Studio 1558 problems

I bought a 1558 i7 with 6GB laptop in august last year. It was a belated birthday present and yet I wish that I had chosen something else!

On new years eve the memory failed and the computer wouldn't even switch on. I have read so many similar cases and I think Dell needs to act NOW. Dell was shut on New Year's Eve earlier than advertised so I had to go privately to fix my laptop for the remainder of the holidays. (I need it for uni revision and had January exams). It turns out that the laptop can only hold 4GB and apparently wasn't advertised as being 6GB. (It is a mystery how I managed to get it.) A couple months later of working okayish (still slower than it should be and the infamous overheating and big cursor issues) it started playing up again. I can no longer remove it from the AC adaptor without it going crazy! If I do, all settings are set to default (my laptop likes to think it is still 2009) and the internet apparently doesn't exist according to the blank internet box.

I am having a nightmare trying to get this resolved. My dad emailed Dell on Sunday and I was called on Monday. I was promised to hear from a technician the same day to sort out a collection. Then, having not been contacted by the technician, I emailed the same woman I had talked to on Tuesday. No response. I emailed again. No response. I rang Dell techinical support, and was kindly cut off whilst going through the standard system checks. I called again and had to go through the same routine. This lasted 2 hours. I have now tallied 7 hours (I am supposed to be revising for my end of years). I have downloaded numerous BIOS packages and been cut off so many times I wonder what I have done wrong. I have even been told my problems don't exist and that I can't understand the computer (I am studying civil engineering and do 3 hours of computing a week). Now it is too late for me to have the 12 day collect fix and return deal and dell want me to fork out another £108 for an extended warantee, I am a student, and yes, I am stereotypically hard up. Dell have had numerous opportunites to fix it and I am tired of waiting. Plus, is it unreasonable for me to question why a motherboard and all my memory are faulty???

I was wondering since there are so many of us having issues it might be possible to pursue this as a group action. These problems are not by chance and show a consistent pattern. The 1558 model is clearly not fit for sale, Dell has previously taken it off for sale, so why should we put up with sloppy laptops?