Time to serve court papers at your local Dell kiosk... :)

Maybe it wasn't broken in the first place?

I just bought a Dell Laptop for my folks for Christmas. The only upgrade I took was on-site service, for that very reason.

SHIPPED a laptop for service? Someone went cheap. I'll only order next day on-site service for my laptops. I don't have 4 weeks to piss away, waiting for my laptop to return. The techs Dell has sent to my place were pretty good overall, only had one time when the tech wasn't quite as sharp as I had hoped (he forgot to reconnect the modem & wireless mini-PCI card).

Assuming the consumer was cheap/stupid is absurd. Not everyone is as "plugged in" as posters here.

My mom would ship it back and just live without the internet. And be sorely disappointed to find a friendly f-you and a broken laptop.

"SHIP BACK UNREPAIRED. THANKS!"

No, Dell, Thank you!

Yeah the 'thanks!' totally makes this.

As long as we're focusing on the least important aspects of the story (consumer going 'cheap'):

LCD Hinge-Up Assy.

Am I the only one who thinks that sounds wrong?

Why the heck would someone not only send something back unrepaired but include notes saying they did it on purpose? What, did someone get all pissy this guy had the nerve to ask about his machine?

I sort of suspect that this guy started calling to find out when his laptop would be shipped back to them and they got sick of the asking and shipped it back immediately, unrepaired. Kind of an asshole thing to do, because surely they understood he wanted it fixed before it was shipped back, but I sort of get the jerkass response of "well, if he wants it back so bad we'll just ship it back unrepaired, sucker!"

This happened to me with Sony; they held onto it for EIGHT weeks without repairing it. (I sent it in to Consumerist, too...) When I got it back, it was actually in worse shape.

post this on youtube.

you might get more traction by making a testimonial sound bite. Stuff will be uber embarrassing when it hits youtube.

Well, if you're stupid enough to buy a Dell Duh, that's what you get. I've watched customers bring in faulty Macs to an Apple store, and get their machines fixed instantly, on-the-spot. Or, replaced! No BS.

It's amazing how many people settle for the Yugo when the Ferrari only costs a few bucks more.

I regret buying a Dell laptop as well. Their service is awful - it took them a good 3-4 months to ship back my battery. May be going with a Mac in the future.

DutchFlat, That might work for you but if you country does not have "Apple" stores you have to wait between 6 to 8 weeks to even get you laptop LOOKED at by Apple while they ship it to Auckland (New Zealand).

It could be that the thing had nothing wrong with it in the first place.

Sure Dell could have worded the service tag a bit better, but the original poster (friend of the actual owner)is a bit vague with the description of "broke"

WOW thats terrirble....
Again why i went with ibm for my laptop, 2-7 day turnaround time, sometimes that includes time with shipping...especially when you get their business warranty...I dont know what its called, but they are supposed to get it to you in like NO time...and if they cant, they'll send you an entire replacement unit...

And here is why you should avoid shipping laptops for service.