Refurbished Repair Saga

What's the record for consecutive returns to the repair depot for the same
thing?

I'm at four times now.

(New laptop powers itself down at random. Almost certainly a bad video card,
curious experimentation has revealed, based on this and that evidence.)
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On 11/16/2011 10:52 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:
What's the record for consecutive returns to the repair depot for the same
thing?

I'm at four times now.

(New laptop powers itself down at random. Almost certainly a bad video card,
curious experimentation has revealed, based on this and that evidence.)

on more than one occasion i have encountered mention that dell has a
unwritten policy that after three major system repairs (ie, three
motherboards) they will replace a system that is still under warranty.
contact or file a complaint on bbb.org for failure
to fulfill their service agreement.

Christopher Muto wrote:

On 11/16/2011 10:52 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:
What's the record for consecutive returns to the repair depot for the same
thing?

I'm at four times now.

(New laptop powers itself down at random. Almost certainly a bad video card,
curious experimentation has revealed, based on this and that evidence.)

on more than one occasion i have encountered mention that dell has a
unwritten policy that after three major system repairs (ie, three
motherboards) they will replace a system that is still under warranty.
contact or file a complaint on bbb.org for failure
to fulfill their service agreement.

It's an act of good citizenship to get it fixed. It passes the diagnostics
(since they video card isn't activated) and so goes back to the Outlet Store
for the next buyer to have the same experience, and so on forever.

It's refurbished, meaning it's already been through this with at least one
other customer.

Think of it as a poisoned machine until somebody finally fixes it.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On 11/16/2011 11:57 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:
Christopher Muto wrote:

On 11/16/2011 10:52 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:
What's the record for consecutive returns to the repair depot for the same
thing?

I'm at four times now.

(New laptop powers itself down at random. Almost certainly a bad video card,
curious experimentation has revealed, based on this and that evidence.)

on more than one occasion i have encountered mention that dell has a
unwritten policy that after three major system repairs (ie, three
motherboards) they will replace a system that is still under warranty.
contact or file a complaint on bbb.org for failure
to fulfill their service agreement.

It's an act of good citizenship to get it fixed. It passes the diagnostics
(since they video card isn't activated) and so goes back to the Outlet Store
for the next buyer to have the same experience, and so on forever.

It's refurbished, meaning it's already been through this with at least one
other customer.

Think of it as a poisoned machine until somebody finally fixes it.

it is an act of a good company to have quality control that minimizes
defective goods from leaving the factory and waste a customers time. if
you can return it then do. don't make it your responsibility to fix it
when they are perfectly capable of sorting it out themselves if the
cared to. good luck.

Christopher Muto wrote:

On 11/16/2011 11:57 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:
Christopher Muto wrote:

On 11/16/2011 10:52 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:
What's the record for consecutive returns to the repair depot for the same
thing?

I'm at four times now.

(New laptop powers itself down at random. Almost certainly a bad video card,
curious experimentation has revealed, based on this and that evidence.)

on more than one occasion i have encountered mention that dell has a
unwritten policy that after three major system repairs (ie, three
motherboards) they will replace a system that is still under warranty.
contact or file a complaint on bbb.org for failure
to fulfill their service agreement.

It's an act of good citizenship to get it fixed. It passes the diagnostics
(since they video card isn't activated) and so goes back to the Outlet Store
for the next buyer to have the same experience, and so on forever.

It's refurbished, meaning it's already been through this with at least one
other customer.

Think of it as a poisoned machine until somebody finally fixes it.

it is an act of a good company to have quality control that minimizes
defective goods from leaving the factory and waste a customers time. if
you can return it then do. don't make it your responsibility to fix it
when they are perfectly capable of sorting it out themselves if the
cared to. good luck.

Alas not every problem has a diagnostic for it. A certain fraction of machines
are flying dutchmen, passing from refurbished owner to refurbished owner forever.

One owner that takes a stand is all that will stop it for that machine.

It's doing Dell a favor, stopping a repair and shipping cost hemorrhage.

The fraction of those machines is small, is what quality control does.

It might be a good idea to track flying dutchmen though, by service code,
to stop them internally once they've been through the outlet store a few times.

The philosophical justification would be that

1. It's refurbished, so it's no worse if it's been repaired correctly, unlike
a new system which ought to work new.

2. It's not really any trouble to send it back, except sometimes the tech chat
guy has some nonsensical scripts to go through. Be nice and ask for a supervisor.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On Nov 16, 9:20*am, Christopher Muto wrote:
On 11/16/2011 10:52 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:

What's the record for consecutive returns to the repair depot for the same
thing?

I'm at four times now.

(New laptop powers itself down at random. *Almost certainly a bad video card,
curious experimentation has revealed, based on this and that evidence.)

on more than one occasion i have encountered mention that dell has a
unwritten policy that after three major system repairs (ie, three
motherboards) they will replace a system that is still under warranty.
contact or file a complaint on bbb.org for failure
to fulfill their service agreement.

Is that for three major system repairs for the samething? On my XPS
M1530, so far I have had the keyboard, monitor, and motherboard
replaced. The M1530 seemed to me to run hot when I first got it. When
the tech replaced the motherboard, he said the thermal paste for the
cpu and the graphics chip appeared to be faulty. The M1530 is now
over three years old, fortunately I took out a 4 year warranty on it
because I had another dell laptop, an m600, fail when it was one month
past a 3 year warranty. It also ran too hot.

Larry

wrote:

On Nov 16, 9:20 am, Christopher Muto wrote:
On 11/16/2011 10:52 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:

What's the record for consecutive returns to the repair depot for the same
thing?

I'm at four times now.

(New laptop powers itself down at random. Almost certainly a bad video card,
curious experimentation has revealed, based on this and that evidence.)

on more than one occasion i have encountered mention that dell has a
unwritten policy that after three major system repairs (ie, three
motherboards) they will replace a system that is still under warranty.
contact or file a complaint on bbb.org for failure
to fulfill their service agreement.

Is that for three major system repairs for the samething? On my XPS
M1530, so far I have had the keyboard, monitor, and motherboard
replaced. The M1530 seemed to me to run hot when I first got it. When
the tech replaced the motherboard, he said the thermal paste for the
cpu and the graphics chip appeared to be faulty. The M1530 is now
over three years old, fortunately I took out a 4 year warranty on it
because I had another dell laptop, an m600, fail when it was one month
past a 3 year warranty. It also ran too hot.

Larry

Laptop cooling pads are your friend.

Our experience is that you're way ahead just buying a replacement when a laptop dies rather
than buying a warranty extension, the way things are priced.

The same system capability will be cheaper soon, and they overprice the warranty so as to
make it profitable for themselves.

I'm sure the (possibly mythical) policy is three times for the same thing, in rapid
succession. It's sort of a guarantee on their warranty.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:
Our experience is that you're way ahead just buying a replacement when a laptop dies rather
than buying a warranty extension, the way things are priced.

An exception is a marginal machine that's just about to expire its warranty.

In that case you're taking advantage of your knowledge that the machine is more likely to fail
than the average machine.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

"Ron Hardin" wrote in message
...
Christopher Muto wrote:

On 11/16/2011 10:52 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:
What's the record for consecutive returns to the repair depot for the
same
thing?

I'm at four times now.

(New laptop powers itself down at random. Almost certainly a bad video
card,
curious experimentation has revealed, based on this and that evidence.)

on more than one occasion i have encountered mention that dell has a
unwritten policy that after three major system repairs (ie, three
motherboards) they will replace a system that is still under warranty.
contact or file a complaint on bbb.org for failure
to fulfill their service agreement.

It's an act of good citizenship to get it fixed. It passes the
diagnostics
(since they video card isn't activated) and so goes back to the Outlet
Store
for the next buyer to have the same experience, and so on forever.

It's refurbished, meaning it's already been through this with at least one
other customer.



Are you saying to beware of the Outlet Store? I was thinking of getting a
Dell i7 desktop tower for video editing, possibly from the Dell Outlet page.

Noi worries with the Dell Outlet. I've bought many systems from the Outlet
store with no problems at all. Most of the systems look brand new.

"Von Fourche" wrote in message
m...


"Ron Hardin" wrote in message
...
Christopher Muto wrote:

On 11/16/2011 10:52 AM, Ron Hardin wrote:
What's the record for consecutive returns to the repair depot for the
same
thing?

I'm at four times now.

(New laptop powers itself down at random. Almost certainly a bad video
card,
curious experimentation has revealed, based on this and that evidence.)

on more than one occasion i have encountered mention that dell has a
unwritten policy that after three major system repairs (ie, three
motherboards) they will replace a system that is still under warranty.
contact or file a complaint on bbb.org for failure
to fulfill their service agreement.

It's an act of good citizenship to get it fixed. It passes the
diagnostics
(since they video card isn't activated) and so goes back to the Outlet
Store
for the next buyer to have the same experience, and so on forever.

It's refurbished, meaning it's already been through this with at least one
other customer.



Are you saying to beware of the Outlet Store? I was thinking of getting a
Dell i7 desktop tower for video editing, possibly from the Dell Outlet page.