I recently purchased a new laptop from Dell. Last week it started to blue screen, shutdown and restart for no apparent reason. I then noticed it also did this when disconecting my printer and Iphone. I contacted Dell technical support this morning and they guided me through a harware diagnostics check. This all came back ok so was told it was probably a vista operating system issue. I was put through to the tech dept that deals with software issues and explained the problem. The guy knew exactly what was wrong and said it was because of an update that that was issued by microsoft which my laptop automatically downloaded. He said that he can fix it by remote login but I had to pay £59.00 as the problem is not with the hardware but the software and the warranty does not cover software. I was a bit shocked by this as the laptop is only a few weeks old. I reluctantly paid over the phone as I need it working for my work. Anyway the laptop is now fixed and works fine and the guy said that Microsoft are working on the tech issue. Im not happy that I had to pay £59 and probably should have thought about it longer before handing over the cash. Where do I stand on this? Who is at fault and can I get my £59 back from Dell.
can I get my £59 back from Dell
You could write to Tony Blair and ask him to put it on his list of things to do right after sorting out world peace and ending famine.
you've no chance.
hmm. most likely MS would indeed have fixed it if you'd waited, or dell would have released an update themselves. if it was a known issue then i would have thought that dell could have documented it and let customers have that info. i'd go back to someone at customer support and try for your money back. if the issues was isolated to dell's machines then there was obviously some dell specific compatability problem with an OS they supplied which you would think incumbent on them to address FOC. keep persisting with dell. a company like theirs will probably yield after a while if you stay polite and keep going up through the organisation. failing that write to the MD for his personal attention, and failing that go to trading standards.
You may want to run a custom install next time and hide the update which caused the issue.
the obvious answer was to call MS to get it fixed at their expense.
As much as it must wind you up, Dell are perfectly correct that the fault has come about due to MS installing the patch. The correct way i would suggest the Tech/you should have gone about it is by asking the tech the patch code that has been applied that is causing the issue and then contacting MS and asking to remove that patch he has identified.
The reality is he has provided a service MS should have provided (and is he was a decent tech he would have given you MS number and said "call them and ask them to walk you though removing patch MS0071" or whatever it was called). i suppose everything is easy in hindsight to criticise, little shocked that the dell guy didn't point you to MS but Dell run a business.
yeah, poor show from the dell guy but he's there to make money for his company i guess..
would a google of the issue have yielded any results? you'd be surprised whats out there about various issues and given that Del-boy (see what i did there?) knew what was wrong its likely not an isolated case.
Its no use now but worth remembering in future, tech geeks will blog about any old crap and are usually good at documenting the fix.
I run a Dell laptop. I get about one blue screen crash per week. Always gives a different fault. I'm so used to them that I ignore them. I've had the machine checked, and all the hardware is perfect. It's a software glitch to do with Vista. Been like this for 15 months.
(I do make sure that everything important is regularly backed up!)