Calling any computer nerds

[JoeGibs]

I recently purchased a laptop from a seller on amazon, and something sketchy is going on and wanted a second opinion before I call bullshit.

I found a discontinued model of a dell laptop on amazon for a good price. 15.5" screen, 32gb ram, 1TB harddrive, brand new. Upon receiving the laptop, I started making some minor changes to settings to my liking, installed firefox, then thought hey before I go too far, I should check the system specs to make sure. Sure enough, there's only 500gb. I contact the seller, they say there must have been a mix up and give me a return label, and I shipped it back.

They got it back yesterday, and then send me an email late last night saying this: "Today, we received your return and identified a technical glitch. As shown in the attachments, we discovered a 1TB Intel SSD physically installed; however, due to the glitch, 476GB of space was unallocated. We have rectified the issue by allocating the entire space, resulting in the display now reflecting the full 1TB capacity. It will be dispatched back to you on Monday. Upon receiving the item, please notify us, and we will promptly process a $25 refund as a courtesy."

I used to self identify as a computer nerd many years ago, but haven't messed with computers hardly at all in the last 15 years. Now, first of all, i'm going to call bullshit just because that sounds sketch. I've never heard of a hard drive not displaying it's full capacity. Second, if I sent back a laptop that was supposed to be 1TB but only showing half the storage, why in the hell would this seller (not affiliated with Dell) open the laptop, "fix it" and say it's good to go and send it back to me? It's no longer NEW at this point, sir. So I'm guessing they either swapped out the hard drive, which then its definitely not new any more, OR this is their game. They ship out a computer that's not what people ordered in an attempt to save some money because most people don't know how to check specs on a computer, and just deal with the ones that catch them in their lie.

So, what say you fellow nerd, does this sound like bullshit and should get amazon involved to get a full refund?

 

[jacot23]

I’d personally insist on a full refund and get Amazon involved if necessary.

That said I’ve seen lots of weird things on my Dell work laptops over the last 12 years so it could very well be a glitch.

 

[dawgie34203]

Just for peace of mind, if it were me, I would go with the full refund. If not, it would always be in the back of my mind that somehow I got screwed.

 

[Eshaw99]

If it was discontinued, was it still listed as “new”? I ask because I’ve purchased refurbished laptops on Amazon more than once.

 

[JoeGibs]

Heres the LINK It was listed as new, not refurbished. I made sure to go into the tab of available sellers and chose from one listed as new. Also sketchy, the model I ordered is the 3511, and the box that showed up said 3520, and had another sticker over the original sticker.

 

[grateful1]

the os may not show it allocated (in windows explorer.
the installer may have said give it a 500gb drive.

you'd only see the full drive in computer manager...then you could see it and extend the os drive or set it up as a different drive letter.

odd, but not impossible to happen

also, the bios will always show the full drive...at all times.

 

[{tpc}]

It seems odd yes. But the cost of ssd drives aren’t what they used to be, so I can’t imagine it would be a great savings to try and fool a customer with smaller drive, then accept the return, replace the drive, send it back and give you a $25 refund for the hassle.

That’s too much work. I’d much rather refuse the return and claim you swapped the drive on your end or something like once you open the box it’s a 25 percent restocking fee, etc.

It’s more likely that the drive was partitioned and only one part of the partition was formatted or something like that. Not unheard of.

The box label does seem odd, I will give you that. Not the extra label, because sometimes that happens too (nowadays even the big companies want to save a buck). But the 3511 vs the 3520.

You should be able to find the model of the computer either on a label on the bottom or somewhere in the software itself, probably a Dell warranty type program.

I think the seller just put the wrong info on the site, but they could have done it to mislead. The 3511 is. 15.56 in screen with fhd. The 3520 is a 15.6 screen that’s led. So there is a mix of the two machines there.

Personally, this isn’t the first issue I have heard of when buying laptops off Amazon. I won’t buy them there even to save money. But then again I don’t buy many laptops haha.

I don’t think they are running a scam. I do think they are dumb, and not sure of what they are doing, and have probably stumbled into some laptops to buy in bulk and resell. Obvious some kind of disconnect between what they have posted and what they really have.

If it works good and has the features you wanted I’d probably keep it. But if it is giving you second thoughts, better to dump it now. Look for sales at Best Buy or microcenter or other places and have Best Buy price match. I did that on a surface tablet a couple years ago and scored a great deal. Should have two of them but I’m too honest. The first one didn’t show up on time and when I inquired to customer service they just assumed lost in shipping and sent a second one. Then the first one showed up a day or so after. I couldn’t be that guy though lol.

 

[grateful1]

It seems odd yes. But the cost of ssd drives aren’t what they used to be, so I can’t imagine it would be a great savings to try and fool a customer with smaller drive, then accept the return, replace the drive, send it back and give you a $25 refund for the hassle.

That’s too much work. I’d much rather refuse the return and claim you swapped the drive on your end or something like once you open the box it’s a 25 percent restocking fee, etc.

It’s more likely that the drive was partitioned and only one part of the partition was formatted or something like that. Not unheard of.

The box label does seem odd, I will give you that. Not the extra label, because sometimes that happens too (nowadays even the big companies want to save a buck). But the 3511 vs the 3520.

You should be able to find the model of the computer either on a label on the bottom or somewhere in the software itself, probably a Dell warranty type program.

I think the seller just put the wrong info on the site, but they could have done it to mislead. The 3511 is. 15.56 in screen with fhd. The 3520 is a 15.6 screen that’s led. So there is a mix of the two machines there.

Personally, this isn’t the first issue I have heard of when buying laptops off Amazon. I won’t buy them there even to save money. But then again I don’t buy many laptops haha.

I don’t think they are running a scam. I do think they are dumb, and not sure of what they are doing, and have probably stumbled into some laptops to buy in bulk and resell. Obvious some kind of disconnect between what they have posted and what they really have.

If it works good and has the features you wanted I’d probably keep it. But if it is giving you second thoughts, better to dump it now. Look for sales at Best Buy or microcenter or other places and have Best Buy price match. I did that on a surface tablet a couple years ago and scored a great deal. Should have two of them but I’m too honest. The first one didn’t show up on time and when I inquired to customer service they just assumed lost in shipping and sent a second one. Then the first one showed up a day or so after. I couldn’t be that guy though lol.

Or the dell refurbished site.

Also, the label will have a service tag...it shooud match the machine..unless of course they just used a spare box

 

[JoeGibs]

Excellent information gentlemen! I've never heard of a drive being partitioned like that from the factory, only showing half the available space. I'll be checking it out in depth when it returns to me, and go from there as whether to keep it or return it. But, at the end of the day, it's got better ram and hard disk storage at a price that ya can't beat, so i'll probably end up keeping it. Thank you for helping!