Numerous problems with phone Customer Care

Greetings,

Last summer I purchased a Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition notebook direct from Dell. This was a member/EPP purchase as I work IT for the University of MIssouri, where we have thousands of Dell machines on campus. I've never had issues with Dell in the past, but I did not realize how much different the consumer and enterprise level support is. Here's my problem...

This laptop was very briefly released with Ubuntu 14.04, targeted at Developers. However, the hardware inside of the laptop is not directly supported by the Linux kernel, specifically the I2S bus that handles the audio, microphone, trackpad, among other things. Since day 1, Dell has been posting patches and updates to try to get the laptop performing as expected, but it was never successful. It found a workaround by disabling i2s support within Linux, but this is unacceptable as it causes poor audio quality issues, as well as intermittent problems with the trackpad and headphone port. Since getting it, I have follow the project sputnik updates hoping for some magical resolution. Tried almost every common distro of linux. Learned more than I ever wanted to know about Linux attempting to trick this laptop into performing the way it should, nothing works. Finally, support for this notebook has been officially dropped from the 4.5 kernel and will never receive any further linux updates from Dell.

That leaves me dead in the water with a laptop that functions perfectly in Windows, but I did not purchase it with windows, and do not need Windows for anything. I bought, and want a Linux laptop! The issues I have been having have all been resolved on the newer 2016 XPS models, so I wanted to inquire as to how I can go about getting some kind of prorated refund on this notebook, which does not do what it was advertised to do, run Linux, and purchase a 2016 model XPS laptop, which will cost substantially more money as I would also upgrade to the 15" model.

After two hours on the phone, and being transferred eight, yes EIGHT, different times, usually between hardware and software teams, and supposed supervisors, I was given no help. In fact, the last agent I spoke with lied and claimed to be a supervisor, since he refused to transfer me to when while I was beyond frustrated, and kept muting the phone call and occasionally coming back to see no supervisor is available, and I said I'd be more than happy to wait. He then, without transferring me anywhere, has someone else get on the phone and say they would be unable to help me, obviously pretending to be a person of authority. This is absurd, if I ask for a manager, I should get one.

Basically, I'm sitting here with this expensive XPS laptop that is still in warranty, and not only can I not get anybody that will answer my question, there's seemingly no support line at all tha will even attempt to help someone with a Ubuntu based laptop.

This is without a doubt one of the most frustrating experiences and biggest wastes of time I've ever experienced, from a company that normally has good customer support.

Dell is aware of the problems with the XPS 13-9343 Developer Edition, because they pulled the Developer Edition from the market a mere 2 weeks after releasing it due to all of the complaints!

I assumed it would be fixed at some point, and they would continue working with Ubuntu on fixes, and I was wrong, now they have dropped support.

I am posting here in hopes of finding some resolution before further, possibly legal, escalation is necessary. This notebook never supported Linux as it claimed to do, and I want to pay for one that does.