Dartblog

An old post of mine, “An Open Letter to My Dell Notebook Computer,” continues to get a lot of attention. People are just fed up with shoddy computer manufacture, and they want to know they aren’t the only ones. Just a few days ago, an e-mail arrived in my inbox from Mark Egge. Mark writes:

For whatever it’s worth, I can empathize with your frustration. It seems, in fact, that there’s a manufacturing defect with the laptop. I can relate all too well to the failures to enter hibernation, creating a dry sauna in my laptop bag. Or to the non-functional volume buttons. To the epileptic scroll lock, num lock and caps lock indicator lights. And yeah— sometimes my ethernet port works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

I’m emailing you, then, to see what, if any, resolution Dell provided for your problem. I’ve had my motherboard replaced four times in my two years of ownership (it’s been the same series of problems, every time: broken volume buttons, blinking lights, and then eventually it stops coming on at all), and I’m about to have it replaced for a 5th time. I’m becoming rather exasperated.

Anyhow. I know this is rather random, but I thought I’d drop a line anyway to let you know that you aren’t the only person to have complaints with your D600, and to ask if Dell eventually replaced your unit. Did they?

No, Dell did not replace my unit. Even though I spent an extra $300 and signed their most expensive service plan—a plan that guarantees a replacement computer even in the event of ‘accidental’ damage—Dell refused to honor the contract, and did not replace the computer.

I am now the proud owner of a sprightly, well-made Lenovo Thinkpad laptop computer.