Inspiron 1525 LCD broken internally.

I've hardly ever used mine, and the screen cracked "snap" just like that...
No force applied, nothing - one day just opened the lid and found it cracked - worst still - technical support treated me like a liar despite the fact that I've offered perfectly reasonable explanation...

http://daily-rant-b.blog spot.com/

Over all, the product is ok, but beware of the customer services/technical support - they'll make you feel BAD...

Any cracks, damages and cosmetic issues are not covered under the Standard warranty . You can Upgrade your warranty with COMPLETE CARE, This will  cover accidental damages during the warranty period. :emotion-11:

Hi I am so glad i am not alone,

Bought a Dell 1525 only last week it arrived on Thurs 03-12-2008 this was to be a present for my daughters birthday :emotion-49:. I have worked in I.T. for the past 10 years and in that time i have purchesed hundreds of laptop for the company i work for, however this was the first Dell i have ever bought.

If i had not seen it with my own eyes i would not have belived it, sitting with my daughter as she typed up a thank you note to her friends for gifts received for her birthday, the screen cracked internally just like that!!! it was no more than an hour out of the box.

i thought just for a second that MS Word have frozen as the righthand side of the screen went white so i pressed CTRL + ALT + DEL to bring up the task manager but when i did this i could clearly see that there was a crack inside the L.C.D.

Idont know if these 1525 models have some kind of screen fault, and i know that it will be hard to convince Dell that it was in no way mistreated. However since i have taken out a payment plan option and have not yet paid for the laptop so to speak. i have already decided that if Dell dont replace the screen pronto then no monies will leave my bank acc for this faulty product... :emotion-45:

Watch this space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :emotion-39:

Markx

Hey, you dont have to convince me i belive you, thing is they are going to have to sort us out.

The first thing i did was to email the Sales Rep that dealt with the whole transaction, i know its not their ball. However i got a prompt response via email see below.

"Quote"

"Dear Markx,

I duly apologise for the inconvenience that you had to go through .I would request you to please get in touch with the technical support department who would definitely do the needful for your system and I assure you the best of the services from them " "End quote"

Then this sales reps, Snr Manager emailed me and asked for a contact number for me so he could setup a conferance call between the 3 of us; me, the rep, and Dell Tech Support before the end of the day.

So i will let you know what they say!!! but like i say they dont yet have my money so i may be treated fairly which is all i ask...

Markx - that's exactly what happened to mine - opened the lid and noticed the crack, which wasn't there last time I've checked...

Must be a design flaw, as I don't remember bashing it agains the wall...

GARAMVADA - I wouldn't call that "an accident" as I have nothing to do with the screen cracking...IT JUST HAPPENED...

Well, looks like they're just desperate to get your money...

They did get mine and now don't want to hear about fixing a self-damaged laptop...

Please do keep us/me posted on this forum as I'm not done with them yet...

Good luck Markx

:emotion-17: Well as i might have guessed this is going to be a long and messy business between Me and Dell, still waiting for that phone call from yesterday.

I did however receive an email response from Dell Tech Support, graciously thanking me for logging my complaint...:emotion-16:

But then gave me a list of startup options which will launch video diagnostics to fix the problem...:emotion-42:

I guess that these Dell support folks have been way way underestimated as it looks like they can actually perform miracle's, amazing...

i'm guessing this will be a long affair for you also. since damaged LCD panels are not covered by dell's warranty, the task of proving that your LCD spontaneously broke without any external influence will fall to you. this may prove difficult as there has never been a documented instance of this happening.

good luck.

Thanks bweed6,

But to be honest, i haven't yet paid for this laptop, so its no skin of my back whether they fix it or not. so they can either take it back and fix it and then i will gladly pay them for the laptop.

Or they can take it back and keep it and have to dump it or fix it anyway and resell it, and lose me as a customer.

This is not a win win situation for Dell by any means. plus according to my European consumer rights i am within my rights not to pay for faulty goods.

The thing is i could have very easily lied keeping in mind this was an hour out of the box, i could have said when i took it out of the box it was damaged, then they would have changed it with no hassle what so ever, as it was damaged in transit....

However i chose the way of truth, as i am pretty sure they will do what is right and sort it out...

My complaint is more to do with my dealings with this company over all it has been pretty bad and am dissapointed that my daughter will be without her laptop for some time to come...

bweed6 - so what you're saying is that because it's a LCD panel that broke, I'm ?

There must be some sort of regulation that says that if the fault kind of "develops" on it's own then it is covered by the warranty...

I mean just common sense - you use the product the way it was intended to be used, it dies a death in process - whose fault is it then?

...

Eh, looks like it will be a long war...

not sure how exactly consumer law works where you are from, but if you take delivery of goods here in the US and then refuse to pay for it, that's kind of frowned upon - i think it's called theft of goods and services or something like that.

one would assume that to invoke your right to not pay for faulty goods, the core issue remains; you must prove the goods were faulty, and not damaged. i'll be interested to see how this plays out for you.

right - it stands to reason that if a fault "developed" on it's own (ie a hard drive fails, or a fan stops spinning) it would be covered by the warranty. the tricky part for you is going to be convincing the powers that be that a crack in your LCD panel just "developed" on its own with no outside influence at all, and should therefore be covered by the terms of the warranty.

nonetheless, good luck with your issue.

Well guys,

Just got off the phone with a Dell Tech support chap and he asked me to confirm that it was indeed a crack and not a tail in the video resolution etc , i.e. video adapter problem.

I told him it was without doubt an internal crack, he asked no questions except to confirm my name and address and the service tag.

He said he has now sceduled a Dell service engineer to come with replacement LC.D. Screen to my house and fix the problem..

I stand amazed right now.. however he still wants to call me later on my mobile at home when i am in front of the laptop just to confirm the parts that will be needed.. dont understand that as they know the type and the model.

So as they say i am not counting my chickens just yet!!!!

Watch this space!!!!! :emotion-46:

wow good for you. not sure if this has been mentioned, but you do not have complete care accident coverage, right? (assuming it is available in europe). 

to be honest, if you do not have accidental damage coverage, that is not the outcome i would have expected. let us know how it goes.  

Hi guys,

Nope i do not have complete care accident coverage, just basic 12 mnts standard warranty...

Well first the bad news, waited for that lovely call i mentioned yesterday but surprise surprise it never came. So this morning was very disappointed not knowing what to do as all i had from this guy yesterday was his Indian first name!!! :emotion-18:

So sent a fiery email :emotion-12: to sales to the actual person who took care of the whole sales process, then 30 Min's later i get a call on my mobile from the chap who was to call me last night. :emotion-1:

He apologized for not contacting me, in a meeting blah blah the usual stuff!! then asked me to confirm that it was indeed an internal crack in the screen which i assured him it was, and bam he asked me for any address in Ireland where i could be there tomorrow to receive a Dell engineer who will come and replace the screen!! i do stand amazed!! :emotion-7:

I gave him my full work address so when he arrives tomorrow he can work away in the privacy of my office and replace the "DELL FAULTY SCREEN" and make no mistake guys, this happened before my own eyes :emotion-8: it was not banged, hit, dropped, mistreated, pressed on, leaned on, it sat on a computer desk in a warm comfortable little girls room her 2 little hands were genteelly typing away softly i was sitting there admiring the font she was using when " PoP" and there before my eyes was a crack on the inside of the screen!!!:emotion-16:  

As i sit here in my office i am looking at 25 Hi Spec Toshiba Tecra Laptops still in there boxes which i have to ghost an image on and get them out to the corporate folks.

I can completely strip out any model of laptop and have all the parts and screws perfectly put back together in less than an hour. i have replaced more L.C.D. screens than anyone i know "10 Min job by the way" and i still admit that i have never seen an L.C.D. screen just break like this Dell...

I dunno, have they recognized that their is a fault? Why did they sort it so quickly with no questions asked? Why did they not even send for it so as to examine it to see if indeed it looked like an accident? is it because they have not got my money yet?

I do wish they would sort you guys out, i would say to you do not give up!! contact sales, contact support, write a letter to Michael Dell or any other big name you can get your hands on or email address.

The one thing that i noticed was that Dell Support Guy had me confirm twice that the crack was internal and not external, meaning that the front glass in perfectly intact without a scratch, that this is a hairline internal crack!!!

I will try to pick this engineers brain tomorrow and see if he has done many of these replacements or has he seen this happen with Dell laptops before...

I will let you know how it fairs out tomorrow!!! :emotion-21: