Enhanced warranty & support options: are they worth it?

I am looking into getting an Alienware 17 and I am not sure if the enhanced warranty / support options are worth the extra few bucks. But if I did have to pick out of the two which would it be?

 

Accidental damage is worth it but that's all the advice on that end I can give.

 

I always say take as much warranty as you can afford as these things are expensive if something happens to break. The accidental coverage I can't speak on as I did not go with that option but I am really careful with all my electronics and I have never needed or wished I had such coverage on any of my laptops or phones etc.

You have to look at these things as high performance sports cars that you run hard. If something happens to break , the parts are going to be expensive and it is always good to have that coverage in case something happens. If a motherboard goes for example, your looking at a couple hundred dollars if you buy from Ebay, I don't know what Alienware charges for it. Worst case scenario, you get a lemon and you have extended warranty you will probably end up with a brand new system with new specs as I did.

Alienware's support has always been really good to me, I have not had any major problems or issues with them. Their parts replacement is superb with most replacement parts coming to your door in under 24 hours with or without a tech if you so desire and depending on what they are replacing.

Honestly I would not buy one of these without extending the warranty but to each their own, that is just my personal opinion. If you search the forums there are probably a few posts from customers who did not get the additional warranty and had something down the road and then blame Alienware which is just unfair, as they had the option and didn't take it.

 

it depends on what model i get and whether it fits into my budget....for the most part i can only get enough to cover 1 year for each.

 

If you're the type of person that may not keep the system for more than a year, then a year is all you will need. You can extend it later on, however, it will be much more money to do so. A single year of Enhanced Support + Accidental Damage Service is approximately $415 (as an extension). You can purchase four years of this for approximately $620 at the time of purchase of the system itself. Is it worth it? I think so.

I recommend getting at least two years for anyone who plans to keep the system for a while. The chance of something happening to (or malfunctioning in) your system nearly doubles as each year passes. Some of us are lucky, though... I've seen people get a single year and they're still using the laptop several years later. It is too random to pinpoint exactly when a system will fail. It could happen at a moments notice, or may never happen. It's always better to be prepared for it, though.

In the end, it's up to you. Better safe than sorry, in my opinion.

 

Can also purchase with a CC that extends the warranty by another year...That won't add to your cost, but give you double the coverage...

 

Check with your homeowners/renters insurance company. Mine (USAA) provides a computer damage optional rider that is quite a bit cheaper than the Dell accidental damage offering, but does the same thing. My kid spilled water on his M15x and fried the MoBo. Called USAA, emailed a couple of photos of the dead computer and a copy of the order form and invoice from when it had shipped a couple years earlier and within a day I was on the phone with a rep who priced a comparable M17x R4 with us since they didn't make the 15" model anymore. Kid ended up with a better computer than he had to start with. Scavenged the RAM from the dead computer and the HDD and upgraded the new one when it came in from 8 to 16 Gigs of RAM and 2 500 Gig HDD's in a RAID 1 configuration.

 

BUY AS MUCH WARRANTY AS YOU ARE ALLOWED TO!!!

If your budget is small, then skimp on the parts initially, and expect upgrades down the road.

Just my 2 cents.

Bob

 

thing is i won't have homeowner's insurance as i am staying with relatives. I can only allow for 1 year of each if i bought the alienware 17 with the R9 M290X GPU.

 

Definitely get the accidental damage one then. As to the extended warranty, the system will come with 1 year standard and Dell will bug you for that entire year to purchase the extended coverage. You might want to hold off on extending it until later on in the year and use the case you'd pay now to buy a better computer with the idea you'll have the cash to upgrade the warranty 9 months down the road.

 

You can add it later but it will cost a lot more.

 

^^^About double, in fact. There is no better way to get it than to include in with the price of a new system... HUGE savings.

 

But this 2 cents is inaccurate, if you skimp on parts why do you need the warranty. When upgrading the parts arnt covered. And this may be the whole reason in buying the warranty. Unless you are strictly worried about the mobo.

 

When you are talking about a $3,000 to $5,000 laptop it is kind of nuts not to have it. On something like a cheap HP Envy or Lenovo Y-series "gaming laptop" probably not so much. Plus, HP warranty service sucks anyway. Primarily motherboard, Extreme CPU, video cards and display components are what matters. Upgrades purchased through Alienware are covered under warranty. The memory and drives don't need to be covered by warranty. Things like keyboards are generally cheap enough to not care about having an extended warranty. I have had several system exchanges and I am a firm believer in the value of having the extended warranty. When you need to buy an expensive and/or obsolete component that costs more than what you paid for the warranty there's nothing better than getting a repair or system exchange under warranty. The service, support and replacement parts that I have received has paid for the cost of the warranty many times over.

I agree that it does not make good sense to buy a cheap configuration with the idea of upgrading it later. That often ends up costing more in the long run without any warranty to cover the parts you could have paid less for in the beginning. The best approach is not to buy anything if you can't afford the configuration that you want. Just be patient and save your money a little longer to do it right the first time and it will be a better outcome. The downside to this approach is also that your extended warranty covered the low spec parts. If you ever need a system exchange, you will deserve to get another low spec replacement like the one you paid for. If you didn't save your original parts to put back into the machine, all of the expensive upgrades get sent to Alienware because you cannot return a system with no video cards, no CPU, etc.

 

When buying any machine/product refer to the bold. Don't shoot yourself in the foot when buying anything.