View Full Version : Refurbished Dell XPS Laptop
Hey all,
Just wondering if anyone else out there has bought a refurbished Dell laptop from Aria that they've had to send back; and if so, what their experiences were?
I bought a rather fantastically priced Dell XPS M1710 just last week, only to discover when it was delivered to me that the graphics card was kaput - I tried a whole ton of different drivers, old and new, official and otherwise, on both XP and Vista, and no matter what I tried, after installing the drivers, the screen starts to flicker black and then back to the desktop again, as if trying to change resolution, and the text on the screen begins to come out all garbled - shortly after that weird coloured pixels start popping up and system performance becomes glitchy, and shortly after THAT the system becomes completely unusable as all the aforementioned problems continue to get worse.
So I got my RMA number, was as detailed as I could be about the issue, and got my laptop sent off about midday last saturday. Havn't heard anything back from Aria yet, but I suppose it may be early days.
Anyway, what I'm really asking here is if anyone has had a similar experience, and if so, what can I expect to happen next? I'd very much like to continue to offer Aria my custom, should they decide to fix and repair the laptop and send it back to me - or even replace the part, but I don't know how realistic this expectation is. I must admit I will be a little dissapointed if I'm just offered my money back - but at least if that happens, they will have identified a problem that managed to completely slip through the quality assurance net before the laptop was delivered to me in the first place (whomever's quality assurance team that would be - Aria or Dells'), for which they will at least recieve my gratitude. Frankly I found the oversight of the problem a little baffling, as I'd managed to identify and diagnose the problem myself in an hour or two; and I wouldn't call myself an expert as much as your average enthusiast. Water under the bridge now I suppose!
So, if anyone has had similar problems to mine, or even if you just have a fairly good idea of what I can expect from Aria, please, by all means, feel free to chip in :)
Thanks for reading!
EDIT: For reference, and just in case anyone working at Aria happens to stumble across this thread and decides to show an interest:
Return number : RMA214831
Item description : http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Laptops/Dell+XPS+M1710+Core+2+Duo+Processor+T7400+2.16+GHz +?productId=33125
it's not arrived yet, or if it has it's not been booked in yet. Will get back to you with an update. Unfortunately we are very busy at the moment so there may be a delay.
Thanks for the quick response Jon! :) It's always nice to get direct feedback :)
not a problem, if I see it I'll keep you updated... seeing how I will probably be testing it you should check back here every so often lol
Your laptop is here but is yet to be booked on
Excellent! Thanks for the update :)
it is being booked on now and is going to be passed to the laptop repair guys
Yep, just got the email :) Thanks for all the updates; really helpful :)
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
... What about now? Are we there?
erm, i'll try finding out
Can't help but notice you guys have just listed a whole bunch more M1710's - I only mention this because if you guys do decide the laptop I returned is faulty, my immediate assumption is you'd rather refund my money or offer me a replacement, than buy new parts to fix the one I sent in - and I think theres a refurb there with identical stats... :)
... of course, maybe I'm wrong and you'd rather fix and return the one I bought already, in which case of course, feel free to ignore this :)
Right I've just been to look in the laptop clinic where your laptop is being repaired. Looks like it is still being worked on, but no one is in at the moment so I will ask them when they appear.
As an outside observer to this post, I've got to say I'm saddened by the lack of communication going on here. I've been in the same boat before, and when you just want to be able to use [computer part/componen here], nothing is worse than having to send it back and then having to wait days/weeks/months whilst being ignored.
My apologies Jyon, may your laptop be fixed quickly and promptly.
dont worry it's not being ignored... I will chase it up on monday as the laptop repair guys arent in on a saturday... its highly unusual for me to be in on a Saturday!
So, any news?
When you say it's being worked on, what do you mean exactly? Are they fixing it?
as far as I can tell they are... you should have had a reply from customer services?
Not a thing besides the email mentioned earlier in this thread, acknowledging my laptop had been recieved and that I should expect a response in 3-5 days. That was about three weeks ago - Ive sent several emails in to the customer service address, but I still have no idea what is going on with my purchase. Ive yet to recieve anything even acknowledging the fault, let alone any information about what you guys are doing with it.
well in that email it should say that in extreme circumstances it may take up to 28 days for it to be sorted.
Strange as someone from customer services phoned us to ask where it was...
Its still being worked on as far as I know.
It does indeed say that in the email - but my assumption was that extreme circumstances refered to when you guys had a backlog of returns to look at - meaning my laptop would sit in a queue waiting to be looked at, which of course would be something out of your reasonable control and therefore understandable. The confusion sets in, however, when you mention that its actively being worked on... which seems to suggest that you have at least gotten around to investigating the fault, and the thought comes to mind that if that was so, surely by now you would have at least discovered the issue for yourselves, and would therefore be in a position to tell me whats next. If you just havnt gotten around to it yet, that of course is something else - I fully accept that analysis and repairs take time, im just a little confused as to whether or not the reason for the delay is because the problem is being actively fixed, or whether its because it hasnt even been checked yet.
i can assure you that at the moment the laptop repair guys are actually working on your laptop and as soon as they have got a resolution for the problem I will let you know.
You are quite well within your rights to request a refund as you only had it a couple of days, or an exchange/credit if you dont want to wait any longer :)
i can assure you that at the moment the laptop repair guys are actually working on your laptop and as soon as they have got a resolution for the problem I will let you know.
You are quite well within your rights to request a refund as you only had it a couple of days, or an exchange/credit if you dont want to wait any longer :)
Actually, to the contrary, my preference is a repair; I was just waiting to hear from Aria to see if that was even possible - I've no clue what your policy is for returns of this nature (refurbs). I have no problems swapping the machine for another system just like it; which is why I was mentioning I noticed you got a whole bunch more stock of those M1710 refurbs a few posts back - but I'm yet to have these options presented to me; hence my chasing the issue up :)
to be honest, you'd probably be better calling customer services to see if any of those we have in stock now match the spec of your original laptop
The one I ordered and returned :
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Laptops/Dell+XPS+M1710+Core+2+Duo+Processor+T7400+2.16+GHz +?productId=33125
The one you have in stock right now :
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Laptops/Refurbished/Dell+XPS+M1710+Core+2+Duo+Processor+T7400+2.16+GHz +Laptop+?productId=33520
I got lucky with the first one in that it just happened to have the black casing instead of the red one; the item description dosn't provide this detail (and black is my preference)... but aside from the chance it could be in my second choice of colour, the stats that I can see are identical :)
Or you could bump me up a few CPU hertz and ram sticks and give me this one, if you felt like making a gesture for the delays... : http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Laptops/Refurbished/Dell+XPS+M1710+Core+2+Duo+Processor+T7600+%282.33+ GHz%29+Laptop+?productId=33527 ;)
somehow I dont think the boss would allow a £100 difference to go unnoticed... like I said you'd be better off ringing customer services as they can make the decisions
Yeah I figured.
Worth a shot though, right? ;) Lol.
On a serious note - is there any-one I can email directly rather than going through the customer services email? I'm at work at the moment; can't really phone; and I'm always at work during your service hours, so it's never particularly easy :(
unfortunately not as I dont know who is in at any particular time
Alrighty; well at any rate, thanks for your help this morning - I'll try and contact customer services at some point today. You don't mind me referring whoever I end up talking to to this thread, do you? Just might save a little time :)
no probs :) i'll even put the link in your notes :)
Brilliant, thanks again :)
Got the replacement through.
Whaddya know? It's broke. /hugeSigh
It's not quite as broke as the last one - at least I can use the goddamn windows UI at full resolution this time... no, this one just explodes after 30 seconds of full 3D because the temperature soars. The GPU idles at 75 degrees, and then shoots over 100 degrees after about 20-30 seconds of playing any game, and then the whole machine automatically shuts itself off after a minute to protect itself. Wonderful :/ And this is while sitting on a laptop cooling mat too, mind you, in a cool room - no vents blocked in any way - and even with the fans manually switched to full power, the result is the same: official drivers, unofficial drivers, dell drivers, old drivers, new drivers... and with every game I tested. Some "gaming" laptop :/
So I've asked for a full refund at this point... really don't feel like waiting another whole month for another laptop that will no doubt also be faulty. Can't say I'm not dissapointed with the whole experience, start to finish.
Unlucky, sounds like a duff fan or dud paste.
Sorry to hear about it!
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