Another unsatisfied customer has left the Dell flock - suggest others do the same

I recently bought a Dell XPS 17 laptop that I received on 12/14/11.  Immediately found that I have the issues with the USB 3.0 ports not working.  I moved my USB 3.0 external hard drive to the 2.0 port and it worked ok.  Then when Windows update downloaded updates and I needed to reboot, I found that the laptop would hang at the intitial boot screen with the Dell logo and the blue bar.  The blue bar would reach the end and the computer would just hang until I disconnected the external drive.  I came to these forums and found complaints about this going back one year on different models, mainly the XPS series no matter the size.

I updated the Renesas drivers, but that did not make a difference.  With the holidays and being extremely busy with work, I did not have time to contact Tech support.  Actually, after reading all the issues and seeing that it is a hardware issue that needs to have new daughterboards replaced, I figured why bother wasting my time on the phone with Tech support.

I was also having the problem of the power plug falling out all the time.  I researched that here, too, and Terry B reported that engineering says to solve the problem, just leave the unit stationary on a desk or flat surface.  Well, hello!  If I wanted to do that, I would have bought a desktop, not a laptop.  What a cheesy and stupid response to a real problem.  I would be in the middle of something and the laptop would suddenly go to sleep because the cord had fallen out and I didn't realize I was running on the battery.  Not a good thing!

So, I called customer support to request to return the laptop.  I decided at that point, that there was no use in having it replaced and I did not want to have the whole guts replaced on a brand new laptop that I paid nearly $1700 for (including the 3 year warranty).  I called and was told that unless I spoke to tech support, they would charge me 15% restocking.

So, I called tech support.  They did exactly what I thought they would do - updated the drivers and flashed the A14 BIOS with what the guy claimed was a brand new update to the BIOS, released only a day or two before.  It's been my experience that these drivers have already been available to the vendor for a while before they release it to the public, so I am skeptical that this was even a real update to a computer that was only two weeks old.

Anyway, those actions did not make a bit of difference.  In fact, the external drive that I had attached during the tech support session then was not recognized when I connected it to my desktop (a Dell by the way - 4 years old).  I was finally able to access it through Disk management.  I was afraid I had lost the data because this actually happened with my HP laptop last summer.  I knew I was having trouble with that unit and had arranged for repair through the extended warranty on it.  I backed everything up to a brand new Western Digital My Book external drive.  Actually, I moved all the files.  The system disconnected the drive several times during the process, but it finally completed.  I cleaned up the laptop and shipped it off for repair.  When I connected the drive to my desktop, the partitions were lost and then the drive locked up and started clicking.  I lost everything that was on that drive.  I had some of the files on my desktop, but not all.  I lost several years worth of music and family photos as well as some work files.  I was really upset.  So when I couldn't access this other drive after the problems with the XPS laptop, I freaked.  Thank God it finally became accessible.  My HP laptop finally died and I was given my money back by the warranty company because it had been sent for repair 8 times in one year with the same issues over and over.  So I thought the heck with HP, I'll get a Dell.  FAIL!

Also, I want to mention Dell's continued use of India for customer service and tech support.  I'm sorry, but I am so over this with all these computer companies using India.  Even if they speak pretty good English,  they speak to fast and are hard to understand.  Especially the women.  I think the men take a little more effort to speak better.  But, if your issue is not in their script, they don't know what to do.  I had to ask the guy to repeat himself almost every other sentence.  The same when I later spoke to customer service to get a return authorization.  The guy said the mailing label would be emailed to me shortly - that was two days ago.  I never received it and had to contact customer support again today to get the mailing label.

With Dell aware of these issues for a long time and still shipping the product with known issues, that speaks pretty poorly of what they think of the customer.  I guess they think it's cheaper to fix a few rather than deal with the real problem.  Maybe it is in the short run, but when these issues become widespread over the internet, Dell's reputation falls.  Over the past three days, I did extensive research on other laptops with similar features.  Surprisingly, after researching including looking at specific issues users are having with various brands and models, I am going back to HP.  Their Envy series, which is pretty much equivalent to Dell's XPS line, seems to have few problems.  HP has finally addressed the overheating issues with a combination of design and software to cool the units.  The only serious complaints I found were minor and not widespread issues.  Nothing stood out as serious (and seemed to be more user specific issues than hardware problems).

So, adios Dell!  Maybe when my new HP Envy dies in a few years I might come back if Dell's reputation and product has improved.  My recommendation to those who have just bought an XPS and are within their 21 days and having the same issues - get your money back and go elsewhere.  Your issues are not going to be resolved quickly or easily by Dell.

Sayonara!