Complaint Rating:

I am writing this letter to complain the quality of the Dell Computer products and the quality of the Dell Service.

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1705 around the end of July. Right after the product was delivered, I noticed the newly arrived computer had several serious problems. First, the LCD display contrast was way off. I noticed user could adjust the brightness of the LCD screen display. But we could not adjust its contrast. The problem became quite obvious while we were playing movies (with Window Media Player). The picture was too dark to watch while the brightness was lowered. And a layer of white fog showed up on the screen if the brightness was increased. The display brightness problem bothered us badly since we got a headache after working on the computer for more than one hour. As a result the computer is not usable at all.

I also noticed the audio output was not working properly. The sound from the build-in speaker was always muffled. The output sound was distorted and with very poor sound quality.

Additionally, I found a problem with the flash card reader. At the time I inserted the SD card into the flash memory slot, the system reported “some problem” with the drive. But the device manager claimed the flash card reader was “functioning properly”. The window explorer never reflected the existence of the drive.

I have been patiently working with Dell customer support team to resolve the problems (case # 144-589-172 and 145-093-076). Unfortunately, we are getting anywhere even three months after the computer was delivered. I have run the system diagnostics with the Dell support team and Dell technician for more than 10 times. I have updated the BIOS. I have installed several and different versions of device drivers. But, the problem persisted. Finally, Dell Support claimed the motherboard is defective.

It took another one week to see the Dell technician with the replacement motherboard. Unfortunately, the Dell Support delivered a refurbish board, and it was DEAD ON ARRIVAL. It even did not boot up after it was installed by the Dell technician, who decided to put the original motherboard back.

I call Dell customer support again complaining about the situation. I elevated the problem to the highest level possible. I was able to speak with Mr. Bernard Santos, who claimed to be the highest level manager in Dell. His title was “Manager of Support”. I specifically complained about

The quality of the Dell computer I received.
I paid the price of a new computer, and I got a refurbish board for the replacement.
The replacement board was dead on arrival. As a result I have not been able to use the computer for three months.

I spent more than three hours on the phone with Mr. Santos, and he hanged up the phone on me. I did follow up several times. My phone call was either transferred to an extension without attendance, or the line was cut off automatically. I could not believe the quality of the Dell product was so poor. And I could not believe the way Dell Customer Support treated their customers.

A week later, the Dell technician showed up with a replacement LCD display. I was told that Dell did not deliver another motherboard with the reason that Dell “had already delivered one motherboard, and it did not resolve the problem. It got to be the LCD display”. Obviously, they did not aware that the motherboard they previously delivered was dead on arrival.

The Dell technician successfully replaced the LCD display, but the problems persisted. The display contrast was still way off. The audio was still not working properly, and the flash card reader was still not functioning. I took a peek at the flash card slot. I noticed there were two pins inside the slot were bent and touching each other. I showed my discovery to the Dell technician, who agreed with me the mother board originally delivered with the computer was defective. That was the main reason why the video display, the audio and the flash card reader was not functioning properly. Blindly replacing the LCD display panel did not resolve the motherboard problem.