Extended Warranty Recommendation?

Loving my 4k 9550 so far, but the internet is scaring me.

I have 15 more days to buy Best Buy's accidental/total warranty. It's expensive, over $300, but given the fact that I saved like $900 off of the $2,299 price (haggled on open box) I think I should spend the money on a warranty.

Issues like the thing up and dying, blue screening, lines developing on the panel, etc, all have me concerned. People make this machine sound like it's a ticking time bomb and I'd rather not risk it crapping out one day. I did a clean install and everything is peachy, but I'm still worried about longevity.

I don't trust Dell's warranty department, so I'm looking around for an ideal option.

My receipt says $1,503 from Best Buy. If I got the Square Trade route, I'm guessing I'd select the $1,500-$1,999 range? If so and this thing dies in a year, SQ would only replace it with a machine in that range, not the $2,299 value of this machine, correct?

Also, given the above question, my guess is Best Buy would do the same (i.e replace it as a $1,500 value, not the gen2 XPS 15 4k or whatever is current 1-3 yrs out)?

I'm not looking to game anything here, but if I'm dropping $300+ on a "don't worry about a thing" warranty, I'd like a matching machine ($2,299 retail value) to be the replacement if I need to use it (and it can't be fixed).

Any thoughts?

 

Even with the poor service from Dell I would still rate it above any 3rd party company having worked for one!
The 1st place they try for parts is eBay.

 

Go with square trade. Best buy extended warranties are a scam.

The way that square trade warranties work is that they pay for work up to the amount of coverage you selected. If you picked $1500 of coverage, then they would pay for any repairs:
1). After Dell's standard warranty expired
2) Before Square Trade's warranty agreement expired
3) Up to the amount of coverage selected.

So if you drop your laptop and incur $1400 in damage in year 2.5 of ownership, you're covered.


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Thanks for the replies. Any recommendations about calling Dell and negotiating a 3-yr on-site warranty or something? I am not really needing accidental damage as this machine primarily stays home, so I don't foresee it being physically damaged. My main concern is hardware failing. I can fix most stuff, but if the panel goes out or has lines appear, I'm not exactly wanting to replace the screen with eBay parts. Did that once with a Lenovo and it was a nightmare.

Also, can I select the higher price bracket for Square Trade? As in the $2,000-$2,999 range, even though the receipt shows less? I would think it's reasonable since the machine retails for $2,299.

One last question about the start of the Dell warranty. Best Buy told me the warranty will reset (start) the day I bought it, as in it's day 1 (3/31/3016 is day 1). I checked the service tag on Dell's website before buying and it shows the hardware warranty began in Nov 2015 and expires 3/31/2017. I guess this is because it was open box and the original person who bought it registered it in Nov 2015.

Best Buy was adamant that the warranty would reset to the day I purchased it, as they guarantee open box purchases as new and come with a full warranty. I believe Dell's warranties are 15 months or so? How do I go about resetting it to the day I bought it? Contact Dell I'm guessing and provide the receipt?

 

This is how I recommend you purchase extended warranties: Buy a warranty for as long as you absolutely must have that laptop operate.


For example: You buy a new laptop, and absolutely must get at least 2 years of use out of it for school / work / personal use. After those 2 years, if the laptop dies, then it wouldn't be a big deal to replace that laptop (for either cost reasons, or because you know 2 years is about how long you'd wait to consider getting an upgrade).

If that is the case, then you want to get two total years of coverage on that laptop (1 year standard warranty + 1 year extended warranty). If you don't think that you need accidental damage coverage, then see if you can elect to skip that coverage to save some money.

Make sense?



P.S. If you're going to buy a warranty, get it from Dell or SquareTrade. Dell has the advantage of using its own service network (fast shipping / sourcing of replacement parts, next-day onsite service). SquareTrade has the advantage of being very cost-effective, though it typically does require you to mail in your laptop for service. Best Buy is the worst.... they cost a lot, and require you to send in your laptop (meaning you'll be without a laptop for several weeks if there's a problem).

 

Sounds like I should call Dell and go from there.

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Waiting to see what they want for a 4th year!

 

I called Dell, spent some time on the phone. All they would offer is a 3-yr mail-in for $340.

Squaretrade's 3yr accidental w/no deductible is $364.

Is the Dell mail-in (non ADH) a better buy still? I just wonder about how Square Trade will really be able to fix this machine. It seems like it's out of their wheelhouse...

My machine is running flawlessly so I'm tempted to just call all of this off and gamble with the standard 1-yr Dell warranty. I figure if something will malfunction, it would have probably done so already.

 

They want £125 to extend from 3 to 4 years

 

My experience in the last couple of years (3 Dell laptops in the family) is that they have tried to blame me for breaking anything I tried to get warranty service, saying "So sorry sir, you don't have the accident coverage and a headphone jack would surely not break on it's own, so you must have damaged it yourself."

With my current Alienware M17x, about 3 years old, the nVidia GPU is crashing a LOT. Clearly going out (which is why I'm looking at the XPS 15, though with all the problems I'm seeing here I'm tempted to wait a bit.) A headphone jack stopped working 16 months in.

It's all playing the lottery/gambling. They take your warranty money and gamble you won't use it so they can pocket the money. You pay the warranty and it's money well spent if you need it.

I've had some luck with Squaretrade with phones, but make sure you add the cost of the deductible into the price of the warranty. And be aware, they cap your coverage at whatever you start with, unlike Dell. So, for example, with Dell let's say your motherboard goes out 3 times and the out of pocket cost would have been (making something up) $2000. They cover it. But if you paid for $1500 of Squaretrade coverage with a $300 deductible, you would pay the $300, but they would only cover you for the $1500 total - once you use it up, your warranty is done, no matter how much time is left.

FWIW

 

Yeah I'm within the 30 days 100% refund within ST and will probably cancel it to get my $364 back. I've run Forza for hours at high resolution, fans going nuts. If something were to break, it would have already.

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So from what I've gathered so far...

#1 Dell Warranty (Unlimited.)
#2 Squaretrade. (Limited, once you use up the 'retainer,' it's gone forever.)
#3 Best Buy. (..)