[Resolved]  Dell — Unable to get Service

I purchased a DELL Inspiron 6000 as per following details:

Service Tag : FQGFL71
Express Service Code: [protected]
Date of Purchase : 17/09/2005
Merchant Name : AL-MAA COMPUTERS
Place of Purchase : Dubai, UAE
Amount paid : AED 5, 560.00

I do not have the original Invoice/ Receipt. However, I purchased the
Laptop using my Credit Card as per following details.

Card Type :VISA
Issuing Bank :HDFC Bank, India
Amount Charged:INR 69, 457.74
Transaction Reference:VT[protected]
Less than a year after I purchased the above Laptop, the LCD display
became defective. It displayed vertical lines of varying thicknesses and colours. At the beginning they were not causing much problem but soon
they occupied more than 70% of the screen and it was impossible to use
the display. While this defect was developing, I was on a long
international tour and could not contact any DELL Service Center.

Eventually when I returned to Bahrain where I was stationed for a
reasonably long period, I was told by the local DELL dealer that the
Warranty had expired and that I had to pay for replacement of the LCD.
At that time I managed using an external monitor and did not pursue the matter further to have the LCD replaced.

I have been in Bangalore, India for the past few months when the Laptop's Hard drive crashed. I tried to contact the DELL Service Center for necessary
repair aganst payment. After advising them my Service Tag and my name, I was surprised to be told that the Laptop was not appearing in my name as per DELL Records. I was also told that unless I "established ownership" of the
Laptop, DELL could not give me any information or provide any assistance
in having the Laptop repaired (against regular payment!). I do not plan to visit UAE soon and do not have a visiting Card of the Salespersons so that I could contact them. All I can recollect is that I purchased the Laptop from a large showroom in a prestigious Mall at Dubai. I can not he held responsible for some error that the salesperson might have made in registering ownership details with your Systems.

One of your support persons said that DELL did not have any sales outlets in UAE. I am quite scandalized by these statements.
If DELL has such stringent processes in place which incidentally I am
not aware if any other company in Electronic Consumer durable Industry
follows, it should make them known to unsuspecting customers like me who
could be trapped into this kind of situations and who might have to
suffer protracted ordeals besides losses due to business discontinuity.

I requested DELL via e-mail, to please investigate this matter and advise me the next steps. Obviously all this has happened due to some errors/ lapses. I
would like to know who are esponsible for these, what action DELL is
proposing to take and what action/ legal recourse is available to me.

To this I received a reply saying
"This request is being closed.

There is an issue with the Tags or the Account below, that prevents
ownership transfer or country to country transfer.

You will need to contact the original purchase country's, which is the
United States, customer service or financial department to discuss
resolving the issue.

Once resolved you can resubmit the transfer request, use the following
link to do so."
On explaining the position again and requesting thier action, DELL replied as follows:
Hello,

Thank you for your reply. However, there is nothing we can do for you.
You did not purchase the computer from Dell and our records show that this service tag is from the US and is on hold and cannot be transferred, there is no manufacturer warranty on this item.

You will need to work with the company that you purchased this from to see if there is any warranty from them that they will honor.

This is being closed as transfer is not possible.

Thanks, "