I purchased a Dell XPS 1730 laptop two years ago for work. It arrived, I unpacked it and turned it on, loaded my software and began working. About a week into owning it, I went on travel and tried to use it without plugging it in. It wouldn't start. I checked the battery and it was at zero charge.

I let it charge for a while, or so I thought...but when I returned the battery was still at zero charge and remained so.

I rang customer support and they said that because it was a new purchase I would have to return the entire device. Since I was already using it for work and it was my only computer, shipping it off and waiting a week or more for a replacement really was not an option.

Flash forward two years... I accepted the loss of my battery use made the best of the situation...that is until my fan, motherboard, and memory chips all failed. Fortunately, those were covered by warranty and I had the tech warranty where they come to your house and fix things...so while at it I mentioned that my batter would never charge. Not only that, but the light indicating a connection to the battery would flicker as if the connection to charge the battery was loose.

I was told it was the motherboard and all would be well once that was replaced. It wasn't. I was then told that it was the power adapter and was sent a new one. It wasn't the power adapter. I finally was told it was the battery and that I had to go purchase a new one.

I insisted the battery had NEVER worked and that while I had no doubts that the battery was now dead as a doornail after 2 years with no charge, I also didn't believe the enclosure was properly holding the battery and that purchasing another one would just lead to the same problem and at my expense.

My concerns fell on dead ears. Despite having "premium" customer service and the lack of waiting or dealing with someone named "Bob" whose heavy Indian accent was barely discernible, I still was not able to communicate with these people. They just read from their prompts and didn't stop to listen to what was going on.

I believed the issue was due to a bad connection between the charging unit and the battery as evidenced by the fact that the charging light would flicker or turn off if I moved my computer, and by the fact that my battery seating in the computer was lose and rattled.

I was told the reason for the flickering was that my battery was dead...which makes NO sense because it stayed on when the computer was stable and not moving and only turned off or flickered if the computer was jarred or moved.

I now have a behemoth of a laptop that may as well be a desktop because it cannot work if unplugged and I am unable to get any help from Dell despite this computer still being warrantied.

I share this so that noone else will make the mistake I did and give Dell their business. This is a company that clearly does not care about the quality of their product or the quality of their customer service.