DELL warranty

papaschtroumpf · 11-16-2006, 12:45 PM

I hear mixed reviews about Dell laptop and the need for warranties.

I purchased my laptop with the basic 1 year "mail-in" warranty, because I had several people tell me that dell will offer the warranty even after you purchase, and sometimes at a better price.
I susually stay away from extended warranties at the likes of Best Buy and CUSA.

Should I do the same here?

I'm not interested in at home support for OMG windoze is broken! type of issues. I'm a very savvy user. The only resaaon I would take the warranty is to cover hardware problems, or if it's worth it accidental damage, since I have a couple young kids that will be around the laptop.

Brainonska511 · 11-16-2006, 12:48 PM

How much did you spend on the computer?
How long do you plan on keeping it?
Is the 1 year coming to an end soon, or did you just purchase the laptop?

KeithTalent · 11-16-2006, 02:06 PM

I got my Mom the CompleteCare for 3 years since she is not very careful with her stuff, plus her cat has a habit of running near/on the laptop when it is open. For this reason, plus the fact that laptops can be a PITA (and crazy expensive) to fix, I felt the additional cost was worth it.

So I guess it depends on how 'hands on' the kids may be with your new laptop

LouPoir · 11-16-2006, 04:40 PM

Depends how much you spent. If you have a $600 laptop, dont bother. If you bought one of their XPS notebooks for $2000, may be worht it.

IMHO

Lou

papaschtroumpf · 11-16-2006, 04:48 PM

I just bought a pretty decked out E1705, got i for about 1300, but regular price was almost $1900. However this was really stretching my budget, and the 4-year "everything" warranty was a dealbreaker budget-wise.
C2D T7200, 2G RAM, GeForce 7900GS... this think has better lat me for a while.
My upgrade cycle on laptops is about every 4 years if history is any guide.

pkme2 · 11-16-2006, 07:49 PM

Its like playing Russian Roulette, you have 5 chances of surviving out of 6.

I've seen extended service warranties on automobiles that not worth the paper they're printed out. Checkout the fine print.

You know Murphy's Law, whatever that can go wrong, normally you can count on it in your case to do so.

I rather go the other route. I'll build the laptop with the best components available and make sure I have Norton Systemworks included. That's my hedge against having problems.

The best hdd, the best videcard, the best lcd and so on. This way I don't have to mess with the laptop if I were a newbie. Careful handling is always foremost in my mind and I've been lucky to have good service from my Dell laptops.

Having an extended warranty over the usual one year can build confidence. My confidence builder is the product itself.

I've never had a Dell laptop go down on me especially when I'm careful with backups.
If a hdd failed, I just replace it with a cloned hdd and keep going. All my important files are on my secondary drive in my media drive, which I backup too.

I once had to replace a LCD, but that was my fault. I ordered a used laptop for parts and did it very cheaply. I got the repair manual and that's how I got started.

You can buy the extended, but no more than 2yrs, please. If its more, than you shouldn't be buying that laptop, its not worth it.

StanFL · 11-19-2006, 01:39 PM

If you decide to buy an extended warranty from Dell, MAKE SURE you do it before the current warranty expires. Once it's out of warranty, they will require you to send it to depot to verify everything is in working order before selling a new warranty on it.

Mesix · 11-25-2006, 12:26 PM

If it were me (And this is what I plan to do), I would get the basic one year, and for $100 add accidental damage coverage.

Drop it down the stairs when you want a new laptop (Granted, it'll probably be the same, but it'll be nice and fresh!)

Brainonska511 · 11-25-2006, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Mesix
If it were me (And this is what I plan to do), I would get the basic one year, and for $100 add accidental damage coverage.

Drop it down the stairs when you want a new laptop (Granted, it'll probably be the same, but it'll be nice and fresh!)

Fraud FTW!

I'm pretty sure that you can only get accidental damage coverage for a 2 year warranty or greater.

Mesix · 11-25-2006, 11:23 PM

You can get it on one year

blinky8225 · 11-26-2006, 12:02 PM

Buy it -- my screen just went dead after being 6 months out of the 1 year warranty.