Dell M1210 factor replacement

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Hades16x

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I'll try to make this quick so there isnt a lot of reading:

Thursday: Went to class, used my laptop on battery, lasted for 2 hours with around 30% left.
Got home Thursday to study for test Friday: battery not detected in BIOS or W7.

No harm done to my M1210 during the transit. Always careful with it.

Get on Dell online chat: Rep says battery is dead, and I must replace it. Unhappy with this answer (batteries don't just go from fine to dead), I call Dell.

During call, rep says battery is dead, must be replaced. I ask him to provide me a technical review and reason why a battery can just die. He cannot, he asks me to verify one thing: pull the battery and press the battery charge icon on it. Full Charge.

He suggests and sets up motherboard replacement.

Before call ends he of course asks if there is anything else he can do to assist me.

I ask him for my repair history on laptop.
November 2008- Tech came to my house to replace mobo.
September 2009 - Sent laptop to Dell to be diagnosed. Mobo/ram/CPU/HDD replaced.
(none of these due to accidental warranty)

-Feb/March 2010 - Tech supposed to come to replace mobo.

Then I ask for a supervisor. After about 30 minutes of a supervisor not wanting to talk to me, I get hold of one.

I explain that I am concerned that the M1210 has a bigger problem, and the quality of the referb parts going into the laptop is questionable. I continue that I am afraid that Dell will still not have my laptop fully repaired by the time my warranty expires in Sep 2010.

We discuss full replacement. M1210 is no longer shipping. He states that the laptop I would be getting will be a refurbed unit. Probably around the likes of an M1330. He tells me that the full replacement must be processed and it will take 5-10 business days. Then I will receive a call back with my options of systems.


Cliffs: M1210 is being replaced by dell for a factory refurbed newerish Dell laptop. Performance will be identical to M1210 - if not better.

So here is the questions:
Does anyone have any experience with Dells system replacement? Good/Bad/Indifferent.
I am skeptical of a refurbed laptop: Do you think I can get Dell to just credit my Dell account for the price of the M1210... with or without the price of the warranty(pro rated) to purchase a new laptop?

Do I have any rights on the system replacement choice?
IE - purchased a 9 cell battery, so the system that comes will have a 9cell battery?
etc-

Thanks,
Michael
 
You have some negotiation room, but not much. If you had a 9 cell before, you'll get a 9 cell this time as well.

EDIT: This was my experience as a customer, I'm not sure if this is what happens all the time.
 
Thank you for the quick response. Anything else you could offer to the situation - are/were you happy with your referbed unit?
 
I would not get a 1330 refurb as these had the famous 8400GS built in the board and its not if it will fail, but when. Ask for a lower speced studio 13XPS unit. Cite that the 1330's had video cards that will fail. I used to have a 1330 and mine failed after 1 year or so.
 
Not to resurrect a dead thread, but I wanted to update everyone on the situation:

No callback on info for new system: It just showed up. It was an M1340. Besides the upgrade in the graphics department, system performance was lower than M1210. The LCD had terrible backlight bleeding and the DVD drive made a terrible grinding sound.

Talked to a resolution specialist - he upgraded my processor to a P8700, which despite its lower L2 Cache, it is 500mhz faster than my T7200.... Not overly thrilled they denied my request for a P9xxx processor, but whatever. He also upgraded my battery to a 9 cell since the battery life was significantly less than my M1210. Remember- The replacement must be equal or comparable value.

Thursday 3/11, WLAN card died. Tech came out to replace LCD, DVD, CPU and battery. New LCD had worse backlight bleeding, and new DVD was bad. Came out Friday 3/12 to replace LCD, Mobo, WLAN, DVD, harddrive(making a sheering sound) and lower case. I guess I should say, the only thing the tech didn't replace was the CPU and battery.

New LCD had even WORSE backlight bleeding, and this new DVD drive wont even accept a disk.

I told the inhouse tech not to even call... and that I would call today.

Called today 3/12/10 and spoke with a supervisor. He was shocked that they replaced my M1210 with an EOL product. Told me that the normal replacement to the M13x0 was the Inspirion 14, but he hinted that all I had to do was request a different product and it was mine. I told him that I didn't feel that the Inspirion 14 was a good option. I told him that I purchased an XPS, and I feel that I should be replaced with an XPS. He agreed and is going to replace my XPS 1340 with an XPS 1640. Specification unknown, but the system will be a NEW, not refurbed 1640.

-Michael
 
that would be a huge upgrade. Congrats

I would add extended warranty if you could, XPS extended warranty is awesome.
 
Good to hear that you're getting a new machine. With that being said, going from 12.1 to 15.6 is a bit of a pain. :(
 
No way would I accept a 1640 as a replacement for an M1210. A mainstream, 15.6" behemoth does not compare to a lightweight, 12.1" laptop.
 
well he has the option for the studio xps 13 as well. if you do take it, just make sure they give you the 9500m GS and not the 9400m
 
Well. A few things.. I agree about the 1640 being MUCH larger than my M1210, but since I've had my 1340 for just over a week, and every part has been replaced at least once.... and the 1340 is EOL already.

Also, my needs have changed. The M1210 was for transportation. The laptop doesn't get transported too much now. I've realized that having a laptop in class is far too time consuming. I spend more time browsing the web than paying attention. I do have one class though that we program in... and a larger "desktop replacement" would probably be nice. The 1640 is also a pretty sleek laptop. Yeah it's huge, but it's not 4 inches thick with protrusions. Also, for my troubles Dell is replacing my bag I bought with my M1210 for one that fits the 1640.

@ice the 1340 has the 9500m GS in it.

Also the senior tech that came out told me (I know its been rumored off and on) that Dell is most likely discontinue the XPS line. He said with the purchase of Alienware, those laptops will be 'Dells' gaming laptop, and Dell will just carry the "higher end" Studio line. I guess that's fine. I've always found a gaming laptop to be an oxymoron. You sacrifice way too much that laptops were built for, to have a mobile gaming center that at best tries to touch a SFF desktop.

I wouldn't mind the i7 though.....
 
Cloud15x said:
Well. A few things.. I agree about the 1640 being MUCH larger than my M1210, but since I've had my 1340 for just over a week, and every part has been replaced at least once.... and the 1340 is EOL already.

Also, my needs have changed. The M1210 was for transportation. The laptop doesn't get transported too much now. I've realized that having a laptop in class is far too time consuming. I spend more time browsing the web than paying attention. I do have one class though that we program in... and a larger "desktop replacement" would probably be nice. The 1640 is also a pretty sleek laptop. Yeah it's huge, but it's not 4 inches thick with protrusions. Also, for my troubles Dell is replacing my bag I bought with my M1210 for one that fits the 1640.

@ice the 1340 has the 9500m GS in it.

Also the senior tech that came out told me (I know its been rumored off and on) that Dell is most likely discontinue the XPS line. He said with the purchase of Alienware, those laptops will be 'Dells' gaming laptop, and Dell will just carry the "higher end" Studio line. I guess that's fine. I've always found a gaming laptop to be an oxymoron. You sacrifice way too much that laptops were built for, to have a mobile gaming center that at best tries to touch a SFF desktop.

I wouldn't mind the i7 though.....
Click to expand...
Despite you going through hell, this makes me feel a LOT better about having just bought a dell with 3 years of complete care. Just picked up a new Studio 14 (i5 + Discrete graphics)

It might be an option for you too? ;)
 
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