I have been a Dell buyer for my own business and the over 300 of my customers for over 15 years. I bought an XPS L702x (17 inch i-7 2.7GHz with 8GB RAM) from the Dell Outlet Store for approximately 780 Dollars. It only had a 90 Day warranty which did not concern me as I assumed Dell had my back if something strange should occur. As I head my on IT business (the Barbers kids always have the worst haircuts), my wife's new Dell took the "backseat" to my many customers and to her credit she very seldomly complains.
She mentions to me that the battery won't charge so I just went to the Dell website and spent 150 bucks on a new AC adapter for her laptop assuming that would fix her issue. Note Laptop and the original adapter both came from the Dell Outlet store and NO other AC power adapter has been used on it since it was delivered to us.
After some time I decided to do maintenance on my wife's XPS L702x and discovered the real issue. At this point the 90 Day warranty was expired. I researched this and discovered exclusive only to Dell laptops a proprietary chip resides on the Motherboard that has one sole purpose; to not allow non-Dell product (batteries and AC adapters) to function in a Dell laptop.
I was sure Dell would fix this for us. I paid 780 bucks for this barely over three months ago. I call Dell support. I was told Yes, "They were familiar with my issue. It indeed was a known defect within Dell Motherboards. After a few minutes he comes back with, "Your only option is to buy a new Motherboard for about 350 Dollars"
You see there were extended warranties for a laundry-list of Motherboards but my XPS L702x was not on the list. Not on the list? This is a problem that only happens to Dell laptops containing a delicate proprietary chip (that fails by the hundreds or thousands) by forum searches! Dell did not think that a laptop sold by the Dell Outlet store and only used on Dell products failing due to a delicate proprietary chip created and installed by Dell was not Dell's responsibility.
Years ago I had an issue with Dell. It was not handled by the usual tech support so I simply called Dell Corporate office and brazingly asked for the Vice President's office. Moments later an articulate bright voice responded, "Hello, this is Michael, may I be of assistance?" To this day I believe I was speaking directly with Michael Dell but cannot be sure as I did not ask. Whomever he was, he resolved my issues and said whenever some "swims upstream" as I had it indicates their is a major issue. He assured me that this would not happen to anyone else and I left very impressed.
In 2014 when my XPS L702x issue occurred I tried to call Dell Corporate offices. Guess what? They are not posted anywhere I could find on the Internet! Yep they solved that fish "swimming upstream" issue by hiding the creek! It says a lot about a company that refuses calls to their corporate offices. The message I got and even saw reflected in a Dell Forum member (of whom is on his SECOND replacement Motherboard due to that "delicate proprietary chip" is "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on ME".
At the very least a respectable company as Dell at least once was, would simply resolve this by building a BIOS version that allowed these hundreds if not thousands of defective Motherboards to charge. If that was not possible they would have simply sent all customers owning a defective Motherboard a simple dongle that would interface with the Dell battery and the Dell AC adapter outside the laptop.
Respectable companies take ownership. I do at markwindsor dot net. I have been in business for over 15 years and I have no current disappointed customers and can count all since I began on one hand.
Mark Windsor
