This post is more than 5 years old
3 Posts
0
34332
Poor Customer support for XPS18
I bought an XPS18 in BestBuy in Jun 2014. (~ 1200 USD). I bought a brand product because it was supposed to be reliable and have a worldwide warranty because I was moving to Spain in Jan 2015.
I moved to Spain in Feb 2015.
In March 2015 the laptop quit charging.
It would not charge the battery, not would it work plugged in….
So I called the Spanish DELL support (In Spain), well guess what,
1) They did not speak a word of English. Even the voice mail system had no option in English.
2) The support number was a toll paid number of 1.20 euro/min!! what???
3) and after a 25 min call and three persons, they said they would not repair it since this model did not exist in Europe. (Eventhough it was under warranty for one year).
I happened to be travelling to the Netherlands.
I call Dell support there, they were helpful. Eric Braams (Dutch Technical support) helped me change the USA warranty to Europe then picked up the laptop and repaired it. Apparently the motherboard and battery was replaced.
OK so fast forward Feb 2016. (11 months later)
The Laptop fail yet again!!! Same problem……
I call back the Dell in Netherlands, they said the warranty for the repair was only for 3 months!!
How is it that you replace a part that is under warranty and the new warranty of the new part is only 3 months……
Ok how much is to repair the laptop: 905 Euros!!!.
Hahaha are they crazy!!!!
So in a nutshell, I bought a Dell product because it has good reliability and their worldwide warranty.
- It did not even last even for its warranty and very poor reliability/quality (not even 2 years)
- Once repaired, they even did not even replace the one year warranty or even extend it
- The support service does not even speak English or better still has refused to even work on the warranty. The support number is a paid service (Toll number)
- In two years, I will have to junk a computer that I paid 1200 USD.
Whereas, I have Acer clone laptop with no warranty that I bought in Malaysia that has lasted me 8 years….. - There is no place even to send this formal complaint on the Dell website. They want information that does not even exist.... all I have is a tag number and purchase receipt from Bestbuy
Lets put it this way, I can but a cheap Taiwanese computer that can last longer for the same price and has no warranty, why the devil would I buy a DELL product again????
beamermt79
4 Operator
4 Operator
•
2.3K Posts
0
March 4th, 2016 15:00
Hello! Any time you purchase a computer in one country and transfer it to another, you have to transfer the warranty to that country you are now in filling out this form here. Unfortunately some computer systems are not sold in certain regions and other accommodations need to be made for warranty support which you found out as the XPS 18 is not sold in Spain. Dell does warranty their repairs for 90 days however, so if your system failed days before the warranty period ended you would have received a 90 day extension. As for English issues, you were in Spain where they speak Spanish as a primary language. You would have to contact Dell US or a Dell support line in a country that speaks English for English support as regional support options are for the majority language.
stargard
3 Posts
0
March 5th, 2016 01:00
Hi, thanks for the reply.
Yes, the warranty was transferred to Europe when the laptop broke down the 1st time in march 2015.
The people at Dell in the Netherlands were particularly helpful (Eric Braams) in transferring the warranty and repairing it in Netherlands, eventhough the warranty was in Spain. Kudos to them!
Yes, we did contact the Dell support line.
1) It was a toll paid line?? 1.20E/min...why would you do that what the other countries in Europe have a normal telephone contact. The wasted call was almost 30 euros, with them telling us they they cannot fix it anyway.
2) Then, they said they will not work on the laptop because they did not have the model in Spain and asked me to send it to Dell Netherlands. Dell Netherlands again did not have this laptop model but was willing to help its customers. (kudos to Dell Netherlands and shame on Dell Spain).
This customer service problem needs to be addressed by Dell corporate.
FYI: the page where you try to escalate the problem on the Dell website, is pretty much useless.
It asks for customer ID, purchase order number, service request number etcc... Now where am I going to get this when I purchased the laptop from Bestbuy In Arizona?? So basically they is no place where customers can even complain about a problem on the Dell website.
3) I understand when your primary language is not English.
However Dell is a multi-national company based in the USA. Why is it that all the other Dell support centers in Europe have English speakers and not spain?
There was no option of speaking to English support or even in their voice automated phone system (all Spanish). No one spoke English and my daughter has to muddle thru the phone system with a 6 month Spanish lessons
We even tried calling the USA help line (yet another expensive 40 euro call), they told us to call the Spanish helpline!!! hahahaha.
4) As for the warranty. I don't have a problem when the computer fails outside its warranty but when the problem failure repeats itself and has not been corrected, then Dell need to take responsibility of its of the problem with its product. This is not longer a warranty problem, its looks like a manufacturing defect or yet another completely new problem that was not properly diagnosed..
If the product has failed during the warranty period, the replacement part should at least have the same warranty as the original product warranty.
This would mean that if the product failed in two months after purchase and new parts was replaced then the warranty is extended by three months. So the total warranty is now only 5 months from a one year original warranty??
Sorry, to be simplistic, but that make no engineering sense. and when they same problem occurs twice, something is wrong, Dell should acknowledge that and at least try to fix it.
Like I said previously when I purchase a branded product like IBM, or Sony or Dell, I expect some quality and reliability of the product. This is why a customer will buy them. It like buying a Mercedes Benz, (vs a Hyundai) even though they give only a 2 year warranty, you know Benz reliability will take them easily to 10 years without headaches. That's why customers pay the money for the brand and reliability.
5) When problems like this occur, Dell should recognize the problem and rectify the problems. Hiding behind the corporate rules and regulations does not benefit its customers in the long run.
This laptop was purchased for my 10 year's old daughter, her 1st computer, should I tell her that paying more for a branded quality product is not worth it?? The laptop has failed twice with the same problem during the warranty period and in less than 2 years.
This may be just one laptop vs millions of dollars of yearly sales in a multi million dollar corporation, but at the end , the loyalty of your customers at the end is the backbone of the Dell corporation.
Not all the rules and regulations in Dell is always perfect, All I am asking is, be fair with your customers,
Thanks