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Fraudulence in maintaining a limited warranty
I purchased the Dell Inspiron 15 5000 series just last summer. After not more than 9 months of use, the right hinge began to malfunction, and eventually broke a screw casing and now separates the bottom of the laptop from the rest whenever I close the laptop. After calling Dell I was told by 3 separate support technicians that this was not covered in the warranty, as it was my fault not the computers. I pointed out that in other threads on this website there are people with IDENTICAL problems and that the only way this could have occurred was from simply opening and closing the laptop, a function that is NECESSARY and thus should be included in the limited one year warranty.
Even though they claimed to have never seen this problem before, they argued that it is not included in the warranty as if they had talked to multiple people about it already. They even were quick to price the repair at an astounding $160. I was given no help by any technician. I am wondering who I can talk to about this before I am forced to take it to the local consumer protection agency, reporting fraudulence in failing to maintain a warranty.
kirkd
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March 31st, 2016 10:00
Breaking of things like hinges on laptops does not just happen. It is always the result of mishandling or dropping the laptop. The same is true of failures of the DC socket as well as hard drive failures within the first year. This is why you should ALWAYS purchase an Accidental Damage Warranty for any expensive laptop. Every broken laptop like these that I have seen (not just Dell) showed evidence of dropping, even though ALL the owners swore they never dropped it or abused it.
You will have no luck complaining about this to Dell.
Best bet for laptops is to get the lowest cost model that does what you need. Any repair on a laptop will cost a minimum of $150. Buying laptops for gaming is a joke. Laptops are a convenience, and the lower end models are fully capable of 99% of what you need to do. I am currently using a $250 Windows 10 tablet/laptop hybrid instead of my two way too expensive older laptops. Their job no is as backup machines for my desktops, and don't get much use.
ejn63
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March 31st, 2016 11:00
This could have been prevented. At the first sign of trouble, and the "Eventually" in your post tells the story that was a while ago, you should have contacted Dell for warranty repair. You knew the hinges weren't operating correctly at that point.
This is basically the same situation you'd have if you noticed a new car with a sticky door handle - if you let it go to the point where the door has to be forced so hard it comes off, the manufacturer would not be obligated to cover the repair.