Do Manufacturers Adequately Support Their Products?

Chris Edwards asks: "I've been having quite a few problems with Dell support recently, and would like to ask the Slashdot community a question. To what extent should computer manufacturers support their product? I own a Dell Inspiron 7500 laptop, which has been plagued with problems since the day I purchased it. The Inspiron 7k series were the first from Dell to take advantage of the new 15"/15.4" screens that had become available. They made one very tiny mistake; they didn't change the hinges to support these gigantic LCDs. The hinges on my laptop have broken four times since I purchased it two years ago. To put this into perspective: 8% of the time that I've owned my laptop, it's been in for repair. Should Dell just replace the laptop? Their support department doesn't think so; what do you think?" Dell isn't the only guilty party here. I'm sure you all have had your share of hardware support stories, the recent Ask Slashdot on IBM Deskstars is another example of this. Which manufacturers have a real bad track record of this kind of behavior?

Comments

The law is your friend.

[Anton Anatopopov]

At least in the United Kingdom it is. I don't know about the USA, but over here if Dell pulled this BS, you would be able to take them to court under the 'Sale of Goods' act.

It would not even cost you anything, since we have something called a 'Small Claims court' which deals with consumer disputes such as this.

I don't know if you have such a thing over there. Another angle to try would be the credit card company. In the UK, the credit card company is jointly liable for anything you purchase with it. So there is another avenue to explore.

Finally, how the hell can they claim that a laptop display with three or less broken pixels is 'acceptable' ? You can bet that Michael Dell's laptop screen has all its pixels functioning.

As in all things, the squeaky gear gets the grease, so complain, complain loudly, complain often. Make it cost-ineffective for them to mess you around.

Re:The law is your friend.

[MrResistor]

No Lawyers allowed where I'm at (Nevada County, California). My Dad has been in small claims court a couple of times, so I know that for a fact. Small claims has become his favorite threat against companies that are trying to screw him (most recently Earthlink). They always laugh and say something like "Fine, my Lawyers will squash you like a bug " (I'm paraphrasing, of course), but they always seem to change their tune when he politely explains to them that there are no lawyers allowed and if they don't show up they lose and that he doesn't care that they live in Chicago or where ever.

It's fun to watch actually. He's not really aggressive or litigious, but he won't let somebody screw him over, particularly big companies who are used to walking all over the common man.