Update:-
1) Called Dell TS Thursday 19th.
2) Friday 20th Dell called me, replacement monitor to be delivered Monday 23rd.
3) Replacement monitor delivered Monday, assembled in box, no protective material on screen??? Not new for sure. Anyway, no point discussing with delivery guy, accept it.
4) Check the manufacture date from the SN, turns out to be 11th December, 2012. WTF, my monitors were produced on 3rd April, 2013.
5) Call TS the same day and explain situation. Establish that the monitor is refurbished, tell the rep I think given failure after 4 1/2 months, I should get a new unit.
6) Rep asks me to speak to Level 2 (a.k.a. I can't handle this shit). Level 2 tells me Dell Thailand has a different policy, only failures in the first 30 days get a brand new replacement, after that refurbished.
7) I explain to Level 2 that I bought the extended warranty to 5 years, and if the failure happens year 3 or so I could quite understand not getting a new unit. But this is a premium product, priced at a premium to the competition, and it has failed after 4 1/2 months.
8) I further explain that in giving me the used unit at that age, whatever was not replaced in it has probably had at least 1000 hours of use, so MTBF in my hands is 1000 hours already on the clock.
9) Level 2 says he understands this, but that's the policy so he will escalate to Customer Care.
10) About 20 minutes later I get a call from some woman who makes it very clear she has no interest in handling the matter, and that I should call TS. She practically hangs up on me.
11) Tuesday 24th, no call from TS so I call them again. Woman answers, I give her my case number, she says hold for a moment, 14 minutes later I'm disconnected.
12) Call TS again, give my case number, again I'm asked to hold so I practically yelp no, tell him he's the 7th person I'm speaking to since this started, perhaps he should call me back. He doesn't put me on hold, open line, and goes about his business (seems from the clack of the keyboard they work on chat / IM for record purposes.
13) OK, it's the same guy as yesterday, so less explaining to do, but oh the joys of dealing with TS for whom English is a 2nd language. At one point he asks me what I mean by brand new, so I explain out of the box with all the original factory packaging, cables etc, ie the same packaging I got when my monitors were delivered. Later he tells me that if I want new cables that is not normal practice so he's not sure if it would be possible. Suddenly I'm in danger of being categorised as a greedy bastard who is taking a monitor failure as a chance to get new cables. For what, my Firepro graphics card only has 1 DL-DVI output so I already have 2 cables I'm not using. Ãnyway, explain that to him so they don't have a rotten perception of me and decide to be less helpful. Jeez, hope he finally understood.
14) More clacking of the keyboard and then he tells me he has checked with Level 2 and it is now referred to Customer Care and the Sales Rep who sold me the rig, and they will work it out and contact me. He tells me there is no log of Customer Care talking to me yesterday, so that sets off some bitter complaining that Customer Care is a misnomer, given that she made it abundantly clear she had no interest in the problem, but I took the call on my mobile 'phone and I could give him her mobile number and the exact time of the call if he doubted it. No need.
15) I also explain to him that if they absolutely can't give me a new unit as replacement, fix my original unit and send it back to me whenever, I can survive using the replacement until then. I look after my rig like a new born baby, guaranteed my stuff is better than any crap they can send my way.
If you think this is long, today's call alone lasted 26 minutes, and as I said it was the 7th conversation. Not quite the longest soap opera in history, but Season 1 for sure.
