Slashdot Mirror
Dell Laptop Burns House Down
Nuclear Elephant writes "The Consumerist is running a story about a house burned down by a Dell laptop. 'My 130-year-old former farm house was engulfed in flames, with thick dark smoke pouring out of the windows and roof... Hours later, after investigation the fire marshal investigator took me aside asked me if I had a laptop computer. Yes — I told him I had a Dell Inspiron 1200.' It was determined that the laptop, battery, or cord malfunctioned after its owner left for work, leaving the fire to spread through the entire house. All attempts to contact Dell have failed. 'I have tried to call Dell to at least notify them of my problems, but each time I have called I get transferred into an endless loop of "Joe" or "Alan" all speaking a delectable version of English I presume emanates from Bangalore. I have been outright hung up on each time I get someone who speaks a reasonable version of English, or sounds like they might be in charge of something. Promises of call backs have gone, of course, unreturned.'"
So what do you want "Alan" to do about it? Send another replacement parts?
At this point I believe the best thing would be to call a lawyer who has experience handling cases such as this. While this one is possibly a first, I am sure there are a slew of them out there who specialize in suing companies due to damage caused by faulty manufacturing or defective parts.
In the event that this was not faulty manufacturing or parts, for example if the man frayed his cord and left it damaged, then he doesn't have a leg to stand on, otherwise it should be pretty straight forward if it shows it in the report on the fire.
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Let the insurance company handle it. That is what you pay them for, they don't want to pay the claim themselves and the insurance company has the deep pockets to cover legal fees.
That's nothing, a single mp3 put my whole family in the poorhouse.
I used to know a guy who worked for the local council cutting grass. One day he was driving to a job and noticed someone trying to cut a big site full of high grass with a small domestic lawn mower. He stopped, unloaded the slasher, did the job as a favour and was on his way in five minutes.
All was fine until the guy with the mower called the council to publicly thank the employee who had helped him, wherupon all hell broke lose.
So whatever you do don't ring Dell to report this guy for being good. Dell don't want to be good and we should judge the company by its official actions, despite the fact that 99% of the people who work there are nice people who rescue kittens, etc.
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Let's get this one out of the way first: the Inspiron 1200 was not one of the models listed in the recall program.https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/
I would like to know if the battery in the defective unit was one of the batteries subject to recall. If it was, then the owner bears some responsibility.
IANAL (and this is not legal advice, yadda yadda...) but I think that, in order to prove that in court, you'd have to prove that A) the battery was one of the Sony recalled batteries B) The customer could reasonably be expected to have been aware that the battery in his laptop was one of the recalled batteries C) Despite knowing that the battery was dangerous and subject to recall, the customer did nothing to get a replacement
But more than this, the maker of the battery was likely of Sony origin and quality.
Which would only add a co-defendant in the lawsuit, if the guy were to go down that road.
And really, what is Dell supposed to say to claims of "you've burned my house down?"
Excellent point. If someone accused me of that, all I'd say is, "No comment." The next thing I'd say is, "Let's talk confidential settlement. Howzabout I give you a million dollars for your house, without admitting any liability?"
The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
Presumably you have insurance? If so, this little stunt could cost you your claim...
Insurance policies have a clause in it re: subrogation. E.g. If Dell is really at fault--the insurance company will pay you directly, and then go after Dell for the money..
BUT your policy also has a clause in it saying that you must not do anything to obstruct the insurance company's ability to subrogate. This little slashdot stunt and posting your story online may just do that.. You may have fscked yourself twice over.
Online petitions are a joke and a waste of time. To date an online petition has never changed anything. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.ht m
I'm sure it will work great. :\
Bah, this has nothing to do with looking out for his interests and getting fair compensation for his loss. His homeowner's insurance company is already handling it, and if he wants to recover damages not covered by his insurance, he knows the next step is to call a lawyer, not Dell.
So, if he knows this (and I think it's safe to assume he does), why is he calling Dell? A house burning down is not like a hard drive dying. Calling them on and the phone and expecting to have a casual chat about a matter relating to insurance claims and possible legal action is asinine and simply obnoxious. "Notify" them? Gimme a break. No wonder they hung up on him. It's the only safe thing to do when a guy calls you repeatedly and fishes for comments about an issue that may be discussed in court.
I'm sure the guy is taking appropriate steps to protect his interests. This stuff about calling Dell is nothing but entertainment; it's completely irrelevant to resolving the matter, and he knows it. He's just wasting their time and trying to embarrass them.
First, STFU in public about what happened. Not online, definitely not to the news media. Anything you say, especially if you speculate as to the cause, could come back to haunt you if this ever goes to trial.
Repeat "no comment" to yourself aloud a few hundred times to get used to it.
Next, call your insurance company. Let them sort it out. Let their lawyers fight it out with Dell if the laptop is determined to be the cause.
We don't let lawyers write code, by the same token, you shouldn't try to handle this with Dell yourself. You shouldn't be contacting them at all.
Got your money's worth for the $400 warranty?
Sounds more like you got screwed on the original purchase.
This idea was invented by Shampoo.
It sounds like he got escalated multiple times. But what could they do for him? Any company will route you to someone who will take down a complaint. ("I'd like to make a complaint" has never failed for me.) But that's not what he wanted to do. Any company will route you to the legal department if you have something legal to say... but he didn't. He didn't want to initiate any official process, because he's quite sensibly going to leave that to his insurance company and possibly his lawyer, if it comes to that.
In fact, he says he only wanted to "notify" them of his "problems," which he was surely able to do. It only takes thirty seconds to tell the story, so he probably "notified" half the people he talked to. There's no explanation of why he kept calling, who he was trying to reach, or what kind of satisfaction he wanted from them.
So what should Dell have done? Transfer him to the legal department -- no, he wasn't calling with any legal business. (He was probably offered the option anyway.) Let him tell his tale to a non-lawyer -- fine, he did. Have a non-lawyer discuss or even acknowledge what he said -- no way in hell.
That's the point. There was no right department because there was nothing they could do for him. He can't even clearly say what it was he wanted. That's a pretty good way to get transferred around aimlessly and hung up on, especially if you get escalated to busy people who can tell you have no clear aim in calling.
Another good way to get hung up on is to badger people about something they've told you they can't discuss. Suppose you were in a car accident and the other guy kept calling you and asking to talk about his medical problems. Wouldn't you start hanging up on him?