless? Enough already.

Ditto on getting complete care for laptops. Anything breaks and it's covered ... even screens.

You can find hinges on ebay and select websites. You typically have to tear most of the laptop apart to put in the new hinge unit though.

[Allen Madding]

Back on my band wagon for a second...I have and still believe that Toshiba builds the better notebook/laptop. I was quite pleased with the service I received when mine went down at the Shelby Conference one year in Memphis. I called them on Monday, they arranged shipping and on Wed, I had a working laptop back in my hands.

I've had a different BAD experience with Dell as of late. Our company has a plethora of Dell desktops. Recently we started having motherboard failures with their GSX-270 model. It seems the capacitors bulge and then leak. The system acts flaky powering up and then quits completely.

Dell acknowledges the problem and dispatches a tech with a motherboard to repair. They take my contact info, read it all back to me and we wait. The next day I call at the end of the day askign why the tech didn't arrive on time. They page him and we discover that Dell dispatched him with our company purchasing agent's name and number instead of mine. Guess who was out sick that day? DING

The tech changes out the motherboard and discovers that the power supply is dead as well. Same capacitors in it have leaked and failed. He tells us that if the power supply has a blue tag on it, it is subject to the failure.

A few weeks later, another one dies the same death in another machine. We call Dell, tell them the symptoms and ask they dispatch a motherboard and a power supply as it has the blue tag. They tell us the blue tag is not a known issue and the field techs aren't Dell trained and that Dell dispatch knows best. the next day the tech arrives, changes the motherboard and guess what? If you guess the power supply is dead too, you win a prize. so we wait another day for the power supply to arrive. This tech then begins to tell us what the last one did about the blue tag.

Just another day in the life with Dell award winning service and support.