The Vent and Rant Thread

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

They are similar. They are both based on European regulations and guidelines.

The store has a convoluted procedure:
- Report the defect to us
- Call the manufacturer
- Get the ticket number of the call
- Report back to us with the ticket number
- If the manufacturer says the device is defective, we'll replace it.

Now the store states that they have followed up with Brother, and that Brother says that they are denying a direct replacement. I don't believe that. They keyboard doesn't work. Several keys either don't register, or hang (keep registering indefinitely). How much more defective do you want it to be?

It sounds like it's time to stop playing their games and to demand a refund, and then buy it somewhere else. Perhaps they're just trying to string you along until after the 7 or 14 days you have to reject it as unfit and get a refund.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

He was finally happy, although it took him another 15 minutes to arrange a repair. Tomorrow, someone will come to replace the SSD. Hopefully, that'll be enough. I just hope I don't have to call again to have the mainboard replaced...

I had an issue like that a while back that was mainboard related. My previous desktop, built from components, required an emergency mainboard replacement. There was a place in walking distance of me that sold them.

The replacement, alas , handled 4 IDE devices, and I had more than that. I also had some PCI-IDE adapters that added additional IDE connectors, and I used one to connect additional drives. It took fiddling to get things right, because the CD could not be booted from unless it was plugged into a mainboard connector, so some thought about what plugged in where was needed. But I got it figured out and it seemed to work.

The problem was that they weren't kidding about 4 IDE devices. Things would work for a while, but at some port, a drive connected through the PCI-IDE card would simply drop out of the system. I dual boot Windows and Linux, and my preference is to have OSes on separate drives. Ubuntu was installed on its own drive, connected through the IDE card. I had that drive drop out while I was in Ubuntu. Ubuntu does everything in RAM if it can, so I didn't even notice the drive had dropped out until updates were failing because the filesystem they were trying to be written to didn't exist.

I could only imagine the consequences if the Windows drive had gone away...

Oh, and regarding the Brother label printer? The store basically says: "You just call the manufacturer again and arrange a repair. Bye."

I've filed a complaint and given them another chance to handle this properly. If they don't, this will be my last purchase there, and I'll file an official complaint with the appropriate consumer authorities (for what good it'll do). I don't have the time to start a legal battle to get an €84 device repaired/replaced. Unfortunately, it's more economical to send it to the manufacturer.

Is the store stand alone or part of a chain? It sounds like they just couldn't be bothered to process a return. If they are part of as chain, a stiff complaint to the chain my help. If they are an independent, a complaint to the owner. I'd do it as an actual printed snail-mail letter, informing them their service was unacceptable, and they'd lost my custom and I would tell everyone else I knew to avoid them as well.

If nothing else, the response should be amusing.
______
Dennis

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Perhaps they're just trying to string you along until after the 7 or 14 days you have to reject it as unfit and get a refund.

That is not possible. I have reported this issue within the 8 days they state in their own procedure. That is the date that will count if this would ever go to court. It's the same with warranties: if the problem was reported 2 days before the end of the warranty, and arranging the repair and such takes 3 days or more, the product is still within warranty.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I had an issue like that a while back that was mainboard related. My previous desktop, built from components, required an emergency mainboard replacement. There was a place in walking distance of me that sold them.

Fortunately, this is not a home built desktop. It's a workstation class laptop (A Dell Precision 7510, their very latest model.) It has next business day on-site repair, and it is completely as they configured it, except for the fact that I upgraded Windows 7 to 10.

I'm just hoping that it's the actual SSD that is failing and not the M.2 slot on the mainboard itself; if the device appears in the UEFI and/or diagnostics, it does pass the test.

It could also be a problem with the latest BIOS/UEFI I installed a few days ago. I upgraded because it had a long list of fixes, among those (more) fixes for a Skylake Intel Graphics card / Windows 10 driver problem. (Skylake CPU's under Windows 10 are having problems with the Intel driver crashing; new drivers and BIOS fixes have been/are being released.)

Is the store stand alone or part of a chain? It sounds like they just couldn't be bothered to process a return. If they are part of as chain, a stiff complaint to the chain my help. If they are an independent, a complaint to the owner. I'd do it as an actual printed snail-mail letter, informing them their service was unacceptable, and they'd lost my custom and I would tell everyone else I knew to avoid them as well.

If nothing else, the response should be amusing.

Independent store. It has a parent company though, which basically is just a holding running different stores. One does printers and supplies, another does batteries and so forth. Maybe I could send a letter to that parent company, but I don't think they care about one customer. This company is fracking huge; maybe even the biggest seller of printers and printer supplies in the Netherlands.

[Katsunami]

"Hi, it's me. I've reported a laptop with a broken SSD, Service Tag XXYYZZ. A technician would call me today, regarding the time he would arrive for replacement. It's 15:45. I've had no calls, and nobody showed up."
- "Hmm.. Heheh... uuh... one moment... Ah, here's the data. Unfortunately, the part your laptop needs is not available until tomorrow."
"Well... so much for Next Business Day repair. Why didn't the technician give me a call? It was said I would be called, even if replacement was not possible for one reason or another. I've been stuck at this address since 9:00 because of this. (*)"
- "Mumble mumble... I don't know. The technician should have called. Sorry. But he *will* come tomorrow!"

Why can't anybody follow rules, contracts or laws, not even their own? Why guarantee anything such as Next Business Day Repair if you can't follow it up? I know, I'm just one guy with one laptop, but this thing costs *serious money* (like 5 times the price of a budget laptop) and because of that, NBD was part of the deal.

This is how I'm feeling right now regarding companies (and people) actually not doing what they should be doing, either by law or their own promises:



(*) If that guy had called, I could have done some grocery shopping, and other shit I need/want to arrange outside of the house. Spending 2 out of 5 days of a holiday waiting for a repair technician is not what I call fun or productive.

[WT Sharpe]

So this is Dell technicians you're dealing with? Remind me not to buy a Dell!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

So this is Dell technicians you're dealing with? Remind me not to buy a Dell!

As far as I know, the technicians are not from Dell. In the past, repairs were outsourced to Getronics (in the Netherlands), but this may have changed.

Actually, even the helpdesk might actually not be Dell; most big companies outsource that as well.

[Katsunami]

Update:

The SSD has been replaced. The repair technician was a nice guy, but I found it a bit funny that he had some mental problems coming to terms with the fact that the SSD, the one with the operating system, would NOT Drive 0. (It's just the BIOS/UEFI numbering SATA before M.2.)

I hope replacement of the drive is enough, and that I don't have to call again to have the mainboard replaced. *Re-imaging....*

Regarding the label printer: The store basically says: "This is our procedure <link>. Have a nice day. (Aka: shove it.)" So, it's a call to Brother to have this fixed, and a complaint to ACM.

[Katsunami]

When it rains, it pours

My sister called, half-panicked, that her external hard drive wasn't recognized by the computer. So I told her: "That's not a problem; it's just the backup. Get a new drive, and copy everything to it."

But (almost as expected...), she always removes all data from the laptop, despite the fact that I've told her to NOT to do that. Doing so makes the external drive the only copy, and I told her repeatedly that this is *very dangerous*.

"Data that is only stored in one location, is never safe," I told her. Several times. But she didn't listen and only kept one copy on one drive.

And now it's broken, with all the pictures and movies of the kids on it. Lost.

I said I'd take a look at the drive to see what I could to. Mom brought it over, almost dead and making screeching noises. (The drive that is; Mom's fine.) Computer didn't see it. Thinking it might be an issue with the hard drive's housing/SATA board, I cracked it open (destroying it in the process) and removed the drive. It was a Samsung drive, with a custom board in it, that only had a USB-connector; so no way to put it into a laptop or connect it to a SATA port.

Thus, me being very evil, I called my sister and told her that everything on the drive was probably lost, and that she should have listened and kept the files on the laptop as well. Panic and devastation ensued.

I told her that I would try some stuff, but if that failed, she could only recover the stuff Mom still had, and that would be it.

But that was not really true.
I lied, because I'm evil.

And I have to keep my reputation as a miracle worker, of course.



I create an image of that laptop every half a year, using Image for Linux, by Terabyte Unlimited. (It works like Ghost 2003 and before did; it basically puts an entire hard drive or partition into a compressed file.) I only tell my sister that I can use it to quickly reinstall the laptop if that is ever needed.

Obviously, I created an image of that notebook in July last year, and I knew that all along. Also, obviously, I have that image, and several backups as well.

Also, while I personally don't use Dropbox, my sister uses it to share files with my Mom. (Kids... pictures, movies... too much to e-mail). What they don't know, is that *I* am also part of that group, and thus receive those files as well, and thus they are backed up. (They're copied out of the Dropbox folder in case someone deletes them and I lose them through syncing.)

I've ordered a new hard drive (which my sister is obviously going to pay for), and I told her I'd see how many files I could recover from the broken drive and my Mom's laptop.

When the drive arrives tomorrow, I'll pull the files out of the image, supplement them with the files from my Dropbox folder/backup, and then tell my sister I was able to recover everything from the dead hard drive with a lot of work and even more luck.

Maybe the shock was big enough, so she'll now be smart enough to LISTEN, and put the files onto the laptop as well.

[Freeshadow]

I d karma you if I could.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

I d karma you if I could.

I know. Half of my karma seems to come from you

Would you prefer a Paypal donation link? You can use that indefinitely, without having to give donations to others in between uses

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I know. Half of my karma seems to come from you

Would you prefer a Paypal donation link? You can use that indefinitely, without having to give donations to others in between uses

I'll pass on that, but pass on some Karma for sure.

[red_phoenix]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I know. Half of my karma seems to come from you

Would you prefer a Paypal donation link? You can use that indefinitely, without having to give donations to others in between uses

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'll pass on that, but pass on some Karma for sure.

[Freeshadow]

I have no PayPal lint, but you can have some pocket lint.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

When the drive arrives tomorrow, I'll pull the files out of the image, supplement them with the files from my Dropbox folder/backup, and then tell my sister I was able to recover everything from the dead hard drive with a lot of work and even more luck.

Maybe you should say you think you restored most of the files? In case you did manage to miss a few. Besides, it'll keep her nervous, which is what you want, for future behavior!

But on the whole, Well Played, friend!