DELL warranty service incompetence

It amazes me how incompetent DELL techs are. My M1330's NVIDIA GPU died twice in the last 20 months and each time i sent the laptop for repairs, something was wrong with it when it came back.

First time, the motherboard / GPU were replaced and when I received the laptop back the charging plug connection was not working at all. Had to send it back for another motherboard replacement.

This week my GPU failed for the second time and also asked dell to install a new wifi card because it was starting to act out on me sometimes. When i got the laptop back with new motherboard/gpu/wifi card, my wireless card was not working properly. It would drop connections after 1-2 minutes and the speed would slide down to 1.0MBS. This was not even fixed by installing new drivers.

To me it seems that defective components get removed from one laptop and then they are inserted into another laptop.

This week i had another anoying experience with my gf's laptop that has home-care warranty. It's also an M1330 and needed its GPU replaced, again for the second time. First time the tech showed up, he didn't even have the right motherboard. He had to come back 3 days later with a new motherboard.

All the above-mentioned mistakes are caused by human error. It doesn't take a phd to see if the motherboard or wifi card works or if you have the correct motherboard in the first place. The amount of time and money that's wasted dealing with all the incompetence must be astronomical.

I haven't owned other brands of laptops but I'd like to know what your warranty experiences were with Dell and other brands because i'd like to change laptops and want to go with a company that's not going to give me headaches.

i had a similar problem with my hp laptop i needed the screen replaced got it back and there was no power so sent it back again and they replaced where the ac connection plugged in. Mind you this wasnt sent out to hp because they wanted to crook me for 400 dollars screen replacement.

Ballerrrrrrr!!!

Never ever had any problem with my 6years old Toshiba Satellite.

If reliability is your thing and you are using it for business, there is only one choice that's above all the rest:

Lenovo.

For media related stuff, Toshiba's are solid bricks though they do have their quirks and aren't nearly as reliable as Lenovos. I still have a P20-QR7 (Cost $3500 at the time in 2004), and it still works circles around my gf's HP dv2000 ($999 in 07)... though the screen had to be replaced once and the adapter fried twice. It's louder than an xbox though.

The only other brand with more horror stories than Dell is HP.

My GF works at a private school in laval and they opted for those cheap Vostro's in September 08. Let's just say out of 20, 8 are now inoperable, 4 of which have fried the wifi.

Lenovo *tu*

never had a single problem with yet, I use it for work and for home as well, the laptop runs 24 hours a day...

I have the m1330 with the nVidia card. It's a known defect. The card will heat up to over 100 celsius, just by watching anything on it (nevermind playing any games).

I have on-site repair, and they always say to send it in. This will be my last dell. Already I've been moving all my servers over to HP. My next laptop is going to be a HP as well.

Just to say, if HP has even half the same warranty they have for my servers (4 hour turnaround, but they come in 30 minutes to an hour), I'll be very happy.

Hm... last time i checked HP had worse reliability than DELL.

I have an xps1330 as well, sad to say it has been a big disappointment.
motherboard died as well once, scary to hear that it can happen again.
ever since they've replaced it, my wifi has been acting funny sometimes, but very rarely i would loose connection, i guess its a "normal problem" with dell.

however, the tech support i had was great, mind you i bought mine in the states and got it repaired there. i guess their support is way more developed there than in canada.
the tech support came to my place, and replaced the defective motherboard in 1/2 hour. voila done.
i was thinking of transferring my warranty from us to canada since i live here, i guess i'll think twice before doing so.

stats can say all they want. All I know is, my HP servers are excellent, and their warranty is excellent. When I call, I get someone in Canada (regardless if I choose english or french). The call goes :

"What's the problem sir?"

"raid card fails under high I/O, ran diagnostics, need a new card"

"would you like a technician to do it, or have the card sent to you asap?"

And the tech comes with a brand new card in a half hour to an hour. To me, that is service. If I can get a simple "next-business day" warranty honored with hp, I will be a happy person.

^^ funny cause last year at the office with had a problem with our MAIN server (HP). Don't remember what it was, but we couldn't work in the office until it got fixed, and they told us we had to wait 48 hours even though the part was in montreal..... my boss screamed at them enough to have them come within 4 hours...