Well I'm not surprised to see so many complaints against Dell here.

Like the others, or may I say, I have had the most harrowing experience ever.

Companies like Dell have been making a mockery of India laws, it seems. The linient laws in our country have been flouted and their loop-holes perfectly found.

Suing in our country is rather not eminent as the renumeration is clearly not worth the effort as compared with other countries like the US . Last i heard the maximum amount anyone ever got in a lawsuit was abt 2 lakh INR.

Anyway I'll go on with my complaint. It all started last Feb when I purchased a Dell laptop, from a so-called 'Dell' dealer in Nashik. On running the system for the first few hours I realised there was glitch. There was an unusual hardware pop-up (detection of new hardware when no external hardware was inserted). I tried checking in device manager whether they had failed to install any existing hardware on the system, which clearly wasn't the case. My excitement of getting a new laptop just made me overlook that fact. With a few weeks this excitement turned into a nightmare. I had repaeated crashes on the system which the Dell executives termed as software problems and stated it didn't come under warranty. Accepted. But what followed was clearly nto acceptable under any standards. The display of the system kept going off randomly. The touch-pad refused to work when I wanted it to, worked at its own will. Also, i had an instance of the touch-pad operating itself. On contacting the Dell guys yet again a person there finally agreed to take a look at what I was saying. Soon enough he got what I was saying and after 5 months of my constant pursual, I was finally getting a replacement. Over a period of 2 months the same problem kept on reapeating itself so much so that I had 3 motherboard replacements, 2 LCD replacemnts, 2 touch pad replacements and the body replaced twice. Even after all this problem kept arising and on contacting a particular customer care executive i was told that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my system even though there were Multiple part replacemnts. Finally fed-up i kept writing to them and after a toatl of about 70 odd mails an executive from Malaysia vouched to look into this matter. He tried by sending yet another replacement to my system and prmoised if the problem crept up again he would put in a request for a system replacement. He kept his word. Soon enough there were those million problems houding me and on writing back to him he checked everything out and got me my replacemnt. Just when I thought my miseries were all over, they just began. I was told that I would get the system within 8-10 days of me releasing the system. On writing to Dell to get my system collected (22nd Dec,2009) they sent a person two days later (24th Dec, 2009). Then i wrote to the executive asking her when I would get the replacement. As Dell has it their usual laid back attitude and no regards for the customer, i ogt a reply 4 days later (28th of Dec, 2009). They tell me they placed a request for a system 3 days after they took the system because the person who picked up my system failed to inform them about it. The first violation according to what Dell told me. Soon enough there were a plethora to follow. I was told I would get the system at my bangalore residence and a day after saying that I was informed I would have to travel 1500 kms to Pune to get the replacement, a place I didn't even purchase the system from. I tried to reason with the executive and explain the predicament. I was welcomed by a stern reply, that it was none of their concern. I travelled all the way from Bangalore to Pune, a city I hardly know and having no place to stay I was forced to put up in a hotel. Before I left I had the executive give me a confirmation that the system would be delivered to me by the 8th Jan 2010. Making my travel plans accordingly I left for pune. My travel costs again not bourne by Dell. Additional costs (accomodation and travel) not bourne by the company, reason for them "Dell", person at fault "Dell", person bearing the brunt "ME".
My woes havent eneded here. As expected when I go to the dealer to collect my system he gives me a blank expression and is baffled by me asking him for a system. he says he has no information about it. Well i felt like i had the ground move from under my feet. I went back home and wrote to the concerned lady demanding an explanation. As I would have it she tells me the delivery has been delayed by a few days. Mouting hotel bills and cancellation of flight tickets weren't my only headache, I wasn't sure if I would even get a new system. The lady then gave me another date saying it would be surely delivered the following day. Again as I spoke to the perosn incharge there he informed me that the system hadn't arrived. Another sleepless night, I was confused and ddnt know what to do. Finally on the third day after following up with the people who were supposed to follow up with me instead, I got to know my system arrived. I rushed to the palce to collect my laptop, I felt a sense of relief on my way but that was shortlived. As soon as I opened the box I notice that the charger hadn't been shipped along with the system. So now I was sitting with a repalcement system which was delayed by 11 months since the problems first surfacing and 15 days after I gave my system. That also makes it 4 days later than the date Dell promised to hand me over the system. On contacting the so called dealer whom I never purchased the system from but had to collect the replacemnt from, he said it was not his concern that the charger wes missing. He asked me to contact Dell at their toll free number and write to the executive whose been "co-ordinating" (on her terms) with me. As usual I got a reply to days after I wrote to her and she didn't even have the courtesy to apologize. Again i was informed it would take 8-10 days for the delivery of the missing charger. To my surprise they agreed to send it over to me instead of me going places. My happiness was shortlived yet again. As it turned out i received the charger from Dell as they promised but the only thing is they sent me "HALF THE CHARGER". They sent me the adapter without the power cord. I was terrified. It has been over a week since i'm in pune and I can't get my laptop started since they forget to put something in everytime. I was furious and fuming and wrote to the lady in concern that very instant. As i expected i never got a reply. Instead her colleague calls me after 2 days (again delayed) and apologises for not sending me the power cord with the charger. They sure think this is some kind of joke going on here.

The best part is yet to come though. When i gave in my system for replacement I was promised a system equivalent to the one I had purchased. According to the invoice and my system was valued at 39,990 INR. BUT,the new system i received was valued at 35,100 INR a difference of 4,890 INR. Also this new system was inferior to my older one in the sense that it didn't have an HDMI port nor did it feature the multimedia remote as my previous one. Another thing was that the size graphics memory chip of the system was reduced from a whoppin 128 MB to a platry 32 MB. On cocntacting the lady and speaking to ehr on this she asked me to speak to her colleague. This colleague then informed me that my previous system didn't feature anything like I mentioned above even though I have an invoice saying so. She tells me I don't know what i'm talking about. I was shocked to even hear her say such things. Now (20th of Jan) I see Dell has laptops which cost the same 39,990 INR, the same value of my previous system which I was never told about.

Today as i write this complaint it is the 20th of Jan 2010 and I still cannot operate my system as I don't have the complete charger.


What am I supposed to do at such a time? When customers are at the mercy of such MNC's taking advantage and mis-usng their so called authority. I hope to get some respite in this matter.