Dell's One Year Warranty Extension? Fair? Other Options?

Ok, I had a rather heated discussion about Dell's 1 year warranty extension. I felt it was not nearly enough and wanted a lifetime GPU warranty while others thinks its about the best we can expect as anything more is just unrealistic. It was a good dialogue and brought up some interesting points. Understanding Dell's position and Nvidia's, our rights as consumers, and what ultimately is reasonable in light of this major problem both for us and Dell/Nvidia. Take a moment and see it from both sides...

So, what is reasonable for us to expect from Dell in light of this one year extension. Are you happy? What do you think is reasonable? What are some other options Dell/Nvidia could offer to keep you happy and coming back as a customer?

 

Since my discussion with fonduekid, I have changed my position slighty, it was afterall a good discussion and I see a bit more clearly and am certainly a lot less annoyed with the whole thing So, my take is a more middle road approach, if Dell gave us some sort of longer warranty and a gift card, say a couple hundred bucks on our next machine, I would be happy. I also think it is doable from a business perspective, both the warranty and gift card don't cost them as much, certainly the warranty is cheap (they make lots of $ on warranties, and the card is not a full value write off to them.)

 

I'm happy with the extra one year. That brings it to 2 years total. Since I dont plan on owning the laptop that long, I'm good to go

 

I want a fixed GPU.

 

I don't mind the 1 year extension (making mine 3 years in total now) ... it sure is a lot better than nothing.

 

i already have 4 yr warranty... 5 yrs? how about an upgrade (like returning my m1330 for the next-gen m1330 and i'll pay the price difference?)

 

I was hoping to be able to hold onto my recent Vostro 1400 purchase (8400M GS), but for lack of response from Dell I returned it. I really liked and thought about keeping it, thinking that Dell would step up to the plate... but now that I see this I'm glad I returned it. One extra year is a joke considering the BIOS update for the fan, which will only delay the inevitable. And any extended warranty repair may just put back another defective GPU!

 

Lifetime GPU warranty would never happen. Think about it, if you owned a company, you would not want people getting parts for little to nothing to be replaced for however long they decide. You'd rather they had a laptop for a decent amount of time(3-5 years), then replaced.

 

This is nice but a replacement for a new faultless gpu is the best idea, I know that it is alot of money for DELL and Nvidia but WE PAID FOR IT, SO IS WORTH IT.

 

I think Hyundai and Chrysler are going to be regretting this in the future.

 

Here is my opinion:

"Thanks Dell! I look forward to replacing my GPU with another defective part 1 year from today!"

I am so harsh. But seriously, why the heck should I be excited about an extended warranty when my experience with Dell so far has proven that they do not necessarily STOP using hardware that is known to be problematic. They play the odds, and therefore they expect me to as well. I feel that this makes them $ oriented, not customer oriented. I have mentioned before that I think that it is unfortunate that this process has to occur because of a failure of a major vendor to provide quality parts. Nevertheless, Dell makes the end product and the end product is what I spent my money on.

I have my fingers crossed now that my GPU is going to last longer than my interest in this machine. Otherwise, and bearing a good experience should the time come that I need to replace this PC, I will most likely NOT be back. I say, give a lifetime warranty on the part until a repair results in the inclusion of new and / or known working hardware. At that time, I will play the NORMAL odds again like I would with anything. I just wish I knew that the company was standing behind me and 'blasting' the origin of the problem itself. In other words, just give me an ATI part and skip the extended warranty. I would be happy with that.

 

That's probably impossible. I doubt that the current motherboard would accept a different GPU without a certain amount of re-engineering. And since it's apparent that there IS no such thing as a "good" 8xxx GPU, then what could Dell possibly replace it with?

 

love and money.

 

I picked 2-3 years extension only because the fix I think is not in the poll.

I want a replacement GPU that has no manufacturing defect or any other defect.

I find it disturbing that people think that they deserve anything less than what they paid for, ( GPU with no flaws )

 

If it dies after the 1420 is out of production, wouldn't one get a different laptop?

 

I'm sure Dell maintains replacement parts to service individual models long after they cease active production. They replaced the motherboard on my old M140 a good year and a half after that model had been replaced. Think about it...ther'e no way Dell would write 3 or 4 year warranties if it meant having to ship brand new models in years 3 and 4. They'll have plenty of boneyard parts to fix old models.

 

This is what I find so amazing. People just tend to give up on what they paid for! Why is it so hard to fathom that Dell/Nvidia should have to pay an ungodly amount to fix their screw up? So many here just say "its never going to happen (a replacement/fix) so be happy with a year" I find this attitude weak and pathetic. I stil think Dell/Nvidia need to do more to reassure me that I will have a functioning laptop for the next several years.

 

Hi, I did buy my laptop before the whole video mess surfaced. I am happy that they are at least giving an extension to the warranty but I do think, if they are doing this, that they should have given a longer period of time, say two years. I do not think it is fair that people get their laptop fixed just because they happen to have a longer warranty than me for a problem that is a known defect.

I am not sure what else Dell could be doing at this point. They are at the mercy of Nvidia, as are we all. The only thing would be to retool the whole laptop to give it an ati video card. I do not know what the logistics of that would be but I can only imagine that changing every single laptop that has the video problem would put Dell into bankrupcy. Right or not, Dell is going to be thinking about money and not about total customer satisfaction. Remember, a huge percentage of people with these computers do not even know about the problem and we do not even know how widespread the problem is. I do not believe that Nvidia itself knows how many video cards are failing/will fail. I guess the bottom line is that people who do not feel that Dell is doing enough can choose to not buy from Dell and/or Nvidia again but unfortunately that is about the only thing that we as consumers can do right now.

 

I'm going to guess that Dell won't do more just because of the cost associated with it. These laptops will be well used so they will be failing anyway; extending it further will cost more and more as more laptops deteriorate over time.

 

You are preaching to the choir here Mark. Having spent a lot of time in an IT department and watched as we have had to resolve issues with one vendor after the next, one thing has become clear: A lot of companies are banking on people's passive / unmotivated or otherwise 'peaceful' nature (as they RAIL on web forums or vow to never purchase again, ect).

While it is probably usually unwise to flaunt large companies, I often like to point to the other obvious side: The billions of dollars spent building an image of high quality and happy customers. Global powerhouse, smart choice, ect. ect. ect. All lip service if nothing gets done when something like this goes wrong. They may have market data showing that a repair is costlier than (failure rate X Total sold / people's tendency to care) a replacement (total sold X new part X postage X hourly wage X lawsuit against Nvidia ect).

I will fight tooth and nail if this becomes a real issue for me (hey, higher than 'average' failure rate, whatever THAT means, at least IMPLIES that I might have a normal life expectancy). But I won't be sitting down or on the forum if someone challenges my right to own a non-defective product (when and if I do have an issue pop up). I will get my repair! I look forward to watching how this pans out in the coming weeks. I will always have a computer, but it doesn't have to be a dell.

So c'mon people, who's the greedy one? The person that buys something and expects it to last a few years, or the person that makes the sale and takes a walk when its time for a little courtesy and support? No one is asking to bankrupt these effected companies, we just want them living up to their end of the bargain.

Again I think about the Ford / Firestone fiasco. Do you think you would have let ford extend a warranty on defective tires when you had your significant other to you right, your baby in the back and your own *** behind the wheel on the highway? Interesting stuff indeed.

 

Read what I have posted.

Belive me or not.... I have a valid point

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288761

 

Sorry to command this thread a little. This comment may get me in to trouble, but I would like to point out that consumers do not always have to take a bad deal 'just because'. These companies are not above the law - in other words, they cannot FORCE you to do anything. The market is supposed to be voluntary right?

Well, I forget the name of it, but there was a class action lawsuit in California against Dell a while ago involving the Inspiron 1510 I think. I forget the name of the suit, but basically, all the 1510s were overheating and killing themselves because of what amounted to shoddy engineering. I have a friend with that model, and hers basically has suffered the exact issue that the suit was for! You should feel how hot that thing gets. Evidently not everyone sits down when the big, bad company tells them "nah, we aren't going to do anything". Thanks to that suit, everyone gets a repair if it is related to the defect. Whenever it occurs. Whether or no you are the original owner. Period. How's that for a business incentive to test rigorously before shipping thousands of units?

 

Can we have the option: "I am happy, but would like more"?

 

Is this extension world-wide? I am from Canada and checked my warranty status at the dell.ca web-site and my warranty has NOT been extended.

 

it hasnt been implemented yet... its just a dell CSR (with some power) posts to let us know whats coming...

for now, it looks like USA only... but no other details has been released.... just keep an eye out for it in the next few months... probably dell woul dsend something in ur mail to tell u

 

mgh a1, wow, finally!! someone with a good sense of what this is about, whats fair, and a real understanding of how business operates. I'm not alone!

I think there are many younger folks here who have yet to understand how the business world works and don't understand the value of an earned dollar. At least that is all I can come up with to explain the lack of outrage. Many are also enamoured with these companies and will fight to the death should you disparage the good name of Dell or Nvidia as in their minds they can do no wrong and will always behave in a fair and just way. wake up folks...protect your investment, stop making excuses for these guys!

 

That's the spirit Mark! Its good to have someone with a similar understanding of the issue.

 

I'm 47, but maybe I'm simply past the point of lathering up significant outrage over a potential GPU problem.

I say potential because there's nothing to indicate that these things are going to fail in huge numbers. All they've ever said is that they're failing in numbers statistically higher than the norm. I have no idea what would be considered a normal failure rate, but say it's 3%. If the failure rate on this series is projected to be 9%, well that's a large statistical increase and a huge headache for Nvidia and Dell. But it would still leave the vast majority of users unaffected.

I guess I'll try to whip up some outrage down the road if my GPU actually blows up and Dell won't fix it, but until then the best I can do is watch with interest. Sorry.

 

You have the read the fine print... it's a limited extended warranty targeted at the GPU specifically. It does not extend your regular warranty! At least Dell is offering it. It would not be financially feasible if they just replace the gpu if there's nothing wrong with it. A case by case basis would be the logical step. Now hopefully other makers will follow suit... HP, ACER, Sony, etc

 

HP were first to offer extended warranty

 

You are absolutely right. I am younger, so perhaps more inclined to believe that each occurrence of this type is a humongous world-first-injustice, however it is important to note that while your logic is sound, we have no basis for which to apply it. In other words, there has not been a release about how widespread the problem is, what the percentages might be, or what relationship exists between the vendors ' inadequate cooling solution' and the chips 'defective coating'.

The current state of affairs seems to be 1.) the old fashioned blame game and 2.) An actual discovery that there is a problem. My sense is that there are three battlefields in play. One being the one between consumer and end-product (us), one between manufacturer and supplier (Dell and Nvidia), and the third battlefield being the place where information about said battles is being created and disseminated.

So far, we have a bios update and talk of a widespread warranty extension, but we know NOTHING of the core of the issues which I think people are bringing up. Many points are valid, however I also believe, aside from wanting customer service, that it will be a shame if we cannot get our information also. Sure, the companies effected would like to handle this behind closed doors and wait for memories to fade away, so that business can be resumed as usual. I, however, would prefer to see the pot stirred. I hate getting the shaft, but remaining ignorant also? That is just insulting. I can understand a business 'case'. Can they understand a consumer case?

 

There are no massive failures otherwise it would've been recalled by now. Probably the affected GPUs were only made by one factory where the quality wasn't up to par and when they realized it instead of dumping it they went ahead and marketed it. That's why nVidia doesn't even know how many GPUs were affected. Those who decided to market the defective chips should be fired as they blemished their company's reputation and causing their stocks to dive. Now it's found that their other GPUs might have been compromised not just the 8400/8600 series. ATI is looking good for now.