God, I'm old enough to remember a time when people would actually recommend buying from Dell. That their computers were of high quality and you'd get great customer service.

Really. I'm not kidding.

Lots of words for a simple issue, but the victim here did not name a specific computer that he would consider to be an adequate replacement for the defective unit.

Specifics help - you name a model number, and let them explain why the model they provided is anything but a substandard replacement rather than an equivalent.

They might argue that they are under no obligation to give you a BETTER computer, if your chosen model is somehow better, but you have the well-known model of the rental car desk to guide you here. It is not your fault that they don't have a closer equivalent, so they are obligated to give you an "upgrade" to a better computer, rather than a "downgrade".

The "replace" part of the agreement should be read with care, as is would be the specific part of the contract being breached. Sending a formal demand letter and making it clear that you are calling them on that breach of contract would likely be a good move, as once sued, they would dig in their heels. Never walk up the steps to even the small claims courthouse unless you have no other option.

@GMFish: I remember that, too.

The problem with small claims (as with any legal action) is that the defendant must be sued in their home turf. Unless Dell has some kind of brick and mortar presence locally, then this guy will have to make a trip to Round Rock Texas.

@GMFish: yeah, it was worthy of the dude comment.

@GMFish: They went the way too many companies go when they grow that fast. They have to service so many people, they farm it out to people who aren't as qualified or aren't as dedicated to providing service. And yeah, I remember those days too.

It's a shame you can't easily build your own laptop in much the same way as you can with a desktop. I think this has been done on purpose, so companies like Dell can make guaranteed money on people who need the portability of a laptop.

@jfischer: You're right. When they replaced my M700, I pushed for an XPS 1210, because it was the only laptop they were making at the the time that had a 12" screen.

@jfischer: "(Redacted) told me that they can only give me a laptop sold through home and home office. When I told him there was one with such a screen in that department, he switched his tune immediately to 'I've done the research and we can't give you anything.' The sticker price of what they gave me was $1,100, the sticker price of what I want is $1,200."

He did tell them what he wants, and he apparently gave them the specific model information. [Redacted] proceeded to refuse to help him.

Wow I'm astonished. When I purchased my Inspiron 1725 it gave me nothing but problems. Primarily related to the mobile nVidia graphics card - but there were other issues. When I called Dell I got nowhere fast. But using this site I found a variety of executive e-mails and after sending out a well worked message I was contacted less than 48 hours later with with a confirmation order for a new Studio 17 with better specs than the Inspiron 1725.

Sorry to hear the OP is having such difficulties - but my experiences with Dell have been great.

I would like to know how this ends because of the unusual arbitration twist to this story.

In geneal, if you're a consumer, Dell treats you like crap. Foreign tech support and customer service centers...low quality parts...and fights for proper service.

If you're a business, they treat you right. Better made computers with no added crapware. American tech support, and fast response times.

Dell seems to forget that some of the people they piss off by dis-servicing the consumer side have direct impact on the corporate side. I know it's fewer and further between, but we exist. I make workstation recommendations for my company. I always research other retailers (except HP, I don't trust them).

Dell has been on a downward spiral for years. I was on my sixth Dell laptop (I replace mine yearly) when they started screwing around with me, replacing my maxed out XPS laptop for a mid-grade version, claiming it was "the same". That was the final straw for me. HP may be just as sneaky, but Dell won't ever get another penny from me.

@Audiyoda: Your experiences with Dell were great - even though you had to circumnavigate their customer service reps and go straight to the executive team to get what you needed?

Not my definition of great. Great is, "Hey, the CSR fixed my issue the first time I called, without any wrangling or arguing on my part!"

Or better yet: "Hey, I've had no issues at all with my computer, and I've been using it for 16 years!"

Different strokes, I guess. ;-)

@GMFish: Actually I would say that statement is true for their business lines of laptops and desktops. Individuals can buy those too, they just cost a bit more but you get better quality, and US based support.

That sucks. They just sent us a replacement that was much BETTER than the one that got toasted- and it was an accident issue, not warranty.

I had great success with an EECB to dell. I was immediately called by some upper brass at dell, who put me in touch with executive customer care. When they were not able to fix my issue, I once again went the EECB route, and after a few days, managed to get what was right, done. Dell is not an easy company to reason with. (but it is possible)

@wagenejm: yeah it's got NOTHING to do with the fact that a laptop is so small that every part has to be engineered into it.

@Boberto: Their mall kiosks are considered to fall under that rule. And that is the only place you need to send the paperwork too...

Considering that HP is, by all accounts, even worse than Dell, I would suggest that Elijah write this off as a lesson learned, and purchase a laptop from a more reliable competitor, such as Lenovo or Apple. Then, if the mood strikes him, he can send and EECB to Dell, informing them of just why they will no longer have him as a customer.

The issue with the F-keys not functioning may be a BIOS setting. On some new Dells the F-keys are set up as 'dual purpose' to control various multimedia functions. The default setting for those keys is to function as multimedia keys, not F-keys.

Dell lost me when they destroyed their online support forums in exchange for a touchy-feely social-network style mess that breaks half the time. They threw away all of the old content ... basically trashing years of useful content. The new forum has a 4.2% approval rating, but they've kept it anyway.

[en.community.dell.com]

My next laptop will not be a Dell.

@Boberto: That's not entirely accurate. It's generally true when you sign or agree to a contract that specifically spells out where and how arbitration and lawsuits must take place. A warranty would be just such a contract. You agree to it when you buy the item, and if you don't agree, you don't get warranty service.

But, in cases where a company's negligence causes harm to you, or where a company fails to provide goods or services as paid for, the onus is on the company to travel to the plaintiff's jurisdiction to answer a suit.

Of course, any federal suit can be filed in any federal court of competent jurisdiction, so generally the plaintiff will file where the plaintiff resides or operates.

i have a dell. it works well.
i'm a poet. and didn't know it.

In fact even when I send emails to various members of the corporate elite that you listed on your site insisting that if anyone but the person who's name this email belongs to contacts me I will consider it a harassing contact

You shot yourself in the foot there. The EECB is intended to get conversation between consumer and company started, not end it. If you want to be picky about who contacts you and call everything else "harrassment" you're not going to get much help.

You catch more bees with honey than vinegar. Give up the 'tude, dude.

I feel bad for the OP. I too remember when people would actually recommend Dell products. More often I hear people say the how terrible the home products and home user support is.

My stance now is if you're just looking for cheap you get what you pay for. If you want a Dell, I recommend people pay more for Dell business products.

If Dell sell computers in your home state and they collected a sales tax, then they have a presence in your state. Sue them locally. I sued Verizon in small claims court many years ago and I was told I would lose. Well before we could get in front of the judge, they gave me everything I wanted and demanded in my small claims action.

Go ahead and sue Dell locally. The cost of the attorney will make the bill double.

For one thing, I'd take Dell to small claims court instead of caving to arbitration.

Also NB he's asking for higher-resolution screen, not necessarily a physically larger one.

I got XPS laptop screen repaired a short while back. When I received my laptop back, the high res screen I originally had was replaced with a lower res version. As there had been no discussion in my initial call about downgrading resolution, simply a price for repair which I paid, I dug in my heels and Dell relented and had a repairman come out the next day and replace the screen with a hi res one for free. It just took a phone call to fix, remaining polite but resolute.

Dell CS resolved my problem amicably and quickly without a great deal of difficulty, so they're still ok in my book.

IMHO, the only way to effectively deal with DHell is to not buy their products. There are plenty of competitors to do business with. For notebooks, I recommend Toshiba; for desktops, Lenovo or Asus, or build your own. Two reasons why I say this: first, I have made several IT purchases over the last 2 years and haven't had any issues with any of the companies I mentioned, second, I used to work for DHell and my advice is to avoid them like the plague.

The ironic thing is that people assume that ordering through Dell business costs more. I have often found that the opposite is true. If you are purchasing the lowest priced product, Dell home is cheaper. However, if you upgrade at all, the price increases so fast that you usually can obtain the same product from the business division, with most of your upgrades already included. The total price is often hundreds less.

@Hil-fish: My experience with Dell was flawless, my screen cracked, (Dell Vostro 1500), called CS, no questions asked, they sent me a prepaid box, I removed the drive, sent it in, I got my laptop back in 4 or so days.

I am generally not a fan of Dell, the servers they make suck (I prefer the beefier HP DL series), but the laptops are not bad, and about as close to a macbook (with regards to specs) as they get.. and I had OSX running on my Vostro :)

@wagenejm: Yet wait until the next time Apple Computer is featured in a story (usually laudatory since that's how they roll) and watch the 20 different people who'll troll up the comments with, "But I got my computer for $300 and it's awesome!"
They'll finally have to admit they built it themselves (which few have the inclination for), then later forced to admit it's completely different configuration, then later forced to admit it's a honking big crate compared to, say, a MacBook Pro.
Like clockwork: watch!

@lotussix: I bought a Dell.
Now I'm in Hell.
If only I were on a death knell.
In retrospect, Apple is swell!

@humphrmi: You know, I missed this the first time I read (skimmed) the post, but you're absolutely right. The trick with EECBs is to make your case as clearly as possible with an eye to convincing the company to make the situation right. Refusing to deal with employees who likely report directly to the execs you're contacting and therefore have an incentive to work with you is short-sighted, and it makes the letter-writer appear unhinged and unreasonable. Maybe there's a backstory about why Dell doesn't want to deal with him...

Having only known Dell through business channels, I must say that I've never been unhappy with their laptops. I've only used the Latitude and Inspiron models but they have all performed well. All have been used heavily in dirty industrial environments and I've never had one failure. My last Lattitude have a keyboard issue and Dell sent me a replacement next day.

All that being said, one of my co-workers just bought one of the new 'business class' models and has had nothing but issues with it. Bad case quality, lock ups, bad DVD drive, etc..

I'm switching brands next time I upgrade after seeing everything he's gone through.

@GMFish:

We are a Dell campus, we have 1800+ Dell computers ranging from OptiPlex GX620 (oldest going on 4 years) to the latest OptiPlex 760's. Latitude D510 (4 years) to E6500's. All of my techs are Dell certified to do repairs so all we have to do is fill out a form online and within a day or two, we have what we need.

That said, since our switch to Dell computer downtime has dropped to next to zero. Yes we have some failures but the amount is so low I couldn't even give you a percentage right away. Many of the problems we have are with keyboards, used by students... and some issues with the GX620 CMOS batteries.

I guess having to call the India tech centers suck for consumers. Then again my own personal computers that I bought are Dell... A OptiPlex 755, 750 and two Latitude D830's and again, no issues at all. Even my old Inspiron 9100 laptop (known for having some issues) was rock solid.

I know Dell is not perfect but as far as our campus and my own use, Dell is doing a fine job by us.

Hmmm...so you sent in an old computer and they sent you a new one (or a refurbed one). I'd say you made out like a bandit. 10 key? On a laptop? I can't recall any laptop I've ever bought having that. I still don't see the purpose of buying a laptop that's widescreen and likely heavy, bulky, and nearly impossible to carry around when you can just buy a mini desktop for around 500 bucks that can likely do more (or a net book for under 400 bucks).

If watching movies is what you're using it for then spend the difference on a solid 32" lcd tv and a cheap blu ray player...you'll probably be saving money with that.

PS-->Arbitration is futile. You will never win. That's why they have arbitration. So you can't win and can't take them to court (where they might lose).

@Hil-fish:

Circumvent, not circumnavigate.

/pedantry

@Hil-fish:

The goal of an EECB is not (usually) to have Michael Dell call you - it's to have Michael Dell forward your email to someone with the header "Fix this."

@chaoss13: Well I happen to be a business, and I bought some hardware from Dell's business side a year ago. I was pretty satisfied, and the Dell rep called me to chat and emailed me offers of support and gave me his contact info, along with that of his boss.

Fast forward to a year later (last week) and I attempted to contact him to negotiate the purchase of another system. No response to email to him, his phone does not answer. Tried the same with his 'boss', same result. Sent email to several Dell generic small business email addresses to ask if they really wanted more of my business, with no response. Maybe they were both laid off in the recesssion, but if this is the 'better' treatment they give to their business customers who want to freely give them repeat business, then I want no part of them any more.

@NeverLetMeDown: "Circumnavigate" is delicious hyperbole. I support it.

@Trick: You forgot to mention that Dell replaces parts with refurbed or cheaper.
And that Complete Care is required.

I have nothing against Dell. They are cheapening their latest batch (E6400/E6500 series laptops) in build quality, but you can't beat their coverage.

Try that with Apple (no Accidental coverage AT ALL).

Back @ subject, the screen res seems odd. Parts depots do make mistakes and he might have gotten a similar part, but not correct one (still works). The replacement part if not at expect previous resolution, then it is NOT of Equal or Better replacement.
If the keyboard isn't working, it should be replaced (A $15 part jeez).

We've had some Complete Care repairs shipped to Dell's depot that were "drops" (damaged bad). Dell replaced with Refurb of unit that was next model up.

Dell isn't a bad company. I think this guy should try another tactic, like tact.

@GMFish: I've gotten two refurbed laptops from Dell and apparently just had fantastic luck. The one I got 4 and a half years ago is still running (albeit pretty slowly), and the one I bought at the beginning of this summer from their business outlet line is running like a champ. No complaints here...

@jvanbrecht: How long have you had your laptop? After 12 months, my laptop went from lasting 7 hours on battery to lasting 1 hour. I had specifically paid for a 9 cell battery so I could have long life on the rare occasions I'd need it.

And a new 9 cell battery? $150. (The computer cost $600.)

@wagenejm: *headscratch*

Ummmm. MUCH harder than building a desktop. Enjoy all those tiny little parts, and trying to fit a bunch of custom items inside a teeny tiny little laptop case.

@GMFish: 20 years ago is a long time, isn't it?

I've personally not had problems with Dell, but recently had by far the worst consumer experience of my life with Apple!

I purchased a Macbook Pro from Apple back at the start of March - it had multiple bugs (minor AND severe) right out of the box. Called their tech support who gave me the impression they'd quickly & easily fix all the problems. I was then subjected to 40+ hours of troubleshooting, mostly during business hours, over a period of 4 months; the rudest customer service & support person I've ever had the misfortune to deal with; an ignored formal complaint letter (which they're legally obliged to respond to within 14 days) requesting a replacement and fair compensation (citing the appropriate UK law) for 40+ hours of lost income because I'm a freelancer (over £1900 in billable hours); before finally having it replaced on 30th June - but continued to struggle trying to find someone who'd even read my complaint letter... until they finally offered me the hugely insulting gesture of an iPod for my 40+ hours lost income (a toy I don't want or need)! ...and only then if I signed a settlement agreement containing a very threateningly worded secrecy clause, referring to Californian Law (for a UK purchase) no less!

I was reasonable & willing to negotiate, & not even insisting they compensate fully for all my lost income, but they refused even to compensate me for the cost of my (expensive) phone calls to their premium rate support number (which they bill as 'complimentary' support by the way)!

Utter disgrace! Worst consumer experience of my life, by a long, long way!

Unfortunatley for me, small claims court will only waste more of my time, & a consumer lawyer advised me that under UK law, the amount of compensation I'd be awarded is at the judges discretion & apparently they rarely award full income lost even if you can prove the figures!

@Hil-fish: I am curious why he didn't name the specific hardware in his post to us. Was it a latitude? What exact screen type do you want (XGA, WXGA, etc.)

Hopefully arbitration will work for him.