Oct 23, 2008 7:01 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: Refurbished Runaround
ELK GROVE (CBS13) ―
An Elk Grove college student had constant problems with her new Dell computer.
When the company couldn't fix it and ended up sending her a dirty one, she called Kurtis Ming.
She was told she'd be getting a refurbished computer. She was fine with that.
But after 10 months of problems, she had enough.
"I'm majoring in nursing, I want to do labor and delivery," says Stephanie Chau, Elk Grove resident.
Stephanie goes to Sacramento City College full time and works part time on the weekends.
A year ago, her dad bought her a laptop through Dell computers for $815.
"I was using it for a month of two, everything was going okay. Eventually a blue screen popped up," says Stephanie.
Stephanie says the computer would shut down, causing her to constantly lose her data.
She spent hours on the phone with Dell and sent numerous emails and eventually, the company told her to send it in.
"I received it back probably 3 to 5 days and the problem was still there, nothing was fixed at all," says Stephanie.
When she shipped it back the second time in March, it seems Dell replaced the screen.
And she says the technical problem still wasn't fixed.
Finally in August, Dell sent her a replacement computer... a refurbished one.
"When I opened it, it had dog or cat hairs all over the monitor. There was dirt all over the keyboard," says Stephanie.
"There's stains and I don't know exactly what it is right there," added Stephanie.
Her only pets are a few goldfish and a couple of ceramic dogs.
On top of that...
"I'm allergic to cat and dogs," says Stephanie.
Stephanie says Dell told her there was nothing they could do and to clean her computer with Lysol. After that, she says they hung up on her.
"I was mad, I was already screaming at him on the phone, so I was really mad," says Stephanie.
We contacted Dell.
The company told us, they'd look into the problem right away.
"If it's working properly and there's no scratches or dog hair on it, then I'll be fine with it," says Stephanie.
A couple of weeks later, Dell surprised Stephanie by sending her a brand new laptop.
Here it is... no dog or cat hair on it... and Stephanie says it works perfectly.
We asked Dell specifically about how Stephanie got a dirty computer. The company says this was an "isolated incident."
Also, be aware many companies do replace computers with refurbished ones.
Dell tells us "refurbished" means it may come from a business or home user who returned it.
And they say they test the computers before shipping them to customers.
Dell issued a statement that says:
"We empathize with our customer over the situation she says she experienced and are glad we were able to resolve this issue. This isolated incident does not reflect the award-winning products and services for which Dell is known and great out-of-the-box experience most of our customers have."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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