XPS 17 9710, multiple speakers and motherboards replaced

A brief history:

• 7/5/2021: I received the initial XPS 15 laptop. This was a $3000 laptop, nearly the top configuration of one of Dell's high-end laptops.
• 8/20/2021: The laptop was completely dead. An on-site technician was dispatched to replace the motherboard. More than one week without a working laptop. A laptop in this price range that has a hard-failure in it’s first month, should have just been replaced, rather than wasting my time on this troubleshooting process.
• 10/26/2021: The replacement motherboard has no working Bluetooth. Another replacement motherboard was ordered.
• 11/4/2021: It was determined that the replacement motherboard would not be available in the near future and I was offered a replacement “refurbished” laptop of the same or better specs. I was assured that the refurb had undergone extensive testing to confirm that all systems worked as-new.
• 11/15/2021: I received the replacement XPS 17 laptop.
• 12/9/2021: The XPS 17 has unacceptable battery life and alarming overheating issues. Both were resolved with driver updates (why did Dell ship me a laptop without updated drivers, especially after assuring me that the device had undergone extensive testing?) Additionally one speaker was not working.
• 12/23/2021: Now both speakers are non-working. An on-site technician was dispatched to replace the speakers (I consider this to be a diversionary tactic… the odds of 2 speakers failing in the same way and at the same time seems astronomically low.)
• 1/4/2022: Technician determined that replacing the speakers made no difference (no surprise there) and replaced the motherboard.
• 1/18/2022: The replacement motherboard in the replacement XPS 17 has 1 speaker non-working (back to where we started on 12/9.)
• 2/7/2022: After spending 3 hours with support, going through all of the same troubleshooting steps that I had done myself half a dozen times, they have determined that the speakers need to be replaced (the same speakers that were replaced on 1/4/2022)

Viewed a different way:

• The motherboard was replaced in the original XPS15 chassis.
• The XPS15 was replaced with an XPS17
• The XPS17 had its keyboard/speaker assembly replaced
• The XPS17 had its motherboard replaced (if you’re keeping count, that’s 4 motherboards, now)
• The replacement motherboard in the replacement chassis is failing in the same way as the prior motherboard.
• Speakers to be replaced again

In retrospect, I see my mistake. When the original laptop failed within a few weeks of purchase, I should have refused any replacement parts and demanded a refund. Allowing them to replace parts pushed me outside the 30 day refund window and now all I can do is let them replace parts until my premium support runs out. This is the tech support equivalent of check kiting.

I have a $3000 laptop with no working audio (unless I'm using external speakers) that has been so unreliable, I would not dare travel with it without a backup computer.