Dell Returns

[Lanky123]

Anybody know what Dell are like for returns - do they charge a restocking fee etc and do they make you pay for return delivery? It says on the Dell site it has to be within 8 days but it doesn't say much else.

(No need to read my explanation/rant below if you don't want to)

Reason being a family friend bought a Vostro 1510. He's a very basic user - email, Word etc. He wanted to order by phone as he had already spoken to a 'helpful' Dell rep and wanted them to get the commission or whatever. I therefore printed off a decent spec for him, told him what the price should be (about £350-£400 IIRC) and he phoned up. It's not until the laptop turned up that I find it cost him £611 with a £135 upgrade from a 1.8ghz T5670 to a 2.1ghz T8100 (not worth the money), the 3 year warranty ~£91 (not what I would have chosen but fair enough maybe), a £90 upgrade to 3gb of RAM, and get this, a graphics card. I'm half tempted to phone up and have a bit of a rant but they are on commission I suppose. I'm wondering if it's worth telling him to return it and wait a few weeks for a more sensibly specced one.

[staffsMike]

Think there might be a restocking fee unless there is a particular issue with it. The 2.1 is a penryn chip and so they do have a heft premium I'm affraid.

I assume now he has

2.1 C2D, 8400GS 256mb, 3 year on site, decent screen?

It's a little pricey but not ott imo.

[Lanky123]

No screen upgrade. The one thing I might have upgraded and they didn't tell him to.

The 8400gs is the bit that really perplexes me. He's a middle aged man who wouldn't know how to install a game if he wanted to. It's just going to sit there eating into his battery life and killing the laptop if Nvidia haven't sorted out that overheating issue yet.

Any idea how much the restocking fee might be? A google reveals a figure of 15% but most of the pages are out of date and some say Dell don't always charge it.

[staffsMike]

10-15% sounds about right. Give them an email or a call but remember the expense of that.

[Saracen]

If it's only just arrived, what about using the right to return under the Distance Selling Regs. That gives you 7 working days (i.e. excluding weekends and holidays), starting the day after delivery. You may, if the agreement with Dell stipulates it, have to pay for the return delivery but other than that, your friend is entitled to a full refund.

[staffsMike]

If it's only just arrived, what about using the right to return under the Distance Selling Regs. That gives you 7 working days (i.e. excluding weekends and holidays), starting the day after delivery. You may, if the agreement with Dell stipulates it, have to pay for the return delivery but other than that, your friend is entitled to a full refund.

I thought there were slightly different rules with customised products. I am sure you can enlighten me though