Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1, rubber feet falling off LCD, Dell customer service

Question

Hi all,

I have an issue with the little feet on the LCD assembly on my Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1. Second time it happened inside a year on a new laptop. They just appear to de-bond cleanly, fall off, and get lost with no obvious wear as shown in the photo below. The Inspiron is on top, with just a clean empty slot where a rubber bumper used to be. On the bottom is a 5-6 year old Lat 5300 2-in-1 with similar design, they get a little worn but never fell off.

Now, I logged this with Dell support, and they say that it's a wear and tear item, and so they have no 'discretion' whatever that is, to replace it under warranty. Now, they don't even sell the part separately. I would have been ok to pay for the part and glue it back in myself, but it is an integral part of the LCD assembly - the bottom cover strips, which sometimes de-bond, after a few years. At least there's usually available after market, but those in LCD assembly ones, there's no way to replace, and you end up with the thing sliding in laptop mode, with the little bumper feet missing.

Now the first question, do other people have these fall off? As it appears to be some kind of glue/design defect - they are much slimmer than the Lat ones? I know I had some bottom cover rubber debond at times after a few years on laptops, but first time I get it with the in LDC assembly little feet (funnily enough, one of the bottom strips on the Inspiron is also debonding). I've been away from Dell laptops for a while, as been using another brand, so is that quality on rubber parts is now the norm, where the bond fails in under a year?

And the question number two, is that the normal sort of in warranty support from Dell these days where their support specialist communicate like it's sort of a courtesy if they elect, at their discretion to resolve the issue? The first time I logged it with Dell, when a feet fell off under only 2 or 3 months, they said, ok, we'll replace it as a courtesy as it's so new. I thought, weird, it's in warranty, and I'm already at an inconvenience having to spend time on this defect? But now it appears they actually meant it and insist it's a wear item, at 11 months! Is this normal from Dell support and is there any way to escalate this within Dell?

Thanks for reading and for any advice :)

Tim_xyz · Answer

A minor update on this one, I sent a few messages on the service request I logged with Dell, attempting to clarify the questions above, and haven't got any response - they just appear to be ghosting me...

It's an interesting experience, I'll see how far I'll get - if feels quite silly, because of a 50c rubber part, but it's of course integral to proper use of the device in laptop mode, and what's more, I must say that Dell customer support really succeeded in creating a negative customer experience here!

I'm checking the consumer regulations in my location to see what recourse I may have outside of Dell - again, it feels silly having to waste time on that, but it doesn't look like it'd go anywhere with Dell, unfortunately.

Thinking of how easy it would have been for Dell to just stock the rubber parts - you know, you buy an $300 Seiko watch, and you can get all the 5 dollar rubber bits 10 years later! But, a Dell $1000 laptop, and you can't get them 11 months later... I rest my case. :)

Will update if there is any progress...

Tim_xyz · Answer

A small update again - as I didn't receive any response on the messages posted on the service request with Dell, I again contacted support via a chat, painstakingly explaining, once again, that, in my location, warranty is assessed via the acceptable quality principle, and, integral rubber bumpers falling of the LCD assembly after a few months of use is not acceptable quality...

This time the 'social media support' level specialist took my details and appeared to have escalated my issue to the next level of support, they told me to expect a response in 24-48 hours...

The experience is made more frustrating by the fact that I have ProSupport with Next Business Day Service on this laptop, and, so far, it's been 7 days since I logged the request.

Will update once I hear back from Dell...

Tim_xyz · Answer

A quick update, day 8 of the little bumper feet service case!

I have finally had next level (2nd level?) support contact me, and it's been a large difference - the support engineer is actually easy to communicate with and they understand hardware and, while still appearing to lack authority to make the repair decision, seem to be asking the right questions and providing the right messaging - so far they requested additional photos, as the original one was a little blurry - it was just a quick snap in the evening - and they wanted to rule out damage, having said straight away it was not wear.

So, no positive outcome to report so far, but at least there is progress and what appears to be decent service, as you would expect from one of the 3 big end user compute brands, especially from Dell, which is the only one still managed by the founder....

But first level, oh boy - I came into this service transaction with a significant amount of goodwill for Dell, based on a number of products I've had and still have from them, from laptops to monitors, which, in general, have been great!

By the end of the 7 days of trying to explain to 1st level (social media) support that it can't be a wear item and asking them to escalate, with not much luck, I had nearly none left...

So, if someone from Dell is reading this, and, I appreciate that hyperscalers and AI is most of the business now, but, you are still in the consumer market, and, your first level support appears to be destroying customer goodwill... Mention that to Michael, if he can step out of that big Jensen Huang's party, he may find a minute to fix the customer service side of the business?

Will update once I hear back from Dell....

Tim_xyz · Answer

A quick update - with day 9 of trying to get warranty support under the next day on site ProSupport coverage rapidly approaching, I had another call from 2nd level/resolutions, who, on inspecting the new photos showing hinges in perfect condition, came to agree that the bumper foot detaching doesn't appear to result from damage.

So it's not wear, and it doesn't look like damage, but the support specialist still could not make a decision to repair and are going to consult further within the support organization.

Hilariously, in the 8 days since I logged the issue with the detaching bumper, the touchpad on the Inspiron also started having intermittent issues, in the past two days, - I had finally had a moment to sit down and debug (BIOS udpate, drivers, ePSA ect.) and, with intermittent stutters, random moves, presses and gestures not going away, I reached out to support to additionally log an issue with the touchpad...

So yes, I'm starting to feel a little exhausted by the experience, I have to admit - the case appears to be moving now, but it's taken an inordinate amount of time and effort to get there, with no resolution as yet, positive or otherwise.

Tim_xyz · Answer

A quick update - it's day twelve of the service case opened with Dell under the Next day ProSupport service - I have had a call from Dell where they confirmed that, based on additonal images provided, the foot de-bonding doesn't appear to be damage - they already ruled out wear before, at around day 7... So they advised that they'll be sending a field engineer to replace the LCD assembly and the touchpad, which also failed while Dell were working on my original service case...

To be updated once I hear from Dell support again..

Tim_xyz · Answer

Day 13 of having the service case in progress, for the display assembly and touchpad replacement with Dell, under the next day ProSupport on site service!

I still haven't heard from Dell, so I had to call them back, the operator was puzzled as to why the work order had not been raised yet...

They told me to expect the work order raised shortly, and service sometime this week or next...

So there is still a chance this would be Same month on site ProSupport service, but it might end up as Next month on site ProSupport service... :)

Tim_xyz · Answer

It is day 19 of the Next day ProSupport on site service case - I have finally had a field engineer come out and replace the LCD assembly, and the touchpad...

So I finally got a complete and working laptop again, ahem, the whole service experience had been a bit of a disappointment, I'm sorry to say...

Inspiron

Inspiron 14 7445 2-in-1, rubber feet falling off LCD, Dell customer service

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