Who Is Liable - Manufacturer Or Retailer

Even if a Dell is purchased from a retail store, instead of direct from Dell, the Dell warranty still applies. The first step should have been to call Dell support. Whatever the problem, only Dell can take care of the problem under warranty. Any 3rd party, including in this case Best Buy, is free to charge whatever (or for good customer relations do it free) if an at additional cost Best Buy warranty was not purchased.

FWIW, here is the link to the Dell Manual for this model.
Support for Inspiron 24 5488 | Manuals & documents | Dell US


Probably too late now, but there is a procedure, accessed from Windows, to create restore media in case it is needed. I did that on my new Dell Inspiron laptop (received in August). Created a USB Flash Drive recovery media.

Sorry that your parents are out $200.00. To be prepared for any future software problems I would suggest installing Macrium Reflect and buying a external HDD. Use Macrium to Image the drive before any problems happen. Then put the external drive somewhere safe. I would also do occasional backups of any files they don't want to lose.

I am a Geek Squad Advanced Repair Agent for Best Buy. We run the diagnostics the MFG recommends to diagnose the issue. Dell does not cover software issues that has to be serviced by the client. If the OS is not booting and we were unable to find issue with the HDD or the controller. That is likely an issue with the OS installation. If your parents did something to cause an issue with the OS (I have seen machines come in with a HDD lock in less than a week after purchase) then blame Best Buy for not performing free labor. Kind of crap when I see things like this because people blame Best Buy for their failures. We are paid by Dell for servicing their warranties I nor has any agent I worked with turned our nose up as replacing a piece of failed Hardware under warranty. This issue is not an issue with the retailer but the consumer as computers dont become corrupted and unbootable in a vacuum.

If you spend $1000 or $10,000 on a product and do something neglectful to said product then please dont expect free help. If its a legitimate product failure meaning Best Buy is replacing a part (same part) multiple times. Then if falls under the "No Lemon" policy when can allow the user to get a new machine of same value. Though by your account there was no hardware issue and it was resolved originally resolved through a reimage,

Throw in the fact that the manufacturer's warranty explicitly includes repairing the exact problem your product is having....

Expect you did not follow the manufacturer's warranty claims, you followed Dells. I think Bro67 has a solid point here and his words should not be overlooked.

I would recommend calling the BestBuy customer support number and kindly ask them why this behavior was portrayed to your parents. Don't be angry at the customer service representative, they didn't do anything wrong.

boweasel said:

Incredible! Did you miss the part about them charging my parents 100 bucks to reinstall the OS on a one month old computer? Or the part about them squeezing another 100 out of them for 24x7 coverage? Or maybe you missed the part about the reinstall being covered by the Dell warranty? A warranty that BestBuy not only did not honor, but went out of their way to discourage my parents from using. We should all praise the Gods that got you out of the PC repair business.

Did you mention that Geek Squad initial "repair" was a clean re-install of the OS? I don't see that in the thread.

(The clean install is no surprise. I've never given a PC to BestBuy for support, but the stuff I've read online over the years suggests that the clean install is their standard procedure. I have the impression that does not include backing up files or settings.)

I haven't dealt with Dell support in years. I don't know what they would have done about OS issues; suggesting an OS restore from the restore partition? I hope that they wouldn't have charged $100 for the privilege.

I still do business with BB, but warily. Their return policy isn't bad. One of the worst things they used to do was push extended service plans. Their sales force was never on commission, but they got some sort of extra consideration for selling the plans. The plans were priced actuarially to give approximately 85% profit. I recall one BB manager getting in trouble for refusing to sell an expensive item without an extra warranty.

When I bought a cheapish laptop from them last year, the sales person tried to sell me MS Office 2016 with it. When I said that I intended to install Office 2010 on it, she said that she'd heard that it wouldn't run reliably. When I asked where she had heard that, no real answer. (I had already run Office 2010 without issues on several Win10 PCs.) Not a lot of cash at stake there, but I get annoyed when I hear something that I've associated with lower-level IT professionals for years: I call it MSU (making stuff up, but not always "stuff").

Wait ... what?
You used the term "IT professionals" to describe Best Buy employees? :)

Dell support would have walked them through the recovery procedure. If that didn't work, I've seen in the past they would send a tech (3rd party tech as Dell does not have their own field techs) with a new hard drive pre-loaded to get them back working. I've also seen SOME cases where they will send the customer installation software (and have the customer call Dell to walk them through the install).

I've been on the Dell forum since 2002 and what I've seen over the years.

boweasel said:

My parents told me that after they'd bought the computer, they salesman told them that if they had any problems or questions they should call BestBuy and not Dell. Curious.
I've seen that on other companies also.

I somehow thought that if Dell corporate knew that one of their licensees was doing an 'end around' Dell's own warranty that they could bring pressure on BestBuy to refund the 200 bucks. But Dell, at least the low-level peons I spoke with, could not care less. I also thought that if I could speak to someone at the corporate level at BestBuy, that they might be persuaded to honor the terms of the Dell warranty, which is for hardware and software for a year. But AIAS I can find no corporate phone numbers for either of the 2 companies.

Your warranty covers both hardware and software: that's very important.

I've had 2 experiences with a couple of friends in the past that are very similar to the issues you mention.
I'm not in the computer business but I like to help family & friends when I can. In each one of the situations, I had the user write a letter to the company headquarters to explain their situation in detail as well as including applicable screenshots. It didn't take long to be contacted by the appropriate person to handle the issue at hand: both in the users favor. That way the issue is dealt with first hand with a dedicated person to bring a proper resolution to completion. And I can vouch for the fact it isn't always a users fault even when it comes to software. Google Dell Headquarters & Best Buy Headquarters for their addresses.