Hi, hope you all can put my mind at ease.  Bought an R7 during the Black Friday sales and it was delivered faster than expected, but with one issue, the outer box handles had ripped all the way up to the top lid and it looked like it may have been dropped at some point in transit.

I informed Dell/Alienware and they wanted me to unbox it and see if there was any damage to the unit and test if it was functional.  Upon doing this the inner box basically fell apart as it wasn't glued so as soon as I split the tape it fell apart.  I turned it on to find that the hard drive (HDD) wasn't installed (mine has a M2 drive and a HDD).  Further investigation showed that the cable had come off at some point, with a small wear mark on the cable.   Not sure as to the cause of it, but could be related to it dropping?  Also the front fan made a bearing type noise, not the normal hum you would get.  So having a bit of tech knowledge I've plugged the HDD in, initialised it in Windows, and managed to quiet the fan down.  I already told them the fan wasn't that much of an issue as I have some good fans I could put in it's place if needed.

Initially they asked for me to send photo's of the box damage, and the hard drive which I did, but hadn't heard from them for about 10 days from that point even with a number of emails from myself.  So finally they came back to me and asked if I would like a refund or a replacement, and I said I would be willing to keep this unit if they can increase the warranty to ensure the drop didn't do any lasting damage, but Dell declined so I went for a replacement.

So here is where the piece of mind comes in.  Will this replacement be a new PC?  Same specifications as the first one?  I have yet to use the current machine other than to check if it runs, so really don't want to settle for refurbished considering the amount spent, or any with manufacturing errors, etc..  I still have yet to receive any further emails about the replacement to confirm either way what I will be getting, and no experience with dell replacements. 

I feel a bit like a diner who has complained about their meal only to have the new one spat in because I raised an issue.  Hoping it won't be, but I always expect the worse.

Thanks,