DEll XPS M1330 warranty question

Mister D

Hi all,

I experienced a problem with my XPS M1330 a few days ago(battery wasn't charging). So i rang up and was told after two and a half hours that the motherboard needed to be replaced that my warranty had expired by 5 days and so i would have to pay €470 to get the part replaced.

Now 4 months ago the motherboard had to be replaced due to another problem(graphics card went). Is this part not still under warranty, i mean 4 months seems like a very short time or maybe i don't have any comeback with this. Would appreciate some feedback.

RangeR

European law dictates that you are entitled to 2 years warranty on electrical goods.

However, Ireland didn't sign up for that as we allow for UPTO 6 years warranty. I say UPTO as it's a little ambiguous. For example, you won't get a 6 year warranty on a €20 kettle but you MIGHT on a €200 kettle.

In a nutshell, ring them back and don't take any crap. Be nice though, you will get further.

Voodu Child

As some background to the issue, the Nvidia graphics card used in the M1330 in question (which was the cause of the OPs first warranty claim) is known to have manufacturing defects. The graphics card is part of the motherboard, so you can't replace one without replacing the other.

The issue was kept fairly quiet, but Nivida posted a one-off $150-200 million charge in 2008 in expectation of losses and warranty claims in relation to the issue, and most manufacturers extended their warranty (semi-informally) by an additional year (two years in some cases, eg Apple) to appease customers. There are technical papers on the internet explaining the nature of the defect (related to the solder used) and it seems likely that most affected components will fail within a short timespan.

I know that Irish consumer law requires all goods to be of merchantable quality, and similarly that any components used in a warranty repair are also of merchantable quality. Would there be any possiblity of making a case that there is no possiblity of the replacement components could be of merchantable quality (due to the inherent manufacturing defect), and so the only satisfactory outcome would be a complete refund, or replacement with similar value laptop?

EKRIUQ

I'm sure it is under warranty still but with the XPS under DELLS warranty they would replace any part next day by an engineer calling out. So it’s out of this warranty but you are still entitled to a repair, replacement or refund. Trying to convince an Indian call centre employee of the fundamentals of Irish law is a lot more difficult.

I’m sure with it being so little out of warranty it’s going to take a lot of phone calls and banging your head but if you keep at them I sure they’ll do something and considering that they replaced the motherboard only a couple of months ago you would expect it to last longer than this

Mister D

Thanks for all the advice guys, rang them back there(50 mins this time) and according to their technical support the replacement part has only a warranty of 90 days!!!. So even if i was to buy another replacement (€470) it would also be only covered for 90 days.

I mentioned about the 2 year european warranty on electrical goods this seemed to be words they never heard before and i also mentioned about the faulty nvidia 8400 model which was answered with silence.

So i'm gonna get a phone call from their legal department tomorrow according to technical support no doubt to tell me i'm not eligible for a replacement.

Boggles

Mister D wrote: »

So i'm gonna get a phone call from their legal department tomorrow according to technical support no doubt to tell me i'm not eligible for a replacement.

Have you any mates that are good with consumer law?

When the legal department ring you, tell them they will have to talk to your legal department, hand the phone to your mate. :pac:

Dancor

We had a laptop come in with the exact same issue, Dell gave us the usual run around. We told them about it being a known problem and they were ignorant to it. We ended up buying a new warrenty which was cheaper than the replacement part and have them come out and fix it.

Mister D

Just to let everyone know, got the phonecall just there and its exactly like dancor described. they are offering me a warranty for €149 for 1 year or €170 for 2 years. There is no other option, not sure how i'll proceed but its a better option than paying €470 for the part. I will not be buying from Dell again.

TestTransmission

Mister D wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice guys, rang them back there(50 mins this time) and according to their technical support the replacement part has only a warranty of 90 days!!!. So even if i was to buy another replacement (€470) it would also be only covered for 90 days.

I mentioned about the 2 year european warranty on electrical goods this seemed to be words they never heard before and i also mentioned about the faulty nvidia 8400 model which was answered with silence.

So i'm gonna get a phone call from their legal department tomorrow according to technical support no doubt to tell me i'm not eligible for a replacement.

90 days?that is a farce,I would at least expect 6 months

EKRIUQ

That's a farce alright, I have the same laptop and hope I won't have the same problems with the motherboard the hard drive failed but was replaced withinn 24hours but now I'm about 3 weeks out of waranty so fingers crossed.

(The the 2 year warranty for €170 for 2 years does seem like good value)

RangeR

EKRIUQ wrote: »

That's a farce alright, I have the same laptop and hope I won't have the same problems with the motherboard the hard drive failed but was replaced withinn 24hours but now I'm about 3 weeks out of waranty so fingers crossed.

(The the 2 year warranty for ?170 for 2 years does seem like good value)

Balls. How about a 6 year warranty for free? Sounds better yo me. OP, I understand your position but you don't have to pay. If they don't agree to uphold the law then take them to the Small Claims Court

ShooterSF

RangeR wrote: »

Balls. How about a 6 year warranty for free? Sounds better yo me. OP, I understand your position but you don't have to pay. If they don't agree to uphold the law then take them to the Small Claims Court

+100

The reason they can charge these fees is because of people who will just say "ah feck it better than the first price". Know your rights and stand up to them. Then never buy off them again

Dancor

Mister D wrote: »

Just to let everyone know, got the phonecall just there and its exactly like dancor described. they are offering me a warranty for €149 for 1 year or €170 for 2 years. There is no other option, not sure how i'll proceed but its a better option than paying €470 for the part. I will not be buying from Dell again.

If I were you I would fight them for it. We had to do it as it was out of warrenty (2 days btw) and it was the first time there had been trouble with it. We actually thought we were cheating the system some way.

tomsav

I agree. You should not let this go. I had a similar experience with a computer company over a monitor a number of years ago. I got advice from the consumer people and I sent the company a letter saying they were breaching my rights as protected under the sales and goods act etc. and I would be taking it ot the small claims court if needed. The next contact I got from the company was a call asking when would be the best time to deliver my new monitor! It works. Goods have to be of good quality and fit for purpose. It is not unreasonable to expect a computer to last at least 3 or 4 years without giving trouble.

Mister D

Thanks guys for all the advice, after reading your posts i'm pretty fired up about this again. Think i will mention the small claims court to them and see what response that will generate. You are of course right tomsav this is still a relatively new laptop and i should not be having these problems. well here comes round 4 with Dell.

ShooterSF

Mister D wrote: »

Thanks guys for all the advice, after reading your posts i'm pretty fired up about this again. Think i will mention the small claims court to them and see what response that will generate. You are of course right tomsav this is still a relatively new laptop and i should not be having these problems. well here comes round 4 with Dell.

You might actually have to register a complain to small claims though. I'm sure they hear the threat every couple of days. Just be sure you're not just sabre rattling.
Pretty sure it only costs €15 to lodge a case in small claims and that's all you stand to lose. Think you can do it online too. Maybe one of the users with more knowledge of this will give you more info.

foggy_lad

Mister D wrote: »

Thanks guys for all the advice, after reading your posts i'm pretty fired up about this again. Think i will mention the small claims court to them and see what response that will generate. You are of course right tomsav this is still a relatively new laptop and i should not be having these problems. well here comes round 4 with Dell.

dont waste your time talking to Dell on the phone as they will NEVER give in to your requests! write to their complaints department in boghall road in bray or find another address for them in ireland and explain the issues in the letter!

make a copy of the letter and keep it for your records as this is usually enough proof for the small claims court that the letter was sent!(registered post is not needed and also expensive and they should have in place proceedures to recieve all post addressed to them!)

if they do not respond in a satisfactory manner within a reasonable time start small claims court proceedings.

D3UC3 J3

+1 to OPs problem.

Dell XPS M1330 - 13 months old but the issue has been apparent for about 4 months.

I previously contacted them and kinda let it go as it was infrequent back 4 months ago.

Similar issue with the Graphics Chipset i think.

Jumpy blocky lines down the screen.

Will put this on them if they try the auld extended warranty trick -->

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/consumer-affairs/consumer-protection/consumer-rights/guarantees

We live in hope!

vms7ply9t6dw4b

My mother had a similar problem with her M1330, del wanted +400 euro to fix it even though it was only 18 months old. Spoke to customer support who i think are in india who told me the warranty was expired. Informed them that the warranty that dell offered was in addition to my statutory rights which said that goods sold should be fit for purpose and last a reasonable amont of time. He panic'd when i said that and got a call from the legal dept a few hours later.
They offered to LET me purchase an extended warranty :rolleyes: for 149. Told them no deal that any small claims judge in the land would laugh when he heard a 1000 laptop only lasted 18 months.
Another call back a few hours later they said they were going to repair it out of "goodwill" but they would strongly reccomend purchasing the warranty as the repair only had a warranty of 90 days, they wouldnt be fixing it again if it broke down after this.
Told them quite calmly that they would be fixing it again or i would be taking them to court it didnt really bother me.

Anyway, moral of the story is you have nothing to loose by taking them to small claims court, it only costs €9 and id have no problem letting dell know this. They even called me up during the week to see how the laptop was going, and to offer me the warranty again :pac:

bockedy

"Reasonable durability" is the phrase you need to have to hand. Also: don't let the supplier "hide behind the warranty", as Reasonable Durability is a statutory right, superseding any warranty you have or have just run out of (Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act 1980, section 14.3)

Have a look at the following post: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=61190450&postcount=10

Good luck!

Bockedy

Blendage

My M1330 just died yesterday with the graphics card issue.

I have the laptop 20 months, 1 year warranty.

I came across this post by Dell which says that they have extended the warranty by a year for this problem : link

Has anybody mentioned this when trying to get the problem fixed?