Refusal to Honor Dell Warranty

Hi how did you ever make out with this repair? Thanks.

Hi,

My name is Todd and I'm a customer advocate with Dell's online
outreach program. We try to help our customers via blogs, forums, and
other online sites.

You are correct, the warranty is carried by the system and if the
ownership has been transferred it should be active for you.

If you can email me the service tag of the system I can look into this
and make sure everything is corrected for you. You can reach me at
Customer_Advocate@Dell.com. Please include my first name, Todd, in
the subject line of the message so it can quickly be routed through to
me and I'll be glad to help you get this straightened out.

Thank you,

Todd

Customer Advocate
Dell, Inc.

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/11/19/3648.aspx

So, did you get the difficulty taken care of Andrew?

Were you able to contact the original owner?

As I said before, I am not trying to be suspicious, and I agree that
Dell practices the delay then deny process for their warranty claims,
I used to be a Dell service provider, however I terminated that
relationship for reasons too numerous to mention. I jus read
completely through everything I could find on dells web site, and have
found NOTHING that makes reference to refurbished products being
denied warranty on third owners. Dont give up. Do anything necessary
to force Dell into honoring their warranty.

FWIW, it seems that the customer advocates only seem to support dell,
not the customer.

First, a correction to your letter. "I believe the warranty follows
the equipment and not the owner." You may want to believe this all
you want, but no warranty has the requirement to follow the product.
I've worked with many products over the years that require the product
be purchased from an authorized reseller. If the product is not, it
is not under warranty regardless of the time frame. These same
products may also not allow for a warranty to be transfered.

As I carefully reread your letter, I noticed something very
interesting. You've stated you completed a "change of ownership" and
that you received an e-mail stating that "the transfer of ownership
has been completed and that I was now the owner [on record]". But
realize that at no time does any of this speak of transferring the
warranty, only changing Dell's records as to whom the computer
belongs. This may mean the warranty has not been transfered to you
and it may not be up to you to transfer said warranty. It may be up
to the person who originally purchased the computer.

If the original owner is okay with having the warranty transfered, I
would get him/her on it immediately. Having it delayed further may
mean the warranty expires.

This doesn't, however, mean that the problem the computer is having is
necessarily covered under warranty.

Hi Andrew, I too have had a horrible experience with Dell's warranty
service. It's almost as if they want to try ANYTHING to declare a
warranty not valid.

I know it requires a lot of time and that you shouldn't have to do it,
but you need to block out a full day (soon) to stay on the phone with
them until you have a resolution agreement.

Escalate your calls and ask for supervisors and managers. If you have
to, do the old "Gee, you've been wonderful with your service to me
today. May I have your supervisors telephone number and email address
to send a compliment about you?"

28 days and counting. With each passing day you should become more and
more of a nuisance to make sure you get repairs needed while under
warranty. Once the warranty window closes, you'll pretty much be
screwed. Uhh.. I mean out of luck.

My old Dell Laptop rocked and I referred at least two other people to
their site to purchase their own notebooks. Two more purchases later,
I have avoided Dell simply because of their horrible track record
regarding warranty repairs. So far, so good, with HP.

Be a Tiger; go get 'em! Best of luck.

Andrew, I feel your pain. Dell tried to pull the same stunt on me. My
husband is in the military, and we were able to purchase our Dell
laptop through a discount arrangement they have with AAFES (Army-Air
Force Exchange Services). When my hard drive died, the first person I
spoke to a Dell was very helpful, but when subsequent problems
occurred, they tried to argue that since I purchased the laptop
through AAFES, the United States Government was the "real" owner of my
laptop and that they could no longer speak to me about it!

I followed the instructions to transfer ownership as well, and in the
day or so between that conversation and the transference, my warranty
expired.

Although my current problem was a continuation of the problem that
began under warranty, they declared that since I was no longer under
warranty, I would have to pay $49 to receive any assistance via phone.


So good luck with your situation Andrew. In my case, I took the laptop
to Circuit City, where they fixed my problem for thirty bucks and a
whole lot less headache. I hope you fare better.