Dell offered me 364.00 for the 3 year warranty

I bought my laptop with the standard 1 year warranty, Dell is harrassing me and telling me that I should have the 3 year for only 364 since it's a special promotion right now.

Do you think I should get this? I have the xps 1530 with the a12 bios and the 8600gt.

I do have a bad keyboard that skips freaking keys while typing.

 

Is it 3 years complete care ? Your keyboard may be fixed by reseating it

 

I guess you should go for it, 8600M GT is faulty and it could damage sooner or later.

 

Talk them down, they can lower the price. I got that for less

 

It's 3 year, total care, they said my 8600gt issue has been fixed a while ago.

 

how much did your laptop cost?

if the warranty's more than 25% of the original cost, don't get it...

when it breaks down, the money you used $364 can be used to buy a new laptop... sell the old one as-is on fleabay to lower the cost of buying the new one

 

Rule of thumb... NEVER buy an extended warranty... ON ANYTHING

 

I bought it for 700, I'm not messing with that warranty.

 

Why do you say this ? I have good luck with extended warranties. You don't have to buy the warranty from Dell you could go with Squaretrade etc. For a 2K laptop I think that the complete care warranty is well worth the cost .

 

Consumer Reports (and other articles) have proven it isn't worth it almost all of the time. When you factor in depreciation, statistics of something going wrong, change in technology, cost of parts, it usually just doesn't make sense. You are mathematically better off taking your chances. Why else would places sell them? They are pure profit.

 

Hmmmm... Let's see... I purchased a XPS M1710 3 years ago. After the first year I started having issues with it. GPU failed. Thanks to my 4 YEAR WARRANTY (extended) a tech came out and replaced the failing video card. The card alone would've been 800+ dollars at the time on ebay.

The LCD failed on me and again Dell sent out a tech and replaced it. This would've been another 400+ dollars to repair.

A few months later video card failed again. This time Dell did not have any on hand. Again, thanks to my warranty, Dell sent me a XPS M1730 since they could not replace the video card on time.

So to sum it up, for the extra 300 bucks I paid to max my warranty, I not only had 1200 bucks in repairs done, but ended up with a new machine to boot. I have to say the extended warranty came in handy and was well worth it.

To the OP: If you want to keep your lappie and don't plan on upgrading right away, I would extend the warranty. Dell can be hard to deal with at times, but they always come through on their warranty work/replacements.

If you are going to buy a Dell laptop and invest 1500+ dollars, I always SUGGEST maxing the warranty and going with Complete Care/Accidental Damage. If something happens or fails, you will be happy you did.

 

You are definitely an anomaly.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...ty-11-06/overview/extended-warranty-11-06.htm

http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/deals/Extended-Warranty-Rip-Offs-17820/

http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/71130

http://www.cleveland.com/pdq/index.ssf/2008/11/consumer_reports_advises_again.html

 

He's not an anomaly, it happens to a lot of people. In fact, here's a quote from your consumer reports link:

 

+ 1 rep on the way to you

 

I know what it says. Still, mathematically - doesn't make sense.

 

ya, it doesn't make sense

but like life insurance... why bother then? i just wished to have peace of mind...

the 4 yr warranty i got was at a great price point ($1300 total last august...)... coupled with XPS Premium service and NBD warranty, i think it's worth it

not to mention the stuff i've replaced since getting it, 2/5 falling onto accidental wise (keyboard with water spilt onto ($20 on ebay?), broken hinge because of idiotic friend who dropped it($30 for display assembly?), wifi antenna plug broken, dvd drive dead and mobo replacement for GPU problems...

only the mobo and wifi replacement replacement can be fully considered "Dell's fault"... the dvd drive dead could happen to anyone with the same drive, and the first two can be considered non-Dell's fault

think it's worth it for a premium notebook... but for a netbook that costs $200, probably not

 

On any notebook costing $2,000+ or even $1,000+, it's well worth it to pay an extra $200 to get 3 years of on-site warranty coverage versus 1 year of mail-in service.

Let's say the laptop has no problems until the day after its 3rd "birthday" when it fails. Assuming you cannot recoup anything in parts, etc., your total cost would be an extra $66.66/year.

If, however, some part does fail within those 3 years (like the motherboard needing to be replaced due to overheating, which is a common issue with the M1330 and M1530), then you would have to pay much more than that $200 on a laptop that is out of warranty. Otherwise, you now have a $1,000+ paper-weight and have to buy a new machine, transfer your data, etc.

With the extended warranty, you now get a replacement from Dell and the machine is still covered for the remainder of the warranty term in case something else fails.

So if you amortize the cost, the peace of mind is well worth the small additional cost per year.

 

Personal anecdote is not evidence. There is no reason anyone would sell extended warranty unless they made a profit out of it. While you may be getting peace of mind, if overall dell is making a profit, it means the consumers are overall making a loss. If your peace of mind worth it? That's for you to decide. I've had my laptop for close to three years, and although the CD drive has failed (and it's not under warranty anymore), I'm looking for a replacement anyway.

 

of course companies make a profit, but just because its profitable doesn't mean we as consumers shouldn't buy it, it that was the case then we wouldn't be buying anything. The company will make their profit on the consumer who buys that extended warrantee and never uses it because their machine never breaks, or more likely replaces it with a new model before the warrantee expires. However on consumers who keep the computer during the duration of the warrantee, i'm sure they pretty much just break even.

 

Your logic is correct, but I believe the underlying assumptions are not, IMHO.

Do you know how much it costs Dell to replace your motherboard? A lot less than it would cost you. That goes for parts and labor. Dell pays a measly amount for the service call itself, they have what must be a very good negotiated rate with the carriers (e.g. UPS, FedEx) and the parts cost them very little. Compare that to what it would cost you to hire a technician to do the work, and pay for the part + shipping, and you will definitely come out ahead on a big job, and likely come out ahead on some smaller jobs, too.

So while Dell may make a profit on your extended warranty purchase, that doesn't mean you'd do better if you purchase the service a la carte, on your own. Again, that's considering parts and labor, since Dell's costs are far lower than yours.

 

It's worth it if you are going to keep ypur computer for a few years, Onsite support is great Especially if you use your computer for business, it saves you about 8-10 days in mailing the computer to dell and dell returning it to you.

 

Actually reading all the posts I agree with either of the cases i.e. having extended warranty and not having one.

So logically speaking I guess there is a trade-off between both.

What I feel is 2years of Total care warranty would justify the situation (max it to 3 years if you want). Anything above 3 years would be "not waste" of money but the graph of cost vs protection to the 3years old specs would not be favorable/considerable.

Due to the fast changing technology, Im sure you wont like to stick around with your old specs.

Hence 2 years of warranty justified for me.