Dell - the end of the story
The history, in order:
First Update - first e-mail from users
You can see if you have been following this saga (or by reading “Dell Responds”) that I believed the bad relationship had been resolved and I posted a report to that effect going out of my way to acknowledge Dell. It turns out to have been a partial victory though. Thankfully the business about not being able to purchase parts is unequivocally resolved. Dell also made a clear statement for publication that they are not opposed to resale of their hardware by end purchasers, that is they are not trying to undermine the used computer market.
I also do not directly fault Dell for insisting on having accurate warranty information.
Here’s my problem. Dell now claims that they have never been paid for the machine that I purchased from MagicGsm.com. They say they have no record of that particular service tag ever being sold period.
I told them that they should give my name to the police so that I can contribute the investigation. Except they have not and demonstrated no inclination to involve the police. What’s more, when I first contacted Dell -- before I got the Supervisor from hell -- I was told that the warranty package that had been sold with this system was the best they offered. So they had something in their records that indicated the machine was under warranty which seems highly unlikely to be the case with a machine that had never been sold.
I can imagine too many scenarios where records get screwed up for me to take Dell’s assertions at face value. I think they also know that it is likely something wrong on their end as that is the only reason not to report the entire thing to law enforcement.
Anyway, a few days after the pleasantries of the end game exchange the motherboard on my 2010 blew up. The senior Dell official assigned to handle my case told me that there is nothing they are willing to do because they have never been paid for the machine.
Because he also told me that Dell was not working with the police, I thought the only effective option would be to sue MagicGSM in small claims court -- even though I am well-convinced that MagicGSM is blameless in this mess. My thinking was that by getting it into court I could serve subpoenas on Dell and MagicGSM and force the truth and almost certainly get my computer covered. But looking at the kind of time it would take against the alternative, it just isn’t worth it. The alternative was my brother taking over the system and buying a new motherboard from Dell. The cost of the replacement board was $500. I would have missed significant work time and the value of that missed time would have been worth many times $500, at my minimum day rate of $2,000.
So, Dell still is not your friend. Let us assume that everything Dell claims is true. Let us assume that they never have been paid for the machine. Here’s what they knew: they were dealing with an enthusiast willing to spend big dollars to get the newest and best; the person they were dealing with was blameless and eager to get the authorities involved; the cost to Dell of making good on the warranty would have been at most a few hundred dollars; making good would cement a relationship with someone highly likely to be a continuing customer; making good would have led to a big reputation gain for Dell as the positive story spread through the web. Dell knew all of this and decided to compound my problems rather than help me. Dell is not my friend and if they treat me this way there is no reason to assume they will treat you any better. Just yesterday I received an e-mail from a young lady who related her terrible experience last week on a system she purchased directly from Dell. I received over 500 e-mail messages from others setting out their grievances and unresolved service issues. Clearly my experience is not unique.
I will not be purchasing any additional Dell products unless I am forced to in keeping what I already have serviceable.
Glenn Caleval
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