Complaint Review: Dell Inc.

I bought a Dell Inspiron E1705/9400 in July of 2006, the summer before I went to college. I was excited at the thought of owning my own computer, so I spent every last cent I could spare (and a few I couldn't) to get the best laptop Dell could sell. I also grabbed the 2 year extended warranty with on-site repairs so that my $3000 machine would keep working.

And work it did, until the end of my freshman year of school. I was writing a religion paper late at night (because when else do college students write papers?) and my screen stopped working. I spent a few hours on the phone with tech support and ultimately learned that I needed to have my computer sent in to have the motherboard and video card replaced. So I sent the computer in for a "1 week" repair that took 17 days. That was fine, I was just glad to have my computer back.

A few weeks later, my family and I were going to watch a movie in our hotel room when my speakers stopped working. Now a movie without sound is ok, but not being able to hear Jack Nicholson yelling at Tom Cruise just doesn't work. We went out and bought a set of $10 speakers that I could plug into the headphones jack and then we could "Handle the truth." I had a set of speakers that I used in my dorm, so not having the on-board speakers wasn't a big deal, so I just lived with it.

Until I started having trouble with my DVD drive. I could no longer watch movies from the disk; I had to rip them to my computer before I could watch them (this is legal as long as you own the movie. I have since wiped my external Hard drive so that I could have a garage sale).

Then my headphones jack started fritzing out. That was the last straw. I called Dell Support again in February of 2008 and they sent a tech out to replace my motherboard, speakers, dvd drive, and keyboard (my v key had stopped working). I was happy. My computer worked again just like the day I got it.

Until July...

My monitor stopped working again. I recognized the wierd pattern of vertical lines as a video card issue and called dell support to verify. The date: July 5. My warranty had expired on the 4th. Tech support wouldn't even diagnose my problem so they transferred me to the out of warranty repair division that confirmed my suspicion. I need a new video card and motherboard.

When an automobile has this many issues it's called a "lemon," so I did some research and found a law that covers ALL consumer products that are under warranty. The (Federal) Magnuson-Moss Act entitles me to a full refund or a replacement system of equal value (of my choice) if the warranter is unable to provide satisfactory warranty repairs during the warranted time.

Parts that needed to be replaced in 2 years (and 1 day)
Motherboard x 3
Video card x 2
Speakers x 2 (1 set)
DVD drive x 1
Keyboard x 1

I am unsatisfied with the repairs that were performed during my warranty period, and Dell would not even talk to me about a free repair, let alone a full refund.

Stephen
Lino Lakes, Minnesota
U.S.A.