going to order soon, extended warranty?

I'm seriously pulling out hair over this.

What do you guys do or would recommend?
Best bang for the buck?

 

I think most people go for the 2-3 three year warranty. I'm kicking myself for going for only 1 year. I would go with two years as minimum if I would do it all over.

 

for the basic warranty or did you mean accidental?

from the dell.ca website,

1 year basic is included ---> to 2 year is 199
1 year accidental(includes basic) is 69 ----> 2 year is 279 ---> 3 year is 399.......

Man, i never buy warranty...so it's a tough choice right now.

I haven't checked the US store, so don't know offhand if the warranties are the same.

hard doing this on a phone, my current laptop is on loan to someone........

 

I have a two year old, so I normally buy the accidental now on stuff. Without kids or not really worried about getting your computer wet, splashed, shocked, etc, basic works great.

 

I am a non believer in extended warranties. However, since I roll my laptop to and from my car every day (I travel for a living), I popped for a 3 year + accidental. If you are going to plug it in and never move it, perhaps you do not need it. I know...tough choice.
This was written a couple years ago, but it is a good read:
http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

 

Dell quality control has reduced to a below average level due to cost reduction. I am never a extended warranty supporter. But in this case, I am going to get 3 years basic since i take great care of my purchase. But hardware failure is unpredictable and I highly recommand you not to risk it. This is an expensive laptop.

 

Take the warranty!
You will eventually need it. Trust me

If you sell your laptop while warranty is still active you get a lot more money for it (at least here in Europe).

So just take it

 

Get extended warranty together with the purchase.
I want to kick myself for not doing it when I bought the system.
After 2 months of owning the system, I ended up getting it anyway -- and paid more.

 

The great thing about Dell / Alienware is that a lot of parts are on eBay, as well as a bunch of other resellers, pretty cheap. Usually you can pick up smaller parts pretty easily.

That said, if something major breaks - GPU, CPU, screen, etc. - that's pretty much the cost of a warranty right there.

 

Are their companies that will provide a warranty besides Dell?

 

from what i got in this forum there are few other external companies that offer some kind of insurance but i'd stick to dell.

 

Absolutely. Just like cars...you can buy from an outside company, but there is quite a bit of hassle when you go outside the dealer for those.

Stick with Dell. They go to your house! No sending the laptop via UPS or the like. I used to work for UPS. You want to keep your precious laptop off those trucks as much as possible

 

I went for 1-year CC, but I wish I had done at least 2-yr CC...

 

Depending on when you bought it (within the first year of the laptop's ownership) you can call and extend your warranty, but you'll sometimes pay a little bit more than you would if you had bought it with the laptop.

 

I haven't asked for my M15x, but for other Dell laptop I've owned before, extending the warranty wasn't a little bit more expensive... it was a lot more!

 

The quotes Dell gave me were 25-50% more than the cost of buying it with the laptop, but I also had to buy it as a three year warranty. I wasn't given the option of a two year (for a Dell Studio 15).

It's not cheap, and I wouldn't bother doing it for a cheap M11X, but if you have an expensive M17X... worth it.

 

true, but in my case it was over 50% more expensive than if I had bought it initially...

 

Got the 1 year Advanced, if I use it with in the first year I will prolly extend it out a few more.. if not, I will just let it die off... Like what was said before.. most parts are on eBay, and seeing as how I am an iPod repair guy(its a hobby of mine) I think I can handle a laptop...

 

kinda bump..

can't decide between the 3year basic and 3 year advanced.. $100 difference..

any suggestions? real benefit of the advanced?

 

I would like to get the extended warranty but my wife would kill me! She's already fuming over the price as it is.

 

Don't forget that whatever warranty you get is extended by a year if you purchase with an AMEX card.

 

just ask yourself these questions:

do you move your computers around a lot? travel on airplanes a lot?

do you like to eat/drink around your computers?

will other people be using your computer?

if you answered yes to any of these questions, consider getting the extended warranty. all it takes is one mistake and a spill of water on your keyboard and you could be SOL

if you answered no, then you are probably good to go with just a standard warranty.

bottom line: this is a big purchase that should be insured. the last thing you want is to have something happen to it in just over a year and you have to fork over hundreds to fix it....or have to buy another one...

 

my debate isn't about extending it. i'm getting a 3 year regardless. i've had to have my entire inspiron 1545 replaced (except the cpu, ram, and hd) multiple times over the last three years. it's warranty expires in like a week, and i'm moving on to the m14x.. (we're choosing to forget the 2800 i originally chose to spend on a sager 8150 a few weeks ago. returning it lol).

i'm debating between the 3year basic and the 3year advanced

 

If you EVER use it, you will have just made your money back right there. And if anything catastrophic happens and they send you a whole new system, you'll jump for joy.

I get mine for 4 years typically because I do not want a dead machine before then. As time goes by there is more, not less, chances things go wrong. Worth every penny in my book.

 

At the moment I'm torn between 1-Year Advanced, or 2-Year Basic.

Usually I'd get the Basic one, except that with my last laptop I had an unfortunate incident with a pair of headphones, their huge 3.5mm connection, and a cracked motherboard...

 

Did you go for the Basic or Advanced warranty? That's the only choice I'm having a difficult time making.

 

2 yr basic is best bang for the buck. We are not talking about accidents here but in normal usage. Let's say you didn't extend the warranty and after about 13 months, you were just using your laptop normally listening to music then boom your laptop shuts off (mobo, gpu, whatever etc..) then it no longer turns on.

Now you are screwed because you will either have it fix from your own money or you have to buy another laptop. 2 years is definitely the recommended warranty.

Now for Accidental warranty, it is for careless people or people that has kids or pets. Accidental warranty is not really recommended for people that takes good care of their laptop. I mean what idiot will drink a soda near a laptop w/o closing the cap or what idiot will carry their laptop like a klutz and then drops it.

 

i just got a 4 year basic with dell.ca, same price as the 3 year which kinda made me go from the 2 year to the 4. I got a 3 year with my m1530 and was able to get a free xps 1645 out if it as it broke 2 years into the warranty and they no longer had the parts to fix it. Im kinda hoping that it may work out the same way here when 3 years down the road my m14x will probably break and theyll be forced to replace it lol

 

I agree with others, two years is prolly the minimum one should get.

As for advanced vs regular, what your getting is extra coverage on just what it says, accidents, if you are the kind of person who things always seem to happen to, or will ne usig the laptop in risky environments, you should get it.

I'm not one of those people and I still got the advanced coverage. Better to be safe imo

 

Looks like I'll be doing the 3 year basic then.. I had a three year basic on my inspiron and Dell was always easy and helpful with it

 

I was reading that Dell laptops have a 1 in 5 chances of breaking down at the 2 year mark, so that's a 20% chance.

I personally feel alot better with 2-3 year ...4 year is too long because your laptop won't be able to play any new games at even low settings by then in my opinion.

AW will get you a good chunk of resale value and having the extended warranty will keep the resale price high.

 

yeah when i order mine i'll be getting the advanced 3 year warranty

 

lol thats why I pay with my amex card they give me a free 1 year warranty screw the dell crap, so 1 year basic becomes 2 woot I love this card

 

Yeah, I agree about AMEX. However, my 3 year advanced becomes 4 year advanced. That is about a laptop's lifespan for me. The Dell warranty is NOT crap! I have used both Dell's and AMEX. Both are good.

 

I would recommend getting the 3 year warranty. PM me for more info on getting a discount when you hit 5 posts.

 

In the course of one year (One year anniversary with my Alienware this month!) I have used warranty at least 5 times. Got one replacement system, 4 crossfire cards replaced, and two motherboard replacements....not to mention a whole replacement system.....


is extended warranty through Dell worth it? BELIEVE IT!!!!

I would be out of warranty soon if I had not purchased the Advanced warranty. It's been saving my butt so far this year. I am just glad I didn't have to ship my laptop somewhere. Dell came to me to fix it, etc. Good stuff.

 

seems like the extended warranty is a no-brainer for the M11x at least, seeing as how bad the build quality of the R1/R2 models were.

It's interesting to note that with Dell's Latitude line, even the models bought from the Outlet store come with a 3-year next business day service warranty, built into the price. Dell probably knows that the likelihood of failure in those more expensive models is far lower and can afford to add in a 3 year warranty, knowing that it's unlikely to be used.

 

That's what you would think, but I don't know if that's actually what's happening. I had a D830 (paid about $1500, had pretty much all the upgrades) and I used that warranty ALOT. I have legitimately lost track of the issues I had with it, and I've had issues with the replacement system they sent me.

I would guess that it's industry standard. Laptops being used for presentations or field representatives are likely going to need the warranty at some point, so they may just include it as incentive or because it's a standard thing that's bought frequently.

 

If you chose to go with the basic warranty for say 3 years, and you had some type of hardware failure and Dell sent out a technician to come and replace the defective part, if the technician ended up scratching the system or causing cosmetic damage, would Dell do anything about it since the basic warranty does not cover it? That's my only worry really as I take very good care of my things, especially very expensive things.

 

when i ordered my aurora from them they called me after like 2 months and offered to extend it for like 1/2 the price. You think they would do that on the M17X?

 

Of course. Any damage caused by the on-site repair tech during a service dispatch will be covered by Dell regardless of type of warranty. They damaged it and they will fix it. Its that simple.

 

Then the tech that damage it will get punish by Dell right? Like it will come out of his paycheck?

 

How awkward would it be for a tech that you reported for damaging your laptop that's facing a potential job loss showed up on a 2nd service call LOL

 

Lol he should handle it with care then.