Alienware M1x-R3 headphone jack broken. Need repair advice.

Question

Hello. I have an Alienware M17x-R3 with extended warranty (Accidental Damage Covered) which expires in Jan 2016. Recently this laptop fell and two headphones were plugged in it. This caused the headphone jacks to bend from inside. Now the headphone jacks have stopped working! I got the broken headphone pin removed from the jack. But still my laptop thinks that a headphone is plugged in. It bypasses the speaker to give the audio output to the headphones, which are not present. So I am currently stuck in a situation with no audio. I contacted Dell Technical Support in my country (INDIA). First I was told that this would not be covered under warranty and i would have to pay for the parts as this is wear and tear. I tried explaining to them that as this was an accident (the fall) it should be covered under accidental damage. To this they responded saying that they are helpless. As I am the one who is needy, I had no other option other than to accept to pay. They said that the sales team will contact me within 48 hours with the quotation for the required part. After a few days I get a response that the part is not available. On inquiring about the future availability of the part, they asked me to purchase the part online or from a local vendor and get it repaired myself! Is this the kind of service your customer deserves? I got busy in other work and did not get the laptop repaired from local repair shop and called Dell Technical support again. This time they told me that the whole motherboard needs to be replaced and it won't be covered under the warranty. Which means I will have to pay for the motherboard. I just paid a huge amount for extending complete cover warranty by 2 years and again I am being asked to pay even a larger amount just to get my headphone jack replaced. Finally, I told them that it would be better to get it repaired at the local repair shop instead of paying for a whole new motherboard (That's what they had previously suggested). Now they tell me that I have no other option than to pay for the motherboard as getting it repaired from any unauthorized center will void the warranty. I am completely stuck in this situation. My laptop is 3 years, 8 months old and from day 1 I have been complaining about the heating issue. GTX 580M throttling issue still exists and as the climate in India is hot, it is impossible to game as the clock speed and the fps keep dropping every 2-3 minutes! Even after numerous formats, motherboard change, heatsink and GPU replacements, the problem still exists. This defeats the whole purpose of the so called 'GAMING' laptop. Looks like Dell India has their own policies. They should provide the customer with more options and look forward to provide better service since they charge so much. It look like they just want to exploit their customers. Is there any way I can tackle this problem?

getnito · Answer

The problem might be you still have the very tip of the broken plug inside the jack. If so, we have made a tool to easily remove those. It is called the GripStick, and we currently have a Kickstarter campaign:

www.kickstarter.com/.../gripstick-the-broken-headphone-plug-removal-tool

Hope this helps...

sachinraka · Answer

I have already checked the jack for broken tips and there are none. I can plug in a headphone but i don't get the audio output on it.

Milena M458 · Answer

In that case if your system has complete care warranty the technical support team should send the system to the repair center that way the technicians will be able to check the system and provide you a solution.

sachinraka · Answer

Yes it Has complete cover with Accidental Damage Protection. I'll take your word for it and contact them again. Thank You!

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