Brand New XPS 13 9370 Issues, Replacement needed

I am a master’s (M.S.) international student at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. I have purchased the following brand new Dell XPS Machine on 21st July 2018 from Dell.com

XPS 13 9370
Basic
Support assist warranty Expires: July 30, 2019
Memory: 16 GB
Processor: 8th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz [Cores 4] [Logical/Core 2]
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
512 GB SSD
Cost: $ 1,420.89 

I received the machine on 2nd August when I was supposed to receive it on the 31st of August 2018 as per the expected time frame given by Dell. Before receiving the laptop shipment from Dell, I had already left for Mumbai, India on the 31st August 2018 for a month-long vacation and was only going to return to Boston (Northeastern University) on 5th September 2018. Hence, I requested my friend to bring my laptop to Mumbai so that I could set it up and start using. I finally received my laptop in hand on the 17th of August 2018. Since this was more than 14 days that I actually started using my laptop, my machine was not eligible for the return policy by Dell.

This is a brand-new laptop, and since the time I set it up on the 17th August 2018, it has been lagging, freezing and performing very poorly in contrary to the high-end specifications of the machine. After every mouse click, it freezes for a good 5-6 seconds and then you will see the cursor actually moving where you want it to. Initially, desktop apps like Mail, Calendar, etc. kept on crashing and just wouldn’t work.

The first time I called customer support was in Mumbai, India and they assisted me through the following troubleshooting:

1)      BIOS Update
2)      Drivers Update
3)      System Restore to factory (Factory Reset of my new machine)

I was asked to monitor for a day and give feedback to the customer support representative. after performing the above-mentioned steps, the machine still showed the same issues of lagging and freezing and crashing. I was on vacation hence my usage of the laptop was less than usual, and I managed my minimal usage along with this frequent (not always) lagging and freezing.

Customer support, after checking my machine, had clearly declared that this is a software issue and not a hardware issue. Assistance for this machine was minimal in India as it was an international purchase. Hence, I decided to fix this with Dell when I return to the USA on 5th September 2018.

After arriving in Boston, MA, United States, I again called the Dell customer support in the 1st week of September 2018. The had the transcripts of my previous calls and documentation of all the troubleshooting I had done in India. The representative again verified that the issue was not hardware related but only software related and can be fixed by performing the steps that the representative will as me to perform.

I did the following troubleshooting steps:
1)      BIOS update again
2)      Start Dell Connect Session
3)      The rep. made some changes looking at the CPU memory usage for the machine to perform better

I was again asked to observe the machine for a day or two and had scheduled a callback.

For the first 2 hours after my call with Dell Customer Support, the machine was working smooth, but after 2-3 hours, it again started showing the same symptoms of lagging and freezing after every click. This is very frustrating when your machine is 16 GB RAM and i7 Processor and you have paid $ 1,420 for it and it has not even been a month and there literally no heavy files on your machine.

After giving my feedback to customer support, hey again asked me to perform the following steps: 

 "Regarding the issue on the computer can you please try this steps:
1. In the Windows search field type "System".
2. On the left-hand side click Advanced System Settings.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Under "Performance" click the Settings button.
5. Choose the option Adjust for best performance
And if the issue still persists, try this step:
1. In the search box (Cortana), type "msconfig" then click OK.
2. Click the General tab. Tic the Diagnostic startup button and click Apply.
3.  Restart the system."

After performing the steps above, the machine still kept on lagging and freezing and hanging.

Finally, after providing this feedback to customer support I set up another call with them for fixing the issue. I was told to perform the following which was their ultimate solution- Windows Operating System RE-INSTALLATION.

"I would to indicate the next step we need to do in regards to the re-installation of the OS. NOTE: Back up files first before doing this:
1. Go to your BIOS press the F2 when you see the Dell Splash screen.
2. Go to Support Assist at the bottom of the options, and make sure that everything is enabled.
3. Then go to F12, then go to OS Recovery.
4. Click on the Restore System.
5. Once done, set up the computer again."

I performed the steps to re-install windows as shown above. the laptop went to factory image. I set up the machine again from scratch. Worked on it for 3-4 hours that day after the re-installation process. it was working smoothly, and I thought the issue is fixed. But, the next morning when I began working on the machine, the lagging and freezing had increased way more than it was before in terms of how frequently it was occurring.

After being on call with Dell customer support for almost 5 times, calls lasting for over an hour, and troubleshooting and following every instruction I was asked to, I believe that i have been given a faulty machine.

I request Dell to either replace my machine and give me a new machine which will be free of this frustrating performance, lagging and freezing issue. or, please refund my money or provide dell credit for me to be able to buy another machine.

I am extremely disappointed with the quality of Dell’s best notebook laptop version “the XPS 9370, 2018”. I have always used a dell laptop, and this has been my worst experience with Dell’s best laptop version.

Kindly look into my request and please help me fix this issue as it has cost me a lot of time and money and hampered my master’s studies which depend on a Laptop/Computer.

Thank you,

Best Regards,