Shady move on Dells behalf.

So maybe its ignorance on my behalf, maybe its poor communication on theres. I, like many people am having issues with my MIO Board, and after several attempts of trying to work it out on my own, with the infinite wisdom of Tesla1856 in this particular matter I came up empty handed. Knowing my warranty was out of date I called tech support in hopes that maybe they'd understand the plea of a regular guy that had some bad luck and didn't know that using a Resource DVD provided by Dell themselves would be the downfall the MIO Board.

Much to my dismay the first time I called I was cut short by a curt, yet polite tech support saying before he can help I need to pay out $350 for an extended warranty.. After I managed to regain my breath from the gasp that escape my mouth and had some color come back to my face I politely declined and we parted ways with a "Good day, sir."

Being less than satisfied with the outcome I called again, this time instead of using the Tech Support number given at the Dell website I found one at the Alienware website and used it. I was greeted by another pleasantly polite gentlemen who gave me the same run down, asking service numbers and codes, and with out saying anything about needing to by an extended warranty he asked what the problem was, I began to grow excited at the prospect of some help. So I gave him the run down, he paused for a few, looked at some stuff and said, "Sir, I'm going to have to transfer you to my manager, I don't have any knowledge on the particular problem at hand. She's busy with a customer at the moment but she will call you in the next 30-45 minutes." I say that's fine, I thank him for all his help and again we split ways. Now heres where the real fun begins.

I recieve the call 45 minutes later and a very nice lady speaks to me and says, "Before we go any further I need to open up a case for you. This is for referance and there will be an $89 fee if we are able to fix your problem, if not it is free. Is that ok?" I ask her to old on a second so I can see if I have any accounts with that much in it, I find one and agree with the thought of, she can't really do anything I haven't tried already and I don't foresee it being fixed, so sure.

Hour and a half later, countless uninstalls and reinstalls of the Command Center, several restarts with her handling the controls via long distance, she offers a managers discount more or less of an extemded warranty, with a slight discount, which I was extremeley appreciative of, but still far too rich for my blood. I'm'm barely scraping by as it is. After all that we try power dissipation, my power button gets stuck, she end up needing to take a call from another customer. We agree to part ways for the night and she'd call me in the morning.

After a good nights sleep, wake up with enough time to shower, she calls, we're on the phone for another 2 hours, some more reinstalls and uninstalls of Command Center, some other installs of .Net Frameworks with no avail, then we get an error of BTBaloon.dll, after some works on that with no success she begins to think its the MIO Board, being a busy manager and juggling two calls ar once she ends it with saying she has cut it short and talk to her managers on the possibilities of what it could be, bur more than likely it being the MIO Board, and that she'd have to see if the BTBalloon.dll had anything to do with Command Center, yet again we split ways with a "I'll call you tomorrow and tell you what I've found out."

No big deal, but shortly after I get a notice on my phone from my bank account saying that $96 had been taken out, confused I call back and am greeted by a nice gentlemen who runs me through the process again just so I could ask to speak to his manager, I get ahold of her again and ask why the charge had gone through since the problem was never resolved, her answer?

"If it's a software issue and we can't fix it, we don't charge you, but since it looks like it's a hardware issue and not a software issue we charge you."

I told her that was never mentioned in the original oral agreement, I got a sorry and that pretty much ended that. Knowing full and well obscenities and screaming do know good, and the way you portray yourself in real life is how you should online as well. Am I disgruntled? Slightly, yes. I wish they'd up front tell you what the charges would be, cause it'd seem to me you'll be charged either way.

This is not meant to be a flame or Dell slander, I just want to warn other people who may run across the same scenario. If I had known the outcome of me losing out on $100 I would have waited and ordered the MIO Board and fixed it myself. Only thing left to do is save up another $100 and get one, or hope Santa decides to get me one this Christmas.

Moral: Be sure you cover your basis and ask several questions. I still love my Dell products, lifes just a learning experience.

- Krunchy Kaine