+1 for Alienware Warranty and Service

I have a love/hate relationship with extended warranties. They are always a tempting offer, but many times so hard to claim or utilize. For example, Apple = LOVE, Best Buy = hate. At the end of the day, it just comes down to the company philisophy and maybe luck of the draw on what service tech you get assigned.

Anyways, I bought the 4 year Advanced Service Plan for my M11x based on their claim for Accidental Damage Service, which IMO is what you're really paying for. The thought of not ever having to worry about breaking such a fine piece of machienery is such bliss.

Anyways, last thursday I left my M11x on the floor where I was watching SC2 VoDs. I had to get up to take care of the baby when I heard a HUGE CRAAAACKKK. My 2yo son had literally opened the clamshell all the way back, cracking the right hinge. Oh boy was I mad... I called it in and fast forward to this morning, the Unisys (Dell outsourced) tech called me and met me at my office. 45 minutes later I had a brand new complete LCD. Awesome.

Not even Apple (who will replace your iphone/ipad at a whim) would cover a broken LCD or other accidental damage performed by the user. Plus 1 for Alienware and I suggest all of you out there to shell out the extra cash for the highest level of warranty for the longest period they will sell it!


Btw, this is my second experience with their warranty. My M17x-R1 crapped out last year and I ended up with a system replacement. But that was definitely called for since it was hardware failure, not user error. This is my first experience with the actual accidental damage that they covered.

 

I had a dell latop that fell out of my laptop bag when the strap broke, I watched it roll down the jet bridge and smash into pieces.

Dell fixed it up NP at all.

The Complete Care warranty is a must IMO when you shell out 2-3K or more on a laptop.

 

With young kids, I think the Accidental Care is worth it. As mentioned above, little kids will break/destroy your stuff. My 2 yo son already poured water in his toy laptop which doesn't work anymore...

 

When I eventually buy a new Alienware laptop I am buying a 2 year advanced plan at least I can't imagine not having it for such an amazing, and expensive piece of equipment. It's good to hear such good experiences with getting your moneys worth if is to hit the fan.

 

with my first Alienware area-51m my hard drive died and the system was a couple months out of warranty (bought the 3 year warranty) and they sent me a new hard drive.. All i had to do is swap them out and send the old one back it was one of the reasons i have stuck with this company..

 

I'm curious to what you guys think of the Complete Care versus a personal article insurance plan from your car company. I had one on my Sager, although never used, and it only cost me $48 a year to have.

I did buy the Complete Care for the M18x, but I'm wondering if I need it considering it would cost $60 for a year of coverage from my State Farm rep.

 

Nice to know; been pondering doing the same thing.

 

Wait, you can insure laptop with car insurance?

 

I didn't even know about this ...

The only thing outside car/home insurance I have is 10$/mo for my military gear to be insured from theft. Didn't even know it was possible to get my laptop insured and at that price, it seems pretty damn good.

Just be aware of your deductibles, guys. Laptops like the M11X R1/2 aren't worth the coverage since it's 500$ deductible ...at least here in Canada, it was the going rate when I had my laptop (G53JW) stolen from my house.

 

Personally, while you could insure using your homeowners/car insurance... it's going to be much better, faster, and safer to insure directly with Dell/AW. As a quick example that I shared above, there was no claim process, no proof of damage needed, just called it in and the repair was scheduled. You won't get that with State Farm or any insurance company.

 

Oh, I thought we were discussing theft, which AW/Dell does not cover

Nvm. AW/Dell is still far superior with damage warranty, agreed.

 

So if you don't have insurance and just bought a 2k laptop with 4 year advanced warranty, it's all lost if someone steals it. DX

 

Called my insurance agent yesterday to verify. Through State Farm it will cost me $40 for the year to insure the laptop from anything. If I drop it, spill on it, lose it, State Farm will cut me a check for the price of the laptop to purchase a new one.

Pretty freaking amazing.

 

FYI - I have dealt with both. I had State Farm and they dropped me because of too many claims... we had two cars totaled in less than a year and then I had a claim on my old first gen m15x.

It was destroyed along with my desktop in the same storm. They covered them all with hardly any questions and it took about 3 weeks to get my payment, then another 6 weeks waiting for my new system.

I think it's a good idea to have both the advanced warranty for smaller things and manufacturer's defects and then the State Farm stuff to cover a major accident.

 

There are 2 problems with covering your laptop with your home insurance.

1- takes longer to process a claim during which time you are without your laptop.
The alienware warranty will replace/fix your laptop in a couple of days (giver or take)

2- Making a claim against your home insurance will possibly count against future claims.
Example... your laptop breaks.. you make a claim... 6 weeks later you get a check for the price of a laptop and you buy a new one and are happy.
3 months later you have a water line break and your basement is flooded... you call up your insurance company but they say since you already claimed ~$3000 this year (for the laptop) you are now liable for almost the entire cost of repair on the flooded basement.
They cover some.... but not all and you are now left with a ~$10000 bill.
PLUS now you learn that your premiums increased by 2x due to the laptop claim.

Granted... every policy is different and it is up to you to see what your liabilities are, how many claims you can make, what will cause your premiums to increase etc....... but for me I prefer the speed and simplicity of a good alienware/dell warranty with CC for hardly any extra money (compared to my homeoners/renters etc.. insurance)

My 0.00000002¢

*********Disclaimer.......... no analogies were harmed in the making of the above example

D

 

Wow, I had no idea State Farm offered laptop insurance. The above warnings by debaucher make sense, but I don't have them for any other insurances purposes. Seems like you can't lose in that case; eventually your laptop will die, get damaged, stolen, etc and then you can just get a new one?! For $40 a month??

That's awesome!

 

That's why I wouldn't put my laptop under my homeowner's insurance. Rather, I would get such coverage through a 3rd party. This company specifically offers insurance for electronics. The prices seem pretty reasonable, it covers theft and accidental damage, and you can choose your deductible.