[Resolved]  Dell Latitude E6320 — Replacement of Faulty Laptop with another Faulty Laptop

Address:

West Delhi, Delhi

The following is text of letter sent to Mr. Ravi Gutta, Director Services Dell India on 08th August 2012. After no reply was received, the matter was forwarded to Delhi Dispute Resolution Society, Govt. of India Ministry of Law, Dept. Law, Justice & LA, New Delhi. for mediation. The Dell's dilatory tactics did not stop even there as 7/Sept/12 Dell advocate came before the society and wanted 15 days time (only to delay & frustrate the customers as usual). Thereafter the full fledged Consumer complaint is now moved to Consumer Court.:

New Delhi: 08 Aug.’12
Director Services,
Dell Computers India Pvt. Ltd.
Bangalore – 560071

RE; TECHNICAL ISSUES WITH NEW LAPTOP: SERVICE ID[protected]

Dear Mr. Ravi,
It's really very unfortunate that a Laptop delivered to me, on 20th July 2012, has been giving me problem from the very moment it was switched on for the first time. I remember having sent you a copy of the mail about the problem.

I'm mentioning the entire sequence of events/details as under:-

1. The Laptop, after having switched on for the first time, needed the details viz 'user name & password etc. After all the information was fed the screen turned blank and only hard disk LED kept blinking. These had continued for more than 90 minutes after which I had to switched it off and then switch it on again. After Dell's & Windows logo the screen again turned blank. Thereafter the matter was reported to Dell.

2. On Monday. 23rd July a service engineer visited me and after seeing the problem started the system in the 'Safe Mode' and thereafter re-started it in the normal mode. He termed it as 'Hard boot'. He did mention the same 'Hard Boot' in his service report. As a Director Services, you'll also agree that this is not exactly a 'Hard Boot'. He even had very sarcastically commented that I should have 'Hard booted' the system. The Service Engineers who could not explain me about the leaflet that had come with the system, telling about Advance Format 512e Hard Disk Drives, did sarcastically commented on my not opting to 'Hard Boot' the system.

3. Thereafter, this problem of screen turning blank after Windows logo kept appearing on every 4th - 5th boot. Another snag that came to my notice was the LCD cable error[protected] during the diagnostic test, along with Battery health of 97%. The battery health further dipped to 94% in the subsequent diagnostic tests.

4. On 26th I wrote to one Mr. Shigin, who had earlier helped me creating disk partition and also in installing Windows XP mode, about the reoccurring problem of blank screen and asked his help.

5. Having failed to receive any response, I then contacted Dell technical support on 27th July and apprised my issues to one Ms. Akshitha (Case ID[protected]. She advised me to re-install the factory image and she helped me in doing so. However the problem was not fully resolved and whenever the screen turned blank, I had to re-start the system in 'Safe mode' to run it in normal mode.

6. Having fed up with the often re-occurrence of the blank screen problem, on 29th July I again called up Dell support and spoke to one Mr. Balachander. Since the problem was related to the display and did not resolve even after restoring the factory image, Mr. Balachander suggested trying updating the video drivers. He did send me link to download the drivers. Appreciating his logical approach, I uninstalled the old drivers and updated with the latest ones. After installing the drivers the problem further aggravated and thereafter on the advise of Ms. Akshitha entire Windows had to be reinstalled.

7. After having re-installed the Windows I faced problem in re-installing the windows driver.
Since I was using the Dell driver disk for the first time and my system was running in a very low resolutions in absence of video drivers, I was not able to see the 'extract' button on the screen. When I told her that there is no button to extract the drivers, Ms. Akshitha should have told me to scroll down the windows (though the side scroll bar was not showing up). But instead she wanted to take the remote control of the system to help me in re-installing the drivers. My problem was that without having installed WLAN driver I was not in a position to connect to internet and hand over the control to her remotely. I then had to install all the drivers after downloading them in another computer and thereafter requested her for remote session. Her busy schedule and preoccupation made me request her manager, Mr. Suraj to replace her with some other Agent.

8. On my request for change, one Mr. Syed, the senior technician was deputed to help me. He remotely installed video application and few other drivers. He also installed "Seagate" free fall sensor driver for my hard disk. Though as a matter of fact my hard disk - ST9500423AS does not have that feature as per Seagates' own website. Only ST9500423ASG model has this free fall sensor. I did also tell him about another unknown device showing up in my system and on every boot the error message being displayed about the drivers not installed. Unfortunately lot of time was wasted in downloading of application during this remote session that other issues could not be tackled. I had even sent him the screen shots but received no solution.

9. Mr. Syed advised me to upgrade my A07 bios by downloading the A13 Bios from the Dell support site. About the LCD cable error, he explained me that it was not LCD but LED display in my system and the LCD error makes no different (though I totally disagree with him as all these monitors are LCD only - LED or CFL is only technology used for illumination - backlight. Regarding the Battery health, he told me that since battery is under 1 year warranty, the same can be replaced later. However when I tried upgrading the bios as per his advise, it returned error. Mr. Syed later asked me to first upgrade to A08 and then to A13. I had enough of everything; right from 20th July with this system that I do not wish to do any further upgrading.

10. The Intel i5 2520M CPU installed in this system seems to be normal one and not with vPro technology though it was specifically asked and agreed to by WUR Team(See the screen shot of Intel Processor identification utility attached to this mail).

You will surely agree with me, Mr. Ravi, that a brand new system giving all sort of problems from the day one is not a healthy sign at all. All this seen with previous bitter experience of TVS E & WIPRO engineers - one of whom put a motherboard with a vague Service Tag thereby jeopardizing my entire warranty and the other one took away the Bluetooth reader from the Palm-rest putting my integrity on stake. What more, the 14" professional carry bag sent along with this system is yet another example of poor QC on part of Dell as it has wrinkles all along the stitching lines. The photographs of this carry bag and also of the system screen showing the LCD cable error and also Battery health of 94% are being attached to this mail for your kind perusal - to help you in taking immediate decision by ordering instant replacements.

Even as of now I get blank screen once a while. I also invariably get device driver error message on every fresh boot (and not from hibernation). Windows is unable to install an important update from Creative Technology. Every time I give my OK for the said update, it fails. And then again seeks permission to install the same update.

With all these facts I wish to request you to replace the laptop and of course it's carry bag too. And for all the torture faced all these days - starting right from 7th June 2012 till date I want Dell to pay the damages to the tune of Rs. 50K; to compensate for all the harassment & torture faced and still continuing; for not only sending a defective laptop but also sending a non vPro CPU. This is a most clear "Open & Shut" case. I never ever asked for a replacement last time when your engineers failed thrice even after changing the parts worth Rs. 111K. However I now not only want immediate replacement of this brand new system but also demands Dell to pay me damages/compensation to the tune of Rs. fifty thousand in cash.

I'm already looking forward for most immediate and amicable resolution. You are most welcome to call me on my mobile anytime after 12 noon - for any clarifications and/or doubts.

Thanks,
Sincerely,

Copy to:
1. E.D & GM, Dell Computers India P Ltd Bangalore - under Registered AD cover-for kind info
2. Secretary, Delhi Consumer Dispute Resolution Society, Govt. of India, Dept. of Law & CA,
New Delhi - w.r.t the complaint No. 394889 in the above said matter.