Dell Vostro 14 5410 Whole Unit Replacement - Getting nowhere

On the 11th of March, my Vostro 5410 (bought in 2022 with extended ProSupport warranty for 3 years) shut off while I was using MS Word, refusing to power on. I contacted the Dell Support team, and they sent a technician the first time. He looked at the laptop and said that he'd need to replace more parts than what he'd brought. I think he mentioned a capacitor catching on fire or something along those lines and that there was a visible burn mark. Anyways, he came a second time, replaced some parts, and deemed the device unrepairable. He told me that Dell support would contact me further about this.

On the 21st of March, I was contacted by Dell about a Whole Unit Replacement. After 4 business days, I asked them for any updates but received a response asking whether they could replace my laptop with an Inspiron system. My 14-inch Vostro has Thunderbolt 4, an Ethernet port, upgradable RAM, and a 300 nit display. Most of the Inspiron laptops have inferior specs to my original device, which I let them know about. The only Inspiron laptops with a similar spec were the 16-inch ones. However, they are too big and have a 250 nit display. I informed them about all this, and after 3 weeks and 5 days, they offered me an Inspiron 16 5630. They provided a table in my email comparing the specs between my original laptop and the Inspiron 16. To my dismay, they highlighted that the display would be a downgrade and asked me to let them know if the specs weren't correct. Patiently, I did that. I told them how 16 inches is too big, the Inspiron has LPDDR5 RAM (soldered on the motherboard), and that the brightness is less than the Vostro (LPDDR5 does not allow for any upgrades). I said that the largest screen size I could accept is 15 inches.

Now, I received an email saying that there are no laptops that have the same or better specs than mine. I found this really weird given that my laptop was a 14-inch i7 with 16GB RAM along with other features like the 300 nit display and the Thunderbolt 4 port, and there are numerous laptops (XPS, Latitude, Precision) with better or equivalent specs than mine on the Dell Australia website. They also said that a refund cannot be guaranteed, which completely violates Australian Consumer Law (ACL). The ACL states that a business must offer the consumer either the choice of a replacement or refund where the replaced device is similar to the original product. Dell Australia's Terms and Conditions of Service and Support also state:

"5.4 When making a replacement under clause 5.2, Dell will use products: (a) equivalent to new in functionality and appearance; (b) having substantially the same fittings; and (c) with at least an equivalent specification to the faulty Products or parts."

Therefore, I told the Dell staff to once again check with their internal team about the replacement device as there are numerous equivalent or better spec laptops on the Dell Australia website

This was the last email from them: "Our escalation team is offering the model Inspiron 16 5630; however, you are not ready for this replacement. They checked with the internal team for other options as requested for screen sizes 14 to 15 inches only. Unfortunately, no compatible model meets the replacement requirement.

We can try raising an escalation for a refund, which cannot be guaranteed. Please let us know how you would like to proceed by replying all to this email."

It kinda sounded like they're trying to force me into accepting their replacement offer.

Overall, not a pleasant experience at all. When I asked about the status of the replacement, I received the same email multiple times. I asked for how long the process would take and got ignored about it. Really disappointed. The parts repair process is actually pretty good but when it comes to the replacement, life becomes terrible. Haven't had a laptop for more than a month now, hoping that I will get the replacement soon.