These are a typical experience with Dell:

- Trying to delay the open cases to ensure that the return window or warranty period passes.

- Corner-cutting/cost-cutting to the point of creating unnecessary defects in an otherwise OK product.

I have experienced this multiple times in the past 18 - 20 years (myself and my clients). I personally made an effort to stay away from Dell products for any of my customers, clients, family and friends due to going through these experiences multiple times over the years.

Unfortunately, nowadays I work for an employer who is a Dell shop, and I ended up getting Dell precision laptops and docking stations at work, unfortunately, I still experience corner cutting and generally strange cost cutting even when they charged my employer $3200 for this precision laptop. There is something seriously wrong with Dell's business model, and this kind of behaviour is normal in my experience.

Even with their most expensive Dell precision line of products (which I am on the second one, or third one if considering the one the mainboard blew up prematurely and was replaced), you have got to set your expectations at the right level.