The DELL Blues

***UPDATE***
The new AC Adapter has arrived, and is working --so far, so good.
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**UPDATE**
Dell is sending me a replacement AC Adapter,
after they stated that they wouldn't because mine is more than 21 days old. I wrote back that I was reporting them to my credit card company, and then I got another email from them. They recanted, and said, in effect, "OH! GUESS WHAT? IT HAS A 1-YEAR WARRANTY! We will send a replacement!" So it's supposed to be on its way.

I am still going to report this to the credit card company, and I am going to send copies of the correspondence up the ladder at Dell; maybe I'll start with the president. I love starting at the top.
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**UPDATE** I am calming the color back to blue here.
I realize that I've not been the best example of fortitude, patience and brotherly love about this situation with Dell. I have been feeling
angry,
dismissed,
cheated,
ignored and
treated as less than a good, repeat customer.
I have been feeling HURT
by a HUGE corporation that makes money in enormous quantities, and it's all over a $79.00 piece of defective equipment. I paid for this adapter. We need it, in order to be able to use the laptop that my family generously provided for us when Katie got sick. It's important to me that I did my part; it's unjust that they are refusing to do theirs. So I feel angry, and as if, "Uh-oh, life isn't being fair." As if it ever was!

And then my dear Father Richard Rohr posted this meditation today:

"Francis of Assisi
Feast of Francis, October 4
Question of the day: Where does peace begin?

Francis' warnings to his followers are apt for peacemakers and those working for justice in our day:
"While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. Nobody should be roused to wrath or insult on your account. Everyone should rather be moved to peace, goodwill, and mercy as a result of your self-restraint. For we have been called for the purpose of healing the wounded, binding up those who are bruised, and reclaiming the erring." (The Legend of the Three Companions)
from Hope Against Darkness

Current mantra:"The Lord give you peace" - St. Francis"

and Gratefulness.org sent this for today:

"To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything."
Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

I think I need to calm down and be more centered as I work through this problem. It is an opportunity to take one step at a time, in grace. I need to breathe in grace, and breathe it out to my fellow man, whoever he is, on the other end of this dispute.

Oh, and guess who is helping me with this now? My credit card company! Hooray for their dispute resolution department!
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***UPDATE*** (I learned this little trick from smileygirl =) )

The people at Dell are being worse and worse about this. There is no way that they have a department that should be dignified with the name "Customer Service." They are totally avoiding the issue, and if you read the comments here, you will know that others have experienced this treatment, and others have been sold a defective AC adapter, as if it was a fine piece of equipment, instead of the fire hazard that we know it is. This font is red, because I am seeing red right now.
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Okay, the new AC adapter that we recently purchased for our laptop is obviously defective. It's whistling, and creates sparks when I plug it in; it has blown out two outlets and gets too hot to touch when it's in use. I'm getting annoyed because the company that makes both the laptop and the AC connector (DELL) is yanking me around! I have been on hold for ages, passed back and forth like a football from one person to the next, asked to give them my information, but NO ONE is answering MY question.

I am not asking for product support, though they have tried several times to SELL it to me today. I am asking for my invoice number and an RGA (a return-goods-authorization) so I can get an AC adapter that won't burn my house down.

AARgh! Maybe our next computer will be an APPLE.