Frankly, I cannot believe Dell is still in business given how bad my last two experiences with them have been. In the 2000s I purchased a Dell which kept dying on me and needing parts replaced to function. Dell eventually identified my computer as one of those which had a factory defect in its heating system which was causing the battery to repeatedly dump heat into the motherboard until it was fried. After performing multiple rounds of component replacement, Dell replaced the whole machine for free, which was very nice of them, but I still made a note to never buy another Dell again because I had never in my life had a computer just repeatedly break for no reason like that. Fast forward 20 years and I was convinced by a family member to buy an Inspiron. The model seem to be well reviewed and I couldn't believe that Dell could possibly still be experiencing similar issues 20 years later and still being business. But lo and behold I had had the machine for about 4 months when it started refusing to charge. I was surprised and confused when The support person insisted on sending a technician to my house to open the machine up and tighten the power port as I had been assuming up to this point that it was an issue with the power cord. I had had plenty of power cords break on me over the decades but had never in my life had a computer's power port "come loose" such that the machine wouldn't charge and needed to be opened up and repaired mechanically. I also was unable to test whether it was the power cord or the port because Dell uses those stupid proprietary cords, which mean that you cannot charge an Inspiron using the charger cord you would use for literally any other device. So I first asked them to send me a new charger cord, but when sure enough the cord did nothing to allow my computer to turn back on. I let them come out to repair the laptop which had indeed broken.5 months later it happened AGAIN. I am currently sitting next to a dead machine that I cannot use and cannot charge, which is less than a year old. This time Dell refused to cover the repair even while simultaneously admitting that this is a common-known problem with Inspirons which is considered to fall under "wear and tear." Their advice to me to properly care for my laptop and avoid it breaking in this way again in the future was "to avoid unplugging it and re-plugging it in too much." I have been told that there is no way for this repair to be covered by the special extended warranty I purchased and that it shouldn't even have been done for free the first time, but instead should have cost me $164. It sounds to me like they are basically admitting to have sold me a defective machine again, but they are expecting their customers at this point to consider regular hardware failures that require mechanical repairs that are not covered by the warranty to be a normal part of owning and using a Dell. How is this company still in business? If they can't make hardware that doesn't spontaneously break every few months? How are they still in business? If they at this point openly admit that their hardware breaks every few months and that the cost of repair is not covered under the warranty? I would never have paid for a brand new laptop computer if I had realized that I was going to have to pay over $300 a year to repair it just so it would turn on. This is absurd.
