Laptop, HDD replaced, Account locked, USA

I have been using Dell products in my home for the past 15 or 20 years. I have found them to be great - until I purchased the latest laptop for my wife (in December of 2012). Long story short - the service was good in that they did everything they could to try and fix it - even had a service person come to the house - but they couldn't resolve the issue (random disconnect from wireless network).

So - I had to back up everything, and send it into the Dell Service Depot. It was gone for 10 days ... and when it came back - the documentation said that they had replaced the wireless card and the AC adapter.

So I booted the computer up (Windows 8) and it showed only an Administrator account (which was different than when we sent it in). I clicked on the Administrator account icon - and it says "This account has been disabled." I was very confused - as I couldn't get into the computer.

I phoned customer support ... and waited for an hour to get through. While I'm waiting ... I tried Shift-Restart ... and was able to eventually get in to account management and enabled the Administrator account. However, when it booted up - there were only 4 tiles on the Start window. I went to the Desktop - and the 4 shortcut icons there were "Ship It", "System Analysis", "File management", and "Internet Explorer". While I was looking at these icons, the laptop started running a whole bunch of batch files ... performing system analysis. DOS windows opened up on the screen, and an analysis application started and ran.

I was perplexed - to say the least.

When I finally got support on the phone - they went over my file, and indicated that the hard drive had been replaced. They then remotely logged into my computer and tried to uninstall all the analysis programs that came up when I went to the Desktop. I watched the screen as the Dell support person clicked all over the computer trying to find and uninstall the programs. They couldn't. They then asked if I just wanted to live with the system working like that on boot up - or have Windows 8 reinstalled so I get a clean boot. I chose the reinstall. However, I don't have the discs - so they are going to have to send me the discs (another 3 business days without the laptop).

I then asked to speak to the support manager ... who came on the line and told me that everything that happened is standard procedure. He said they are sorry I didn't know about the hard drive replacement, are not sure what happened with the Administrator account being disabled, but that whenever they replace a hard drive, the laptop is always shipped back to the customer with all the analysis tools still in place. I pointed out to him that this didn't make sense and how confusing it was... but he maintained that that is just the way they do it and that the customers have to phone them and they will help them download and install all the applications they need. When I pointed out that they couldn't uninstall the analysis tools ... he said they just have to reinstall Windows.

Is it just me ... or is this really the standard procedure as claimed by the Supervisor? Comments?

Note - he did extend the warranty on the laptop for 3 months as compensation - but his maintaining that this is just the way things are doesn't smell right to me. If it is - I am sure they get a lot of very confused customers phoning them.