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I need to share this horror story about buying a new laptop from Dell

38 points by PuppyTailWags 4y ago

bogantech 4y ago
The real horror is this 2000 tweet screed about a broken laptop
- imajoredinecon 4y ago
  Yeah: How is it possible that "she's been unable to work for the better half of the year" is a direct consequence of Dell customer service being bad? If the job isn't important enough to merit buying another laptop to do it, maybe that complaint is exaggerating the impact just a tad?
  - chownie 4y ago
    Seems presumptuous to immediately take for granted the funds to replace a laptop twice? Maybe they just cant afford it and have been struggling by on the half working device until now.
    - secretgamergrrl 4y ago
      Yeah, I don't know what part of "had to buy this laptop on a payment plan, and Dell refuses to refund a single damn cent" suggests she has the money lying around to buy another high end laptop. Especially when the thread mentions having to sell various things to keep bills paid.
- iancmceachern 4y ago
  Yeah, so much wasted energy. I've just wasted 10 minutes reading these comments to this point, about a ladies broken laptop who I don't even know. I'm going to go live my life and not do this anymore.
ratsmack 4y ago
I can honestly say that I won't be buying another Dell. A BIOS upgrade on my PowerEdge T40 changed something in the ACPI area which caused one CPU to spin constantly at about 50% load. I found others that had the problem and a fix that requires you to disable an interrupt. After numerous attempts to get information out of Dell as to what they changed, I gave up, because all I received was corporate doublespeak and non-awswers.
solardev 4y ago
Are there any companies actually better at this, especially for consumer products? They're all just low-margin generic computing devices, and even the luxury stuff like Macs have their own endless warranty and support nightmares. I don't know anyone who's ever had a GOOD tech support experience with mainstream consumer computers. I've had decent luck with the small-biz products with add-on on-site support, but costs more money and still requires convincing someone to come out to look at it. Once they do, though, they're typically much better at actually fixing/replacing what's broken than online or phone support tend to be.
- aninteger 4y ago
  I've heard good things about ASUS. I wonder if it also makes sense to buy from Costco considering their return policy.
  - solardev 4y ago
    Asus was once a big OEM that supplied Dell and others (https://www.supplychainindiajobs.com/what-is-the-story-of-asus-and-dell/ https://www.supplychainindiajobs.com/what-is-the-story-of-as...). Its newer first-party brand (also Asus) is relatively new, applying what they learned from their OEM days. Their hardware is generally good, but their support suffers, especially when crossing cultural barriers (they're a Taiwanese company). The support/return culture is very different in the US vs Taiwan, where they're from -- they don't do returns there, it's just generally not a thing. Asus products sold in the US will be subject to retailer returns, but if you ever have to get corporate support directly from Asus, my experience is that it's hard to communicate and they don't have the same desire to please as the Western companies (at least Dell wants to LOOK like it cares; Asus doesn't really play that game because it's not part of their culture... they instead just try to make the hardware a bit better). Lenovo is a Chinese company, but they inherited the support culture from IBM, who they bought their computers division from. But the thing is, most of the computers in the world are made from component parts produced by only a tiny handful of OEMs using reference designs, then put in different chasses and rebranded and whitelabeled. By the time it gets branded as any one particular company, mostly it's not the same people responsible for marketing or support as for the original integration engineering. i.e. it's not necessarily the case that any one "brand" actually has consistently good or bad hardware, it just depends on the sourcing for that one product line for any one production run, unless they are totally vertically integrated (and I don't think anyone is anymore, except maybe Samsung to a degree.) So the support culture is more important than the actual hardware, IMO, and neither Asus nor Dell (consumer) excel in that regard. But yes, you hit the nail on the head... unless you pay for business-class support (which is worth it, IMO), the only real support you'll get is from your retailer, not the manufacturer. Costco, Best Buy, and Amazon are all great for this. I get all my electronics from Best Buy these days because their return policy is great (60 days if you're part of their membership program, which also covers extended warranties and repairs) and it's so much easier to return things than at Costco (just because the lines are usually shorter, and you're dealing with tech people who understand what various components are... the average BB person at least knows more than the average Costco employee when it comes to tech). Edit: I've had a lot of good luck with used laptops from Best Buy, which usually carry both a BB return policy (+ extended warranty if you're in their membership) and the original manufacturer's warranty, plus are much cheaper and also vetted/tested before resale.
metadat 4y ago
Disgusting behavior on behalf of Dell. Btw, why is it companies replace defective shit with refurbs, rather than delivering on the promise of what was originally purchased - a NIB item? Even Apple (which is overall the gold standard for customer service at scale) replaces defectives with refurbs.
- KennyBlanken 4y ago
  Because consumer law allows them to. The story posted smells, frankly. Her partner went from "was working on an old computer" to "not able to work for six months"? > Meanwhile, she's been unable to work for the better half of the year and has both a growing pile of clients wanting updates from her and a growing pile of credit debt. This seriously strains my credulity. What completely helpless human just sits there unable to work for SIX MONTHS not doing anything? What happened to the old computer, by the way? > 1- They think the person who actually purchased the laptop is a literally child who has no conception of her actual rights in this situation Took the words right out of my mouth. People: if you order something, note the return period. If it shows up and is broken, fucking return it. If the company refuses to accept back defective property, tell your credit card company immediately. Don't argue with them. Don't debate with them. Say "if you refuse to accept this laptop back, I'm going to start a fraud complaint with my credit card company." And then do it. Don't sit there for months and play footsie with their tech support. Edit: this story is fake. I did a google image search on the broken screen image, and up pops this image from several years ago: https://gadgetshelp.com/diy/busted-kak-spravitsia-so-slomannym-ekranom-na-noutbuke/ https://gadgetshelp.com/diy/busted-kak-spravitsia-so-slomann...
  - metadat 4y ago
    100% agree on all counts, I also found those details strange.. can't work for six months is laughable.
  - secretgamergrrl 4y ago
    Maybe read things over again before you quit your job and become a private eye, Chief. First off, pretty damn presumptuous to jump to "her partner" there. She can't get work done because the sort of work she does requires a functioning computer with a decent graphics card. The computer she was using for work prior to buying this laptop crapped out on her to a degree where it made more sense to buy a new one with better specs and sell the old one for parts. She absolutely did, in fact, "note the return period" and "fucking return it." Dell just isn't honoring it. She also has been attempting to get payments reversed, but as other people have been pointing out, banks and credit card companies do not in fact just hand over thousands of dollars out of the goodness of their hearts when someone gets defrauded, particularly in situations like this, where Dell strung her along for a bit by insisting they first take a shot at repairing the garbage they sent her, and then sending out an equally defective replacement. You are correct that I did, in fact, do an image search result to look for a photo of a monitor displaying the same sort of garbage as hers. I'm not sure where you get "this story is fake" from that, particularly when in the same post I said "if I recall" with regard to whether in her case that was due to a failed display or failed video card. I did not, in fact, claim to have gone back in time to personally take a photo of lemon laptop #1. I'm also a bit unclear what, exactly, you speculate I would stand to gain by publicly calling out a company for defrauding someone else? And I suppose, also coordinating something like a couple hundred people to share similar stories in the replies? The only money changing hands here is hopefully Dell sending her the damn refund they owe her, and I don't need to convince them of anything. They already have 8 months of support logs.
diogenescynic 4y ago
They should have just done a credit card charge back once Dell didn't fix the issue in the first month. Never let a company take months to fix an issue like this. Just get your money back and go somewhere else.
- justinsaccount 4y ago
  Yep If you pay for a laptop and it arrives broken that's the vendors fault. If you're still using and paying for a broken laptop 8 months later that's your fault.
  - secretgamergrrl 4y ago
    Did you actually read any of what you're commenting on here? She's not using it 8 months later. She immediately called it in as defective, and Dell has been dragging their feet for 8 months, apparently believing that if they send her daily e-mails about processing her complaint, they can get away with never actually issuing a refund or a functional replacement.
    - metadat 4y ago
      Please read community guidelines (linked at the bottom of every page on HN). > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." Unsolicited feedback: your messages are coming across as extremely defensive. Is anyone here really threatening you? Or posing any kind of real threat? The people here would actually probably like to be on your side. HN isn't in the habit of defending big tech behaving badly. Tl;dr: You might catch more bees with honey...
      - secretgamergrrl 4y ago
        My apologies.
- jdlshore 4y ago
  That’s not as straightforward as it sounds. I bought a Roomba from iRobot last year that developed a nasty buzzing sound during the 60-day return period. I contacted iRobot tech support by phone and got hung up on. I sent an email and didn’t hear back within their stated 24-hour response period. So I opened a dispute with CapitalOne, my CC company. They were very clearly not on my side. I had to fill out a form which asked for things like a letter from another retailer explaining why the chargeback was justified. I filled it out, included tons of supporting documentation including my emails with iRobot. (I didn’t do the letter, though.) CapitalOne forwarded it to iRobot, who responded with a form letter that didn’t address the complaint at all. (Just “our return policy is XXX—my problem was that they weren’t issuing me an RMA so I could actually conduct the return… a problem I had clearly laid out in the complaint.) Despite them not addressing my complaint, CapitalOne reversed the chargeback and sent me a letter that gave me something like 14 days to respond (iRobot had 60 days to respond, IIRC). This was over the Christmas holiday, so I didn’t see their letter. I was very disappointed with the experience. CapitalOne wasn’t providing me the consumer protection I expected of them, and there didn’t seem to be a human in the loop. I did a search for an alternative CC, but didn’t find anything that seemed like it would be better. (I though the Apple Card might be a good choice, but apparently they’re getting a lot of complaints about the actual provider, which is Goldman Sachs IIRC.) Fortunately, the complaint did bump my support request up to executive escalations, which was my original intention anyway, and it was eventually resolved to my satisfaction, including iRobot paying return shipping and even dealing with UPS losing the return package. I’m now the happy owner of a functional j7. FWIW, I think iRobot’s issues were more about staff shortages than any intentional malfeasance. So everything worked out. But I’m still unhappy with CapitalOne—I had a good case for a chargeback, but they didn’t even read it before siding with the seller. Long story short: chargebacks aren’t the panacea they used to be.
benlivengood 4y ago
Buying anything on a credit plan is dangerous; I don't think many of the same consumer protection laws apply and there's a contract governing the whole process that probably eliminates the ability to do chargebacks or other standard remediations (it looks like it requires binding arbitration), and may have included clauses that allow refurbished parts to be delivered instead of brand new (Dell Outlet seems to be where refurbished things are sold, but it's not clear from the generic credit agreement I could find whether it was specific to new or used/refurbished parts).
- KennyBlanken 4y ago
  Exactly. Get a personal loan from your bank.
- kylehotchkiss 4y ago
  I just discovered amex has all these purchase protection features built into their annual fee cards and am finding ways to use them. 90 day return protection here probably would have helped this situation.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
maxk42 4y ago
I got a Dell XPS 13 in 2013 and loved it so much I decided to only buy Dell laptops from then on. It lasted four years and I only upgraded because I wanted something with better specs. I'm not sure how many computers I've had since then but I typically have 3 - 4 at any given time for various purposes. I got a pair of nice HP machines around 2015 and tried a couple Chromebooks but have otherwise stuck with Dell. Then in 2021 around June I decided to go high-end for my daily driver. Got a $2100 laptop from Dell and was very pleased with it until December. It was on my bed reading and had the computer playing some music on YouTube. I glanced over at the screen and saw it flicker. Concerned, I reached for the computer and before I touched it the screen went black. The computer never started again. I bought the same model with slightly more SSD space to replace it. That one died the same way after less than 48 hours. Because I install Linux on my computers I expect the warranty was voided so all I could do was swear off of ever purchasing a Dell again. Currently satisfied with a much cheaper HP. It's not ideal but I can get my work done.
- dizhn 4y ago
  Installing Linux does not void your warranty.
- rfoo 4y ago
  > I expect the warranty was voided Like what the siblings said, the warranty is not voided. In some cases (e.g. Lenovo) even if you change the NVMe SSD or RAM (assuming non-soldered-on ones) your warranty is still there excluding the parts you touched.
PeterStuer 4y ago
Dell went from being the best site for configurable machines in the '00's to the absolute worst on the net less than a decade later. What happened?
soared 4y ago
> Graphics card's shot, monitor's shot, fans run full blast even when nothing's running and it's totally idle, motherboard's faulty, power supply's sketchy Then later > without properly functioning power supply, cooling system, video card, USB ports, heat sinks, or motherboard, Sounds legit. How are things “shot”, “faulty”, and “sketchy”? How does a heat sink “not function”? > USB ports in particular keep coming up as a failure point, which suggests to me that they really do just have widespread issues in their manufacturing process: I don’t think this person has any idea what they’re talking about and is happy to jump to wild conclusions.
- KennyBlanken 4y ago
  Because it's bullshit. The image of the broken screen is from a five year old russian writeup on DIY'ing a sony vaio screen. Secret Gamer Girl did a google image search for "broken screen" and dumped it into a tweet, and somehow didn't think they would get caught lying? Edit: SGG's partner's laptop shows up, and SGG is "there." It shows a broken display. We're supposed to believe neither of them took a picture or video of the damage? Why, in fact, is there not a single picture or video of these failures anywhere in the entire thread?
  - orf 4y ago
    They never said the image was theirs, they said it was like that image. So, who’s lying?
    - KennyBlanken 4y ago
      The person who apparently has no pictures or video of the defective laptop in question and instead dug around google image search for their tweet missive? Which, by the way, has multiple screenshots of correspondence with dell but not a single photo or video of this very defective laptop?
      - orf 4y ago
        Cool, but that’s a different point to make than “I didn’t read the tweet properly and thought my reverse image search was a gigantic gotcha that I’ve proudly posted several times”.
KennyBlanken 4y ago
This story is looking incredibly suspect. The image SecretGamerGrrl aka Secret Gamer Girl provides for the "broken screen" here: https://twitter.com/SecretGamerGrrl/status/1539540136102330369 https://twitter.com/SecretGamerGrrl/status/15395401361023303... ...is from this five year old russian article on how to do a screen replacement on a sony vaio laptop. https://gadgetshelp.com/diy/busted-kak-spravitsia-so-slomannym-ekranom-na-noutbuke/ https://gadgetshelp.com/diy/busted-kak-spravitsia-so-slomann... This person earns over $800/month on Patreon and is either incredibly terrible at marketing their work, or hasn't generated any work product in five years. Edit: since SGG has showed up: what's fishy, SGG, is that you/your partner have a massively defective laptop and neither of you have taken a single picture or video of it demonstrating these defects, and instead had to use a GIS-sourced image to show what the laptop is 'like'. Most people would flood a tweet thread with pictures and video. It's also fishy that you didn't return such an obviously defective machine within the return window. It's also fishy that your partner went from "has a functional but old laptop" to "cannot work for six months." Their replacement laptop was very obviously broken but they sold or disposed of the old laptop? Second edit: to head off the inevitable tweet deletions, archives: https://archive.ph/yVGGc https://archive.ph/yVGGc https://web.archive.org/web/20220623051934/https://twitter.com/SecretGamerGrrl/status/1539540136102330369 https://web.archive.org/web/20220623051934/https://twitter.c...
- secretgamergrrl 4y ago
  Sorry, what's "fishy" about me doing an image search for a visual aid of something similar to what someone else's laptop looked like when I saw it 8 months ago, exactly?
  - secretgamergrrl 4y ago
    And just to quickly address these other points you edited in... I'm not sure what my Patreon has to do with Dell defrauding someone I care about. Did you have a point you were trying to make there that I'm missing? Again, I'm not the person who got ripped off here. Nor am I married to her, which you seem to keep suggesting for some reason. I'm just sitting here, watching her get passed around between different support people for months like it's a 9-5 job and expressing my horror that any company would pull this sort of thing on anyone. You really seem to have a lot of very strong opinions about some alternate situation that only exists in your mind. She very much did contact Dell immediately on first receiving her lemon of a laptop to report that it arrived in a non-functional state. Dell then inspected it, agreed that it was non-functional, and (after dragging their feet for a while), sent her a replacement computer, which was also riddled with issues, which and which she also immediately reported as defective. At no point has there ever been any dispute over the matter of whether she was sent non-functioning hardware, nor was there any point in here where she was given a window in which to report issues in which she failed to do so. Furthermore, the initial laptop Dell sold her eight months ago came with a one year warranty, so even if she hadn't immediately gotten in touch about returning it, or it had been functioning at the time, they'd still be on the hook here. There is no "old but working" laptop in this story. She has not resold either of the defective laptops Dell has sent to her. Lemon #2 is still in her possession, waiting for them to quit jerking her around, and send her a refund and a shipping label for it. Lemon #1, so far as I know, was already sent back to a Dell warehouse last year, and is presumably awaiting the day they scam someone else by sending it out as a "refurbished replacement" for one of their other defective products. The computer she had before buying Lemon #1 did not function, which is why she tried to buy a new laptop from Dell in the first place, has long-since been sold for parts, and is frankly not at all relevant to this conversation, not being something she paid good money for only to be defrauded by Dell like these. Oh yes, while you have made it quite clear that you, for some reason, would enjoy looking at such, I did not take any photos nor record videos of that initial spectacularly defective laptop. For some reason I just did not have the foresight that 8 months later Dell still would not have issued a refund for it, and I might thusly be inclined to write a big long Twitter thread on the subject. You're not missing out on much though. Just picture a normal laptop, except the screen displays garbage, the fans kick into full gear like you're running a stress test the moment you start it up, and depending on the temperature in the room, the whole thing shuts down between ten minutes and a couple hours later. Hopefully that resolves all of your questions, and you can now find something better to do with your time than accusing random strangers of imaginary crimes, and/or very suspiciously playing damage control for a profoundly shady company.
I_complete_me 4y ago
My first laptop was a Dell which I bought circa 2000 and cost about 4,000 in today's money. I thought they were the best. But later on the Quality Assurance Auditor for a company I once worked for told me that he did the following: After purchasing a Dell laptop with "Gold" support backup he could not get the support to fix his particular issue. Numerous attempts failed so he brought the laptop to the local Dell factory and smashed it to pieces using a sledgehammer in the carpark in front of the entrance. I am not making that up and I believe he really did it.
millzlane 4y ago
A brand new dell laptop would have a warranty. Could the device not be mailed back to them for repair? The one year warranty would cover exactly this. This happens with $4000 mac books also. New machines that arrive DOA or with functional issues. Why wouldn't the device be mailed back for repair?
- secretgamergrrl 4y ago
  The business model seems to go something like this: - Sell broken garbage at lower than average prices. - Deflect a lot of complaints just by outsourcing support to an overworked call center with language barriers and constant redirects. - If someone suffers through that long enough, offer a replacement. - Drag feet shipping out the replacement, and send a different model of broken garbage. - Play real dumb when they try to return the replacement. That doesn't match the model you purchased/that doesn't match the original delivery date/we've already sent a replacement. - Stall indefinitely. - Bank on anyone buying a Dell being too poor to afford to take them to court over not honoring their warranty.
rasz 4y ago
What a rant, my first reaction was 'OK Karen'. Solutions for normal people: - Do a chargeback, cant here due to lease/credit - small claims court, cant because forced arbitration? - invoke Lemon Law, doesnt apply because technically its not yours until paid in full - live in a country with consumer protection laws, or even a state (NY has dedicated computer lemon law) altho https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/consumer-transactions/customer-returns-and-refund-laws-by-state.html https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/consumer-transactions/custo... doesnt look encouraging Does ranting on twitter at minimum wage employees not even living in continental US ever help? Machine doesnt care about you and your words.

38 points by PuppyTailWags 4y ago

bogantech 4y ago

The real horror is this 2000 tweet screed about a broken laptop

imajoredinecon 4y ago
Yeah: How is it possible that "she's been unable to work for the better half of the year" is a direct consequence of Dell customer service being bad? If the job isn't important enough to merit buying another laptop to do it, maybe that complaint is exaggerating the impact just a tad?
- chownie 4y ago
  Seems presumptuous to immediately take for granted the funds to replace a laptop twice? Maybe they just cant afford it and have been struggling by on the half working device until now.
  - secretgamergrrl 4y ago
    Yeah, I don't know what part of "had to buy this laptop on a payment plan, and Dell refuses to refund a single damn cent" suggests she has the money lying around to buy another high end laptop. Especially when the thread mentions having to sell various things to keep bills paid.
iancmceachern 4y ago
Yeah, so much wasted energy. I've just wasted 10 minutes reading these comments to this point, about a ladies broken laptop who I don't even know. I'm going to go live my life and not do this anymore.

ratsmack 4y ago

I can honestly say that I won't be buying another Dell. A BIOS upgrade on my PowerEdge T40 changed something in the ACPI area which caused one CPU to spin constantly at about 50% load. I found others that had the problem and a fix that requires you to disable an interrupt. After numerous attempts to get information out of Dell as to what they changed, I gave up, because all I received was corporate doublespeak and non-awswers.

solardev 4y ago

Are there any companies actually better at this, especially for consumer products? They're all just low-margin generic computing devices, and even the luxury stuff like Macs have their own endless warranty and support nightmares. I don't know anyone who's ever had a GOOD tech support experience with mainstream consumer computers. I've had decent luck with the small-biz products with add-on on-site support, but costs more money and still requires convincing someone to come out to look at it. Once they do, though, they're typically much better at actually fixing/replacing what's broken than online or phone support tend to be.

aninteger 4y ago
I've heard good things about ASUS. I wonder if it also makes sense to buy from Costco considering their return policy.
- solardev 4y ago
  Asus was once a big OEM that supplied Dell and others (https://www.supplychainindiajobs.com/what-is-the-story-of-asus-and-dell/ https://www.supplychainindiajobs.com/what-is-the-story-of-as...). Its newer first-party brand (also Asus) is relatively new, applying what they learned from their OEM days. Their hardware is generally good, but their support suffers, especially when crossing cultural barriers (they're a Taiwanese company). The support/return culture is very different in the US vs Taiwan, where they're from -- they don't do returns there, it's just generally not a thing. Asus products sold in the US will be subject to retailer returns, but if you ever have to get corporate support directly from Asus, my experience is that it's hard to communicate and they don't have the same desire to please as the Western companies (at least Dell wants to LOOK like it cares; Asus doesn't really play that game because it's not part of their culture... they instead just try to make the hardware a bit better). Lenovo is a Chinese company, but they inherited the support culture from IBM, who they bought their computers division from. But the thing is, most of the computers in the world are made from component parts produced by only a tiny handful of OEMs using reference designs, then put in different chasses and rebranded and whitelabeled. By the time it gets branded as any one particular company, mostly it's not the same people responsible for marketing or support as for the original integration engineering. i.e. it's not necessarily the case that any one "brand" actually has consistently good or bad hardware, it just depends on the sourcing for that one product line for any one production run, unless they are totally vertically integrated (and I don't think anyone is anymore, except maybe Samsung to a degree.) So the support culture is more important than the actual hardware, IMO, and neither Asus nor Dell (consumer) excel in that regard. But yes, you hit the nail on the head... unless you pay for business-class support (which is worth it, IMO), the only real support you'll get is from your retailer, not the manufacturer. Costco, Best Buy, and Amazon are all great for this. I get all my electronics from Best Buy these days because their return policy is great (60 days if you're part of their membership program, which also covers extended warranties and repairs) and it's so much easier to return things than at Costco (just because the lines are usually shorter, and you're dealing with tech people who understand what various components are... the average BB person at least knows more than the average Costco employee when it comes to tech). Edit: I've had a lot of good luck with used laptops from Best Buy, which usually carry both a BB return policy (+ extended warranty if you're in their membership) and the original manufacturer's warranty, plus are much cheaper and also vetted/tested before resale.

metadat 4y ago

Disgusting behavior on behalf of Dell. Btw, why is it companies replace defective shit with refurbs, rather than delivering on the promise of what was originally purchased - a NIB item? Even Apple (which is overall the gold standard for customer service at scale) replaces defectives with refurbs.

KennyBlanken 4y ago
Because consumer law allows them to. The story posted smells, frankly. Her partner went from "was working on an old computer" to "not able to work for six months"? > Meanwhile, she's been unable to work for the better half of the year and has both a growing pile of clients wanting updates from her and a growing pile of credit debt. This seriously strains my credulity. What completely helpless human just sits there unable to work for SIX MONTHS not doing anything? What happened to the old computer, by the way? > 1- They think the person who actually purchased the laptop is a literally child who has no conception of her actual rights in this situation Took the words right out of my mouth. People: if you order something, note the return period. If it shows up and is broken, fucking return it. If the company refuses to accept back defective property, tell your credit card company immediately. Don't argue with them. Don't debate with them. Say "if you refuse to accept this laptop back, I'm going to start a fraud complaint with my credit card company." And then do it. Don't sit there for months and play footsie with their tech support. Edit: this story is fake. I did a google image search on the broken screen image, and up pops this image from several years ago: https://gadgetshelp.com/diy/busted-kak-spravitsia-so-slomannym-ekranom-na-noutbuke/ https://gadgetshelp.com/diy/busted-kak-spravitsia-so-slomann...
- metadat 4y ago
  100% agree on all counts, I also found those details strange.. can't work for six months is laughable.
- secretgamergrrl 4y ago
  Maybe read things over again before you quit your job and become a private eye, Chief. First off, pretty damn presumptuous to jump to "her partner" there. She can't get work done because the sort of work she does requires a functioning computer with a decent graphics card. The computer she was using for work prior to buying this laptop crapped out on her to a degree where it made more sense to buy a new one with better specs and sell the old one for parts. She absolutely did, in fact, "note the return period" and "fucking return it." Dell just isn't honoring it. She also has been attempting to get payments reversed, but as other people have been pointing out, banks and credit card companies do not in fact just hand over thousands of dollars out of the goodness of their hearts when someone gets defrauded, particularly in situations like this, where Dell strung her along for a bit by insisting they first take a shot at repairing the garbage they sent her, and then sending out an equally defective replacement. You are correct that I did, in fact, do an image search result to look for a photo of a monitor displaying the same sort of garbage as hers. I'm not sure where you get "this story is fake" from that, particularly when in the same post I said "if I recall" with regard to whether in her case that was due to a failed display or failed video card. I did not, in fact, claim to have gone back in time to personally take a photo of lemon laptop #1. I'm also a bit unclear what, exactly, you speculate I would stand to gain by publicly calling out a company for defrauding someone else? And I suppose, also coordinating something like a couple hundred people to share similar stories in the replies? The only money changing hands here is hopefully Dell sending her the damn refund they owe her, and I don't need to convince them of anything. They already have 8 months of support logs.

diogenescynic 4y ago

They should have just done a credit card charge back once Dell didn't fix the issue in the first month. Never let a company take months to fix an issue like this. Just get your money back and go somewhere else.

justinsaccount 4y ago
Yep If you pay for a laptop and it arrives broken that's the vendors fault. If you're still using and paying for a broken laptop 8 months later that's your fault.
- secretgamergrrl 4y ago
  Did you actually read any of what you're commenting on here? She's not using it 8 months later. She immediately called it in as defective, and Dell has been dragging their feet for 8 months, apparently believing that if they send her daily e-mails about processing her complaint, they can get away with never actually issuing a refund or a functional replacement.
  - metadat 4y ago
    Please read community guidelines (linked at the bottom of every page on HN). > Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that." Unsolicited feedback: your messages are coming across as extremely defensive. Is anyone here really threatening you? Or posing any kind of real threat? The people here would actually probably like to be on your side. HN isn't in the habit of defending big tech behaving badly. Tl;dr: You might catch more bees with honey...
    - secretgamergrrl 4y ago
      My apologies.
jdlshore 4y ago
That’s not as straightforward as it sounds. I bought a Roomba from iRobot last year that developed a nasty buzzing sound during the 60-day return period. I contacted iRobot tech support by phone and got hung up on. I sent an email and didn’t hear back within their stated 24-hour response period. So I opened a dispute with CapitalOne, my CC company. They were very clearly not on my side. I had to fill out a form which asked for things like a letter from another retailer explaining why the chargeback was justified. I filled it out, included tons of supporting documentation including my emails with iRobot. (I didn’t do the letter, though.) CapitalOne forwarded it to iRobot, who responded with a form letter that didn’t address the complaint at all. (Just “our return policy is XXX—my problem was that they weren’t issuing me an RMA so I could actually conduct the return… a problem I had clearly laid out in the complaint.) Despite them not addressing my complaint, CapitalOne reversed the chargeback and sent me a letter that gave me something like 14 days to respond (iRobot had 60 days to respond, IIRC). This was over the Christmas holiday, so I didn’t see their letter. I was very disappointed with the experience. CapitalOne wasn’t providing me the consumer protection I expected of them, and there didn’t seem to be a human in the loop. I did a search for an alternative CC, but didn’t find anything that seemed like it would be better. (I though the Apple Card might be a good choice, but apparently they’re getting a lot of complaints about the actual provider, which is Goldman Sachs IIRC.) Fortunately, the complaint did bump my support request up to executive escalations, which was my original intention anyway, and it was eventually resolved to my satisfaction, including iRobot paying return shipping and even dealing with UPS losing the return package. I’m now the happy owner of a functional j7. FWIW, I think iRobot’s issues were more about staff shortages than any intentional malfeasance. So everything worked out. But I’m still unhappy with CapitalOne—I had a good case for a chargeback, but they didn’t even read it before siding with the seller. Long story short: chargebacks aren’t the panacea they used to be.

benlivengood 4y ago

Buying anything on a credit plan is dangerous; I don't think many of the same consumer protection laws apply and there's a contract governing the whole process that probably eliminates the ability to do chargebacks or other standard remediations (it looks like it requires binding arbitration), and may have included clauses that allow refurbished parts to be delivered instead of brand new (Dell Outlet seems to be where refurbished things are sold, but it's not clear from the generic credit agreement I could find whether it was specific to new or used/refurbished parts).

KennyBlanken 4y ago
Exactly. Get a personal loan from your bank.
kylehotchkiss 4y ago
I just discovered amex has all these purchase protection features built into their annual fee cards and am finding ways to use them. 90 day return protection here probably would have helped this situation.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

maxk42 4y ago

I got a Dell XPS 13 in 2013 and loved it so much I decided to only buy Dell laptops from then on. It lasted four years and I only upgraded because I wanted something with better specs. I'm not sure how many computers I've had since then but I typically have 3 - 4 at any given time for various purposes. I got a pair of nice HP machines around 2015 and tried a couple Chromebooks but have otherwise stuck with Dell. Then in 2021 around June I decided to go high-end for my daily driver. Got a $2100 laptop from Dell and was very pleased with it until December. It was on my bed reading and had the computer playing some music on YouTube. I glanced over at the screen and saw it flicker. Concerned, I reached for the computer and before I touched it the screen went black. The computer never started again. I bought the same model with slightly more SSD space to replace it. That one died the same way after less than 48 hours. Because I install Linux on my computers I expect the warranty was voided so all I could do was swear off of ever purchasing a Dell again. Currently satisfied with a much cheaper HP. It's not ideal but I can get my work done.

dizhn 4y ago
Installing Linux does not void your warranty.
rfoo 4y ago
> I expect the warranty was voided Like what the siblings said, the warranty is not voided. In some cases (e.g. Lenovo) even if you change the NVMe SSD or RAM (assuming non-soldered-on ones) your warranty is still there excluding the parts you touched.

PeterStuer 4y ago

Dell went from being the best site for configurable machines in the '00's to the absolute worst on the net less than a decade later. What happened?

soared 4y ago

> Graphics card's shot, monitor's shot, fans run full blast even when nothing's running and it's totally idle, motherboard's faulty, power supply's sketchy Then later > without properly functioning power supply, cooling system, video card, USB ports, heat sinks, or motherboard, Sounds legit. How are things “shot”, “faulty”, and “sketchy”? How does a heat sink “not function”? > USB ports in particular keep coming up as a failure point, which suggests to me that they really do just have widespread issues in their manufacturing process: I don’t think this person has any idea what they’re talking about and is happy to jump to wild conclusions.

KennyBlanken 4y ago
Because it's bullshit. The image of the broken screen is from a five year old russian writeup on DIY'ing a sony vaio screen. Secret Gamer Girl did a google image search for "broken screen" and dumped it into a tweet, and somehow didn't think they would get caught lying? Edit: SGG's partner's laptop shows up, and SGG is "there." It shows a broken display. We're supposed to believe neither of them took a picture or video of the damage? Why, in fact, is there not a single picture or video of these failures anywhere in the entire thread?
- orf 4y ago
  They never said the image was theirs, they said it was like that image. So, who’s lying?
  - KennyBlanken 4y ago
    The person who apparently has no pictures or video of the defective laptop in question and instead dug around google image search for their tweet missive? Which, by the way, has multiple screenshots of correspondence with dell but not a single photo or video of this very defective laptop?
    - orf 4y ago
      Cool, but that’s a different point to make than “I didn’t read the tweet properly and thought my reverse image search was a gigantic gotcha that I’ve proudly posted several times”.

KennyBlanken 4y ago

This story is looking incredibly suspect. The image SecretGamerGrrl aka Secret Gamer Girl provides for the "broken screen" here: https://twitter.com/SecretGamerGrrl/status/1539540136102330369 https://twitter.com/SecretGamerGrrl/status/15395401361023303... ...is from this five year old russian article on how to do a screen replacement on a sony vaio laptop. https://gadgetshelp.com/diy/busted-kak-spravitsia-so-slomannym-ekranom-na-noutbuke/ https://gadgetshelp.com/diy/busted-kak-spravitsia-so-slomann... This person earns over $800/month on Patreon and is either incredibly terrible at marketing their work, or hasn't generated any work product in five years. Edit: since SGG has showed up: what's fishy, SGG, is that you/your partner have a massively defective laptop and neither of you have taken a single picture or video of it demonstrating these defects, and instead had to use a GIS-sourced image to show what the laptop is 'like'. Most people would flood a tweet thread with pictures and video. It's also fishy that you didn't return such an obviously defective machine within the return window. It's also fishy that your partner went from "has a functional but old laptop" to "cannot work for six months." Their replacement laptop was very obviously broken but they sold or disposed of the old laptop? Second edit: to head off the inevitable tweet deletions, archives: https://archive.ph/yVGGc https://archive.ph/yVGGc https://web.archive.org/web/20220623051934/https://twitter.com/SecretGamerGrrl/status/1539540136102330369 https://web.archive.org/web/20220623051934/https://twitter.c...

secretgamergrrl 4y ago
Sorry, what's "fishy" about me doing an image search for a visual aid of something similar to what someone else's laptop looked like when I saw it 8 months ago, exactly?
- secretgamergrrl 4y ago
  And just to quickly address these other points you edited in... I'm not sure what my Patreon has to do with Dell defrauding someone I care about. Did you have a point you were trying to make there that I'm missing? Again, I'm not the person who got ripped off here. Nor am I married to her, which you seem to keep suggesting for some reason. I'm just sitting here, watching her get passed around between different support people for months like it's a 9-5 job and expressing my horror that any company would pull this sort of thing on anyone. You really seem to have a lot of very strong opinions about some alternate situation that only exists in your mind. She very much did contact Dell immediately on first receiving her lemon of a laptop to report that it arrived in a non-functional state. Dell then inspected it, agreed that it was non-functional, and (after dragging their feet for a while), sent her a replacement computer, which was also riddled with issues, which and which she also immediately reported as defective. At no point has there ever been any dispute over the matter of whether she was sent non-functioning hardware, nor was there any point in here where she was given a window in which to report issues in which she failed to do so. Furthermore, the initial laptop Dell sold her eight months ago came with a one year warranty, so even if she hadn't immediately gotten in touch about returning it, or it had been functioning at the time, they'd still be on the hook here. There is no "old but working" laptop in this story. She has not resold either of the defective laptops Dell has sent to her. Lemon #2 is still in her possession, waiting for them to quit jerking her around, and send her a refund and a shipping label for it. Lemon #1, so far as I know, was already sent back to a Dell warehouse last year, and is presumably awaiting the day they scam someone else by sending it out as a "refurbished replacement" for one of their other defective products. The computer she had before buying Lemon #1 did not function, which is why she tried to buy a new laptop from Dell in the first place, has long-since been sold for parts, and is frankly not at all relevant to this conversation, not being something she paid good money for only to be defrauded by Dell like these. Oh yes, while you have made it quite clear that you, for some reason, would enjoy looking at such, I did not take any photos nor record videos of that initial spectacularly defective laptop. For some reason I just did not have the foresight that 8 months later Dell still would not have issued a refund for it, and I might thusly be inclined to write a big long Twitter thread on the subject. You're not missing out on much though. Just picture a normal laptop, except the screen displays garbage, the fans kick into full gear like you're running a stress test the moment you start it up, and depending on the temperature in the room, the whole thing shuts down between ten minutes and a couple hours later. Hopefully that resolves all of your questions, and you can now find something better to do with your time than accusing random strangers of imaginary crimes, and/or very suspiciously playing damage control for a profoundly shady company.

I_complete_me 4y ago

My first laptop was a Dell which I bought circa 2000 and cost about 4,000 in today's money. I thought they were the best. But later on the Quality Assurance Auditor for a company I once worked for told me that he did the following: After purchasing a Dell laptop with "Gold" support backup he could not get the support to fix his particular issue. Numerous attempts failed so he brought the laptop to the local Dell factory and smashed it to pieces using a sledgehammer in the carpark in front of the entrance. I am not making that up and I believe he really did it.

millzlane 4y ago

A brand new dell laptop would have a warranty. Could the device not be mailed back to them for repair? The one year warranty would cover exactly this. This happens with $4000 mac books also. New machines that arrive DOA or with functional issues. Why wouldn't the device be mailed back for repair?

secretgamergrrl 4y ago
The business model seems to go something like this: - Sell broken garbage at lower than average prices. - Deflect a lot of complaints just by outsourcing support to an overworked call center with language barriers and constant redirects. - If someone suffers through that long enough, offer a replacement. - Drag feet shipping out the replacement, and send a different model of broken garbage. - Play real dumb when they try to return the replacement. That doesn't match the model you purchased/that doesn't match the original delivery date/we've already sent a replacement. - Stall indefinitely. - Bank on anyone buying a Dell being too poor to afford to take them to court over not honoring their warranty.

rasz 4y ago

What a rant, my first reaction was 'OK Karen'. Solutions for normal people: - Do a chargeback, cant here due to lease/credit - small claims court, cant because forced arbitration? - invoke Lemon Law, doesnt apply because technically its not yours until paid in full - live in a country with consumer protection laws, or even a state (NY has dedicated computer lemon law) altho https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/consumer-transactions/customer-returns-and-refund-laws-by-state.html https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/consumer-transactions/custo... doesnt look encouraging Does ranting on twitter at minimum wage employees not even living in continental US ever help? Machine doesnt care about you and your words.