To warn anyone buying a computer

I can't find your post now on it. However, you said you paid £500 for it, and that was as much as you could afford (paraphrased)

£500 in my view, unless you want a gamers laptop, is good money. It's certainly not cheap

We've always had Dells and always found them excellent. In fact our first laptop, bought in about 2005 from them as a slight second still works.
When things have gone wrong they've always been very helpful. Dh spent 3-4 hours on the phone with them trying all sorts of things and eventually one worked about 6 months ago. He was impressed with their persistence and knowledge, and he works in computers and isn't easily impressed there.
When ds' laptop went wrong still in guarantee, they sent someone round to fix it. They came to my work (as easier than home) and were lovely as well as fixing it.

We've only had excellent service from them, and will definitely be going back there when we need another computer.

I bought a Dell laptop as I thought it was on at an extremely good price. I sent it back within a week.

I found out why it was so cheap. I went back to my trusty Acer to replace.

It was a nightmare trying to get that sorted as the English language spoken was very broken.

It had broken within 2 days of having it. I couldn't get anywhere with tech. In the end, I demanded a manager and arranged a return.

Everyone I know who has bought Dell has had nothing but trouble with it

The person was trying to help you with a solution. In the meantime, as you said you were losing business, and had no other options.

No because funnily enough I bought a laptop because I need it to be mobile. Just because it could function in a much more limited capacity doesn't absolve Dell from their responsibilities to fix it.
It's 3 months old and is not fit for purpose

What a shitty reply! The pp was trying to give you a way to use it until it’s sorted. It may not have worked for you, but you don’t have to be an arse to people trying to help. Ffs.

Why are you dreaming directly with Dell and not the business you bought it from? Surely they should be dealing with Dell if necessary. If the battery had failed ergo isn't it a simple battery if buying a new battery and then pursuing the seller/Dell for sure kind of compensation. Another battery is a useful thing to have anyway - they don't last forever. FWIW - I wrote software for 20+ years and have a wardrobe with about a dozen old laptops - mainly Thinkpads/Lenovo and a few Dells - the XPS15 or XPS13 models are, rightly IMHO, highly regarded - the XPS15 I have now (~3 years old) is probably one of the best laptops I've ever used. Have you checked that it's not the power block that's at fault?

"shocking level of customer service"

that does not mean it will be the same for every person,

Those suggesting chargebacks etc. OP has stated they paid on their business debit card. This means it’s a business to business purchase which has different laws than consumer to business. It’s not really as simple as it would be if OP were a normal customer.

I’m not confident enough personally to be be able to offer OP advice on this as it changes things, but hopefully someone with B2B consumer knowledge will be along soon.

Have you tried telling the AI chat that you need to speak to a human? You usually need to do this a couple of times as it will try to deflect with another question but it usually gets you through to a real person.

Not one person has said they would be, or that you should be, satisfied with a broken device. They were simply trying to offer you an intermediate solution. Fair enough that doesn't work for your circumstances, but they weren't to know that, were they? None of that information was in your OP.

I had a dell laptop that accidentally got closed whilst a pen was on it, damaging the screen. They wouldn't supply that particular screen. They want people buying new laptops.

Someone suggested a desktop and you said "No because funnily enough I bought a laptop because I need it to be mobile." It came across a bit rude

I'm typing this on a Dell laptop, it's ok, a bit slow mind. I had a Toshiba before and it was brilliant, went on and on for years, sadly Toshiba don't make laptops anymore.

Totally agree ..the one dell I bought lasted one year and one week and never worked. Never ever ever buy a dell unless you need a doorstop
Yanbu.

Had dell for years for work and home, old school PCs then laptops, never had an issue

Lucky I only buy MacBooks. The customer service and aftercare is top notch from Apple.

No need to be snotty. Loads of people buy laptops even if they aren't needing it to be mobile.

My employer uses Dell and has for the past 10 years I’ve been there. They’re pretty reliable from what I can tell.

I hope it is sorted OP.

£500 is more than enough to get a reliable laptop.
Like OP we’ve only had Dell laptops in our household and never had problems.
As a pp stated we always bought from the Dell Outlet section of their website too.

Shame if this is the way of things with Dell now.

OP, do you mind mentioning what model it is you have ?

Given you said you were losing money and business, I think the suggestion about the power cable was an idea to help you work until it was sorted, rather than a lifetime suggestion. So 'thanks, but..' would have been less snotty than 'dont be ridiculous'

Just here for solidarity. Back when we had dell laptops, they had literally the worst customer service I had ever encountered. Painfully bad. Sorry you're dealing with it