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Jim's Dell Laptop Debacle - Final Words

Well, I gave Dell two weeks to find a middle ground with me regarding my issue a month ago with my Dell laptop and the Next Day Service I purchased but did not receive. Here's an update and my closing remarks (thank you, readers, for being patient with me while I tried to resolve this problem and share the results with my blog readers).

* Total cost of Next Day Service fee: $168.00
* Total time to repair Laptop: June 10 to June 22 - 7 business days, not counting day it died and day it was repaired

* Total billable hours lost: 11 (really 22 but I was able to use my Backup PC for some of my work)
* Value of work lost: $1100.00 (two small editing assignments lost, too - estimated around $200-300 each)

Last week, Dell offered me a 17% discount on my next purchase - for a $400 netbook, that comes to around $68.00 - $100 less than the cost of the Next Day Service (I politely declined the offer.)

So, here's my Final Words on the matter:

1. I will no longer be a Dell customer - no more laptops, desktops, printers... nothing.
2. I would encourage this blog's readers to seriously consider the trouble I had in getting my laptop serviced on time when considering their own purchase.
3. The small print in Dell's Next Day Service agreement, in a nutshell, says that Dell will attempt to fix your computer the Next Business Day but if they don't, tough luck.
4. Dell has lost one customer - me - and, with an average of 45,000 unique visitors to this blog each month, I'm guessing they've lost a few more. And it only cost the company $168.00 - what a deal!

I've been a Dell user since 1997 and am somewhat surprised that this issue has gone this far. I'll conclude by saying that while I've enjoyed my Dell laptop, I welcome my readers' suggestions on where to go for my next laptop.

Bye Bye, Dell.

Jim

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