I ordered a Refurbished Dell Computer through a secondary dealer. The 90 day warranty was to be provided by their supplier, Computer Express. I paid $300 for the machine and another $30 or so for shipping.
The machine was to be re-sold to a customer of mine at no profit. (My income is on the service, not the parts.)
The first machine arrived with a case that was cracked, badly cracked. The back plate was so bent that a power cord wouldn't go in. After bending it back into place, I fired up the machine and heard a horrific noise from the case fan, which was badly mounted. The shipping box was undamaged, so I called Computer Express and was told that they would replace it, but that I would have to pay shipping. Another $30
The second machine was even worse. The power supply wasn't screwed down so it moved as I tried to plug it in. I cracked the case open to screw it down and found that the floppy drive had been forced to fit the case by bending the frame and screwing it into place. The motherboard was also not screwed down at the corners (because the holes in the board didn't match the holes in the case.) and this case fan too was badly mounted. The machine was advertised to have 128mb of ram and one open slot. (Important so that I could upgrade to 256mb) What it had was 2x64 mb's of ram and no open slot.
And finally, after booting it up... Well, it wouldn't boot up at all. I got a series of BIOS beeps which I couldn't identify because I have no idea whose BIOS it is. I couldn't even identify the motherboard because none of my resources have any record of that S/N. Worse, the Service Tag number (which would allow me to log into Dell and at least find out what the original specs were) was torn off.
I attempted to boot from floppy and found that a disk would not fit into the drive because it was crooked. Then discovered that it wasn't getting power anyway. I replaced the floppy with one of my own and couldn't get power to it either. I replaced the video card with both AGP and PCI types (thinking it may have a bad slot AND a bad card.) I pulled each memory stick in turn and placed it into it's opposite slot alone. (Again, bad stick AND bad slot?) I replaced the HDD with one out of a working Dell. No use whatsoever. The thing will not boot. There's a power light on the motherboard, but there is no one home.
So, I have just spoken again with Jeanette at Computer Express who swore to me that the machine booted when it was shipped, she was standing there and saw it. (Interesting since I have replaced every component except motherboard and processor and can't get it to boot.) She swears to me that she did NOT tell me I had to pay return shipping on the first machine. She also tells me that because she shipped the second one in February and I am just now reporting it, she has doubts about the veracity of my complaint. (My client is a "snowbird" and went home to Michigan during that time, so I didn't even open the box.) She goes on to suggest that it may have been damaged in shipping. (Shipping forced and bent a floppy drive so that it would fit a case it wasn't made for? Shipping caused them not to even test to see if a floppy disk would fit into it that way?)
She tells me it is up to the retailer to pay the shipping if I am unhappy and up to Dartek to give me a refund if I am am no longer interested in the machine. All she is responsible for is replacing or repairing it. Yes, they are willing to replace it again, but after seeing the kind of workmanship they do, (both machines were obviously damaged in ways that could not be accidental.) I'm not interested. The $100 total shipping costs are not even close to feasible. And who knows if the third machine will be any better! Excuses and blame shifting do not bode well, that's for sure.
Buyer Beware! This company is cutting corners that could cut into your productivity in a hurry!
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