The battery on Derek’s Dell Inspiron 9100 suddenly stopped working. “I mean one day it was fine, holding a charge of over an hour, the next — dead.” Derek asked for help via Dell’s online tech support.

Agent (Shikha_01139843): “Thank you for contacting Dell Technical Support. My name is Shikha and my rep ID number is 139843. How may I assist you today?”
Derek : “The issue I am having is this.”
Derek : “The battery will not charge at all. When I plug it into AC power, the battery LED on the laptop (not LED on the battery itself that tells you how charged it is) will blink 4 times ORANGE and then one time GREEN.”
Derek : “I have left the laptop plugged into AC power for several hours, and also overnight and the battery does not even get 20% charged.”
Derek : “When I go into the BIOS on the battery page (which is page 5 I think) it still says 0% chraged.”
Derek : “But it also says “charging””
Agent (Shikha_01139843): “I would like to inform you that battery is suffering from Temporary Battery failure.”
Agent (Shikha_01139843): “It means that Battery has died.”
Agent (Shikha_01139843): “You need to purchase a battery from Dell Sales Department.”
Derek : “Wouldn’t that then be called PERMANENT Battery Failure?”
Agent (Shikha_01139843): “Yes. you can say so.”
Agent (Shikha_01139843): “You may consider purchasing it from our Sales Department. You can contact Sales Department at 1-800-357-3355.”
Derek : “Well at $200, I’m not about to spend that kind of money on a laptop that is 3 years old.”
Derek : “What are my other options?”
Agent (Shikha_01139843): “We have no other option except running laptop with AC Adapter only.”

Battery has died? Poor battery. No more suffering for you. Derek’s now on the hook for a $200 replacement. Dell sure knows how to create a ‘permanent’ customer. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER

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