Botched repair

Hello,

I had a Dell technician come out yesterday to have my laptop’s fan and heatsink replaced, as they were starting to make noise and affect the computer’s performance. The technician didn’t correctly install the fans. While the computer could turn on and the fans were running once the repair was done, after he left, the situation went quickly downhill. Within fifteen minutes, the monitor started flashing black, and it progressed until half an hour later the screen was completely black and unresponsive even though the computer could still turn on.

I suspected there was a loose connection or he had pinched a cable during installation. When I called the tech to see if he could come back and fix the botched install, he claimed since the service tag was closed he couldn’t do anything about it and acted like it wasn’t his problem anymore. I’ve never seen a repair person refuse to fix their mistake before.

I also attempted a couple of calls to the company that sent him out (Worldwide TechServices) as well as a couple to Dell’s technical support, since I’m a freelancer and this is my work computer (and only computer, for that matter). Tech support only offered the usual method of opening a ticket and having me wait three or more business days to get it fixed- which, considering it was the tech’s mistake and could set me back multiple days of work, force me to miss a client’s deadline, and cost me days’ worth of billing hours- wasn’t something I could do. One of the Dell support guys even wanted me to send the computer in for repairs. No one seemed to listen when I told them all I needed was for the connections to be double checked.

I understand tech support is busy but no one seemed to listen to the actual problem, even after I made it clear the fault was on the technician and that I had freelance work due to a client the next morning. I dropped the computer off at a local repair shop and they fixed the problem in less than an hour- yes, it was a pinched connection, exactly as I suspected. It cost me $65. I’m looking for Dell to reimburse that, since this was the technician’s mess up that I had to fix and my computer is still under warranty. Is there any way I can get that covered by Dell?

I have photos of the call log from the nearly three hours I spent trying to get someone from Dell to help, along with the bill from the repair shop, and a photo of the screen when it glitched out before going to black.