Prelude:

I generally like Dell computers. I've been a customer for eight years and currently have up to 6 Dells running at my house (four I purchased and two company laptops). I've never had any problems until earlier this year when I needed to replace the video card in my laptop (it burned out, apparently due to faulty fan management by the BIOS - something I found is specific to my current laptop.).

I'm currently running an Inspiron E1705 with 2GB RAM, a Core 2 Duo 2.16 processor and an NVidia Go 7900GS 256MB. With the ~45% discount I was able to get, I couldn't find any other laptop on the market from any vendor with the same overall power within at least $700 (and that didn't include a three year warranty and accident coverage).

Rant:

I bought my laptop in October 06 and have three years of warranty and accident coverage. When I was at a conference in Orlando this past October, I tried to use my laptop without the AC Adapter (it's almost always plugged in) and it wouldn't work. When I plugged it back in, it showed a charge of 100%, but if I removed the adapter while it was turned on it would immediately die (from running to dead, instantaneously).

Since I rarely ever need to use the laptop on battery power, and have two adapters (one for home, one for the road), I wasn't especially concerned (after all, I have three years of warranty, right?) until today, when my laptop died on me. It turns out my permanently connected home adapter died. Now, with having both a faulty battery and adapter, I became concerned and immediately contacted Dell support, via chat, to have them both replaced. Here's a synopsis of the chat:

• I clearly stated that my battery was faulty and my adapter had died
• The rep said he'd replace the adapter - when asked about the battery, he opined that the adapter was the problem and wasn't charging the battery
• I informed him that the battery appeared to be charged when using either my home or travel adapters, but died when I unplugged either, which indicates the battery, itself, is faulty
• Rep tells me the battery is out of warranty (only 1 year) and I'll have to talk to sales to get a new one
• I tell rep that I've been a customer for eight years, have purchased thousands of dollars in Dell systems (even a LCD TV this Christmas) and would appreciate it if he'd send me a new battery anyway
• rep says "tough luck" (basically)
• I'm very unhappy, but say "fine" - send me the adapter, I'll buy a new battery then will take my business elsewhere
• rep says he won't replace the adapter, since there's nothing wrong with it according to the "notes" - [censored]?
• I ask "what notes" - I clearly stated in the beginning that it had died (it has a power indicator light on it and it's dead when plugged in - no juicy)
• he says "fine" for "customer satisfaction", he'll replace the adapter
• [censored]? he'll replace an item legitimately covered under warranty and say he's doing it to "satisfy" me, but he won't replace the part that I didn't know was out of warranty to really satisfy me?

End Result:

I'm getting a new adapter, but have to spend $165 +tax +S&H to replace the battery I didn't know wasn't covered under my 3-year warranty. I've spent thousands of dollars with Dell over the course of eight years, but they won't replace a battery? In my opinion, Dell clearly isn't concerned about maintaining a good customer relationship with me and the customer rep is clearly not empowered to make the decisions that would help maintain customer satisfaction.

Btw - when I went to price the new battery on the Dell site, I noticed two things:

1) The price is outrageous - my jaw dropped
.
2) The battery had a 2.3 rating out of 5 from 29 reviews. 23 of the 29 reviewers complained about the battery dying from 9 - 15 months. There's clearly an issue with the batteries used for this model.

/grrrrrr

Sorry about your experience.
It sounds like you've been able to get a whale of a price discount previously.. actually better than the employee discounts.
As for replacement parts, you might try other providers that resell equipment. eBay is also an option. I've found significant price differences from searching for parts.

I did get a very nice discount. I used to be able to find special deals like 30% off and then combine it with my EPP (Employee Purchase Plan) discounts. If I waited patiently, I could pounce on a good deal! Unfortunately, I haven't seen any combinable deals like that in almost a year.

Mostly, I just wanted to rant to get it off my chest since it literally just occured. /rubs ears and says wooosahhhh...

Well that really blows. I'd say "that's why I build" but I can't really say that about laptops. I'd definitely try ebay or some other reseller. You might get lucky. But then, I'm sure that at the moment anything would be better than giving Dell any more of your money.

When purchasing anything with a charger and a battery, always charge the device until full. Then run until the juice is out. That will ensure longer battery life over a period of time.

I have Vaio and a Macbook as laptop. Vaio has the better graphics but MacBooks are most stable and is good for travel (plus very light).

Also, Inspiron notebooks aren't built for traveling. I recommend you use Latitude notebooks instead because they are built for business class travels.



Edited by Weedhead (02/05/08 08:15 PM)

Check out Batteries Plus. They have almost every battery in use and some that are no longer in use. And while you won't get a Dell warranty on it I bet they are willing to go that extra mile to make you happy. They did for me when my cellphone battery broke. AND they are very competitively priced.

Weedhead, where do you stuff all this infinite "real world" knowledge in that small, teenage head of yours... How the heck could you possibly know which laptop he should get for his uses of it?

I wish I knew so much about everything back when I was a teenager.


Wait....nm....I remember now. I DID know everything - my college professors and my wife calmly explained to me that I DIDN'T anymore. That's when the doctors decided I needed "therapy" and the little blue pills...

Carry on...

Thanks to all of you offering suggestions or advice.

Edited by Ripper_McGee (02/06/08 01:39 AM)