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I need help with a Dell laptop warranty.


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I bought a Dell Inspiron laptop in the UK in August 2021.

Last week, the laptop died, stopped charging and eventually went out. The charger works fine but the laptop doesn't.

I'm staying with family in Brisbane and I tried to get a warranty repair through a local Dell store, but I've hit a stonewall.

 

I must purchase an extended warranty for international repair £98 for 2 years ot £76 for one year.

I'm OK with paying that, but now I have been told that it takes up to 15 business days for the warranty to be "approved" and even then, further time to get the repair done.

I can send the laptop back to the UK on UPS and ask for a local repair, but Dell UK says I am "out of warranty" and they are being evasive about giving me the UK address to send the laptop.

What are my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015?

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Dell UK are being dishonest if that is what they are telling you. It has nothing to do with a warranty and it has everything to do with the statutory rights which you enjoy under the Consumer Rights Act.

You are within six months of ownership and therefore you have a right to reject the laptop and ask for a refund if they fail to repair it.

The problem here is that you are outside the jurisdiction. You haven't told us but I imagine that you bought the laptop in the UK. I imagine it was delivered to an address in the UK.
Dell's statutory obligation would be to have it collected from you from an address in the UK but I don't think that they would have an obligation to collect it from you in Australia. I'm not sure of that – it would be an interesting argument to put in court.

Frankly it's a shame you didn't buy in Australia because I'm sure that you would have roughly the same rights as in the UK and of course you could enforce them fairly easily.

If you can arrange to send the laptop back to the UK then you can start enforcing your consumer rights obligations without any great difficulty although of course Dell won't be happy.

If this is what you would like to do then we will help you. Whatever you decide, start off by writing Dell a letter putting them on notice that as you are within the first six months of ownership, you are giving them a single opportunity to repair the laptop failing which you will insist on a full refund.

You can also refer to the conversation that you had with them in which they try to say that you were out of warranty. Tell them that you are fully aware that they have misrepresented the situation and you consider that it is merely an attempt to avoid their statutory obligations and you won't accept this and that if you are obliged to go to court you will bring this to the attention of the court.

Send that letter immediately. You can send it by email. Make preparations to send the laptop to the UK. I would suggest that the best thing to do is to send it to some trustworthy contact of yours in the UK and then eventually arrange to send it to Dell.

Having said that, I suddenly realised that I forgot to ask you who the retailer was. The entire responsibility is that of the retailer.

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did you buy it direct from dell uk?
 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

 

I bought it on eBay as a new computer sealed in the box with a service TAG.

 

I've given Dell notice of the fault to preserve the warrant period.

 

It looks like I will have to swallow the fee to transfer the warranty and they have agreed to repair it.

 

If they mess about then I'll get it repaired in the UK in the new year or press for the consumer rights act.

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So you didn't purchase it from Dell directly. In that case the consumer rights act doesn't apply because you don't have a contract with Dell.

I think I understand what is being said about the warranty – but certainly generally speaking you have no rights unless the original purchaser – the person who sold it to you has a transferable warranty which of course must be transferred to you.

As the seller a private seller or a business seller?

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Hi, 

 

Thanks for the comments and advice.

 

I didn't buy it directly from Dell. It was an ebay business seller.

 

To tie me over, I bought a Huawei MateBook 14s.

 

I'll have to pay the fee to transfer the Dell warranty from the UK and get a local Dell service centre to do the warranty repair.

 

I knew I was taking a risk buying a laptop from eBay, but it was new, latest version, top spec and going cheap.

 

It really is caveat emptor!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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It would be helpful if you would post a link to the eBay auction which sold you the laptop.

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WWW.EBAY.CO.UK

15.6" FHD+ (1920 x 1200) InfinityEdge. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4GB GDDR6 [45W]. 64GB DDR4 3200mhz (2x32GB). Dell's...

 

I'll keep you updated with the progress wit the warranty repair.

 

Im awaiting contact to take payment to extend the warranty.

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Thank you. It's clear from the auction that it is being sold with a warranty. There is nothing to indicate that the warranty is separate or has to be purchased separately.

I suggest that you undertake whatever is necessary to get the laptop repaired and we will help you sue the seller for the cost of the warranty.

You will need to sit down and paper trail. You need to make sure that the seller is notified in advance of the expenses that you are incurring on his behalf.

I suggest that you send him a note informing him of the fact that he sold you the laptop with a warranty but Dell will not honour the warranty until you pay some extra money and this was not contemplated in the contract.

Invite him to sort the matter out immediately but failing that you will undertake whatever reasonable expenses are necessary to have the laptop repaired and you will be coming to him for reimbursement.

Make it clear that this all needs to be done extremely quickly as the laptop is necessary for you and you need a response within five days or you will proceed on the basis you have outlined above.

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By the way, I realise that we are launching into a conflict-oriented approach to the seller. Have you actually approached the seller about this?

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Also you had better make sure that you got a good screenshot of that auction page including the part where it refers to the warranty. This is important evidence and you never know what might happen to it once you start mounting a challenge

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I've not approached the eBay seller, because the contact information that came with the warranty said that the warranty is with Dell.

 

I think the warranty is valid, but only in the UK. The fee I have to pay is to transfer the warranty from the UK to Australia.

 

I am not sure I can sue the seller because I did not foresee, or tell them I would be travelling.

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I suggest that you hold off taking any further action for the moment and standby for a response in an hour or two

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On 27/12/2021 at 07:51, JS3 said:

 

I knew I was taking a risk buying a laptop from eBay, but it was new, latest version, top spec and going cheap

 

 

They are not new laptops, the seller is a reseller of faulty returned laptops that they acquire. I suggest these are a bulk buy from dell rhemselves, bit like buying crated bulk returned amazon items.

 

he then selects ones to send back off to dell for paid repairing, hence a new 12mts warranty is issued by dell.

 

the history of the ebay listing evidences this in that the quantity has progressively been reduced as he sells them in the advert.

 

Dx

 

 

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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As my site team colleague as indicated, you have basically bought this laptop from a bunch of box shifters.

Of course they are bound by the consumer rights act and because you are still within six months of ownership, you have a right to give them a single opportunity to repair and failing which they should refund or replace – at your option.

Of course it's a problem that you are not in the jurisdiction at the moment. Are you returning to the UK soon?

The second problem is that you will want the laptop repaired quite quickly. The warranty that was promised with the laptop – did that need to be transferred to you or did it automatically apply to you?

If it was simply a domestic warranty and had no international effect, then you are probably right that you would need to foot the bill for its transfer. However if you wanted to proceed under the consumer rights act, then you would need to transfer the warranty but you certainly would need to get the laptop back to the seller.

All of this is complicated and will take some time and you may not want to bother. Frankly there is only a realistic chance of sorting this out according to your consumer rights if you are travelling back to UK and you can then deal with the seller directly.

You can be certain that the seller has no means to carry out any repairs or inspection of the laptop. We don't know what the seller's attitude will be if you confront them with your consumer rights. I'm afraid that I rather expect the worst.

You could communicate with the seller and tell them that the laptop has broken down and you are giving them a single opportunity to repair failing which they should refund you. I would not disclosed to them that you are outside the jurisdiction.
If they refuse – as I expect they will – then I think you could reasonably carry out the warranty transfer and then sue them for those costs and because everything is done online nowadays, you could probably start the action from where you are and conduct it by correspondence and by telephone. You need a UK address to receive documents but maybe you have friends or family in the UK who can receive correspondence from the court, open it and scan it to you very quickly.

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If I asked the seller to do the repair, I would have to ship to the UK and back, hence getting Huawei Matebook direct from Huawai store to tie me over.

I expect to go to the UK early in the New year, possibly March April and there is a Dell store neaby in Reading.

 

I transferred the warranty from the UK at the request of Dell and awaiting for them to come back to me and take payment for the transfer fee.

 

To hold my end of the consumer rights laws, paying the warranty transfer fee is cheaper than Fedex to and from the UK. Aussie customs are funny about laptops being imported, and could charge duty on its declared shipping value.

 

I have a UK address but my house is rented out. I can ask the tenants to scan mail for me.

 

Once I pay for the warranty transfer fee, do I still have a claim against the eBay seller to reclaim the fee?

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First of all, sending a letter which exercises your six month right under the consumer rights act, does not mean that you then have to follow through. It simply means that you have expressed your right and reserved it.

If the dealer steps up to the mark and immediately honours is obligations by telling you to send it to him for repair and he will get it done, then probably the fact that you aren't able to comply with that because of your present location will mean that you will have to give up on it and sort the matter out yourself and at your own expense.

On the other hand, if the dealer fails to reply or decline for some reason or other, then to a certain extent that frees you to take your own reasonable action. If the dealer either fails to reply or refuses to help, I would then send him a follow-up letter telling him that in view of his failure to honour his consumer obligations, you are making your own arrangements for the repair and you will be looking to him for reimbursement.

As long as you give him a chance to respect your consumer rights – and then as long as you notify him that his failure is putting you in a position where you are going to have to incur expenses and that you will then come back to him for reimbursement, you are on solid ground.

If he declines or ignores you, then I think you are free to go ahead and transfer the warranty or take whatever other reasonable action you need to take in order to get the laptop fixed – and then claim back from the dealer when you return to the UK.

I have said that you will need an address in UK but that will only be in case you need to start a legal action. I expect that you can probably delay the start of any legal action until you return. In the meantime, conduct everything by email – and once again don't disclose your location. It's not relevant anyway but knowing that you are in Australia might be something that the dealer would try to want to exploit

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I have emailed the seller as advised, lets see how they respond.

I have asked for them to arrange a warranty repair, or reimburse me the cost of extending the warranty.

I'll update when I have a reply.

 

Hi

sorry for the issue

the system came with Dells basic collect and return warranty, this is no their international cover, for this, the system needs Dells premium warranty

this is why they will be asking you to upgrade the warranty in AU

Regards
eComputers

No.1 for Dell on eBay
http://www.ebaystores.co.uk/ecomputersltd

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It looks as if you have specifically disclosed to them that you are not in the UK. Is that correct?

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Still doesnt absolve him from your consumer rights on owning a product thats failed within 6 mts. He should be offering to repair it foc and if that fails a full refund.

 

DX

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all.

 

I'm back asking for more help.


 

The retailer advised me that to get the laptop warranty repaired in Australia, I must transfer it to Australia then purchase an extended warranty to get the repair.

 

I have been offered a quotation to extend the warranty for £112 UK, but the quotation document smallprint says: "Device must be purchased from Australia authorised retailers for warranty extension to be valid."

 

I had previously told them I bought the laptop in the UK.

 

I asked them to waive the restriction that limits the repair to devices bought in Australia, but they have stopped replying to my emails.

 

I then emailed the seller in the UK and asked for further advice on how to get the laptop repaired, but they too have stopped answering their emails.

 

I've been without a laptop for a month, and I have now decided to buy another laptop.

 

I want to return the faulty one back to the UK retailer via FedEx and ask for a refund.

 

Am I in my rights to do that?

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You are just within the six months deadline for exercising your right to reject.

Under the consumer rights act you must give them a single opportunity to repair and if they decline or if the repair fails then you can insist on a refund.

You won't be able to get the money back for the carriage of the laptop but once it is in UK, everything should eventually be taken care of.

I would suggest that you send the following letter

Quote

Dear Sir/Mdm

Reference number XXX – laptop model number – purchased XXX date 


I'm returning this laptop which I purchased from you less than six months ago. It has developed a serious defect and will no longer work.

Please note that I am asserting my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and this means I am giving you an opportunity to repair the laptop but if you decline or if you carry out a repair which fails then I am rejecting the laptop for a full refund.

According to the legislation, you must attempt to repair within a reasonable period of time and I consider that 14 days from the receipt of the laptop is more than adequate.

If you need to communicate with me then my email address is XXX.

I have sent this laptop by fully insured tracked delivery and so I will know when you receive it.

 

Also I have taken photographs of the laptop as it is being put into the package and also of the packaging so that there is no doubt about its condition when it has been sent to you.

Yours faithfully

 

You want to be very careful that this laptop is properly packed and I would advise you to photograph it so that you protect yourself as much as possible.

Of course it is entirely possible that it could be damaged en route and that will add an extra complication. Of course it would be best if you had somebody trustworthy in UK to receive it and then send it on but I think that you said before that you simply had some tenants and frankly I don't consider that is sufficiently reliable. You really need a very close friend or a trusted family member.

It is unlikely they will be able to repair it – but it is also quite likely that they will try to quibble and shy away from their consumer obligations.

However it's important that you get into UK and you seem to appreciate that.

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That's good advice!  Photographing the laptop before repacking it.

 

I will use a laptop box and the same type of packing used by the seller.

 

I think it's best I Fedex it back to the seller because I can track it online.

 

I gave the seller an opportunity to repair, but they wanted to charge £112 for an extended warranty, but that warranty was only valid for repair for devices sold by authorised dealers in Australia. 

 

In my opinion, the seller passed up offering a repair, which, if I understand things right, enables me to return and ask for a refund.


 

If the seller demands that he repairs it?  Who is responsible for the cost of return shipping back to Australia?

 

My house in the UK is not available the tenant is a diplomat in his family.



 

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