Did I just void my warranty?

I was setting my laptop on the desk when I snagged the cord. The notebook fell on the lid and dented it near the hinge. It works fine except for the fact that I cannot run on batteries - just the plug. I need this computer for just a few more days so I cannot send it off for repair.

Did I just void the warranty?

 

i don't know if you voided your warranty, but the repair will not be covered by your warranty most likely...unless you have accidental warranty.

 

Ouch, that sucks.

If you have the accidental warranty, it will be covered. Otherwise, it won't void your warranty, but you will need to pay for the repair costs.

 

This is where you call dell and get complete care and report the accident two weeks later. Yes you can do it

 

Why does DELL allow it? That’s a bad move, especially when you know that people will exploit it .

 

LMAO I never thought of that scam. Rofl!

 

No morality?

 

Dell is a massive multi-billion dollar company. This loss of a couple of hundred dollars (of which they gain some back through the CompleteCare warranty) is not going to hurt them in any way. However, this few hundred will affect you in a much larger way. Thus, there is greater net gain if you do as S_GTO suggested.

 

Advocating fraud here, I see.

It's not only immoral and illegal, it also degrades the level of trust in this society. Do you want Dell to start requiring proof that the accident didn't happen earlier? The reason this is exploitable (Dell being tolerant) is the very reason we shouldn't abuse it (Dell might stop being tolerant), apart from the legal and moral issues.

Please don't, for the benefit of all of us.

 

A devout Buddhist condones stealing?

 

Don't even come off calling me a thief or a scammer. You don't realize that dell still makes money off of this and that is the very reason they allow complete care to be purchased after initial time of sale. You don't think they have people smarter than you on their team already aware of what average humans would do? Complete care costs 200 to purchase and to fix the original posters problem would cost 50 bucks at maximum pulling from a large bin of refurbished parts. Think about it, a computer has so many parts to it. Each can be offered at 200 a part ideally under the ideal conditions of dell. If Someone breaks their monitor and gets complete care, that's 200 right there. If another person fries a motherboard and purchase complete care, that's another200. And as you can see, it adds up to dells advantage. This is not a scam. If dell was losing money, they would only offer it at time of purchase.

This is the very reason I mostly keep to myself with these suggestions as the general population simply do not understand.

And please, don't ever question my morality and ethics unless you know me personally.

And sorry if anything is unclear. I'm typing this on my phone.

 

I mean...Jesus guys. It is time to take responsibilities of your own action. You broke something, and you should be responsibly. You shouldn’t look for a way let others pay for what you have done; I believe it is a moral issue.

 

Considering myself a devout Buddhist, I did indeed cringe when I read Sirius's signature. As I see it, the 2nd (against stealing) and 4th (against lying) precepts would be violated.

This being said, some caution needs to be applied when questioning someone's devotion to their own religion. For one thing, the Buddhist precepts are subject to interpretation. For instance, I'm looking at a formulation of the first precept which goes "I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures". What is a living creature? Today we consider bacteria to be living creatures but in Buddha's time they did not think about bacteria. Or what about stealing? Is copying a copyrighted mp3 for my friend stealing? The law says yes but there was no notion of copyright in Buddha's time.

The other thing, and I will be the first to recognize that what I'm about to say applies to my own situation, is that being "devout" does not mean being "saintly". You can find honestly devout Buddhists (or Christians or Muslims or Hindus...) that do not perfectly follow all the precepts of their religion. In Buddhist theory, at any rate, the notion is that I've been engaged in lying, stealing, killing, etc. from time immemorial (Buddhists usually believe in rebirth). Those are deeply ingrained habits that take a long time to overcome. Through a process of introspection, I can overcome them but the process is (usually) not instantaneous. The important thing is to be honest with oneself and to vow to do better in the future.

 

What I'm saying is that dell realizes that people do this. They allow it because they still make money either way. Let's say someone fries a motherboard, they most likely will buy another motherboard from eBay and NOT dell. So to encourage their customers to stay with dell they offer this complete care warranty. And about the subject of lying, who are you lying to? I believe you're lying to company that isn't an emotional being. If what is to be said affects a dell representative first hand, my advice would be different. That's all I'm going to say.

 

Wow. I didn't realize this question was going to lead to war.

Somehow, the notebook is working without the plug. Who knows ? Maybe Uri Geller had something to do with it. I remember reading an issue of Star magazine as a kid when he claimed that if we touch our broken item (it must have been in the late 70s or early 80s) and called on his power (or something like that), that the item would work again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Geller

 

How about we get back to helping this guy out instead of taking personal attacks against each other? The discussion about scamming or whatever you want to call it needs to be taken to PM or OT.

 

LMAO... this is unnecessary but i am laughing my butt off.

at least his notebook is working without the plug now, problem solved.

 

I was not calling you a thief, but as asking whether a devout Buddhist would condone stealing which in my opinion this is. Since I am not a devout Buddhist, I don't know.

 

ScreamingBlueMessiah that was totally unnecassary and not funny (grin)
and Uri geler is a phony!!

 

Its not stealing, complete care starts from the day they ship the computer, not the day you buy the warranty. They allow you up to a year to buy the warranty, so if you buy 3 years CC a year after you bought the pc you would have 2 years left, just because you didnt buy it before you had the accident doesnt make you a liar or a thief for buying it after the fact, if you talk to a decent dell rep, buying the CC is usually their first suggestion if its a pricey repair if you are still eligible for it.

 

If you tell Dell that your laptop is broke and ask if you can buy Complete Care to cover it, any moral or legal issues are out of the way.

If Dell argues the way some here are suggesting, they would have no problems with that, and all will be fine.

 

Searching the web, I've found nothing from Dell themselves saying how long you have before they won't sell you Complete Care. On other sites, I've seen people say two weeks, one month and here we have one year. It seems that the only way to know for sure is to talk to a Dell representative.

I can imagine Dell representatives investigating each call on a case-by-case basis and decide based on their corporate rules whether it makes sense to give coverage or not, under what conditions and at what price. Whether there is stealing or not or lying or not depends on the specifics of conversation between the Dell representative and the caller.

 

If you think it's wrong morally, then don't do it.

I've taken my religion out of my signature because it seems like my opinions are insulting to other members of the same religion.

 

Thanks for the tip Sirius! I'll use when needed.

 

Since when does Dell allow CompleteCare warranty to be purchased AFTER the system is purchased?

 

why can't you? i don't see a reason why not...

 

Nowhere in their contract says that you cannot purchase complete care after the accident.

 

The contract does not need to contain language to that effect because the contract is designed to come into effect with the purchase of a NEW device. Note that it is not possible to just go to Dell's web site and purchase complete care online. If you want it, you need to give your contact information and a representative will talk to you. Why? Because if you did not buy it at the same time you bought your computer, they need to talk to you before going ahead with the deal. Here's the page you get to if you try to buy it online:

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...completecare?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&redirect=1

When the customer representative calls back, that representative can ask questions like whether the computer has been damaged between the time of purchase and the time the discussion is occurring. Basically, Dell is not obliged by any means to enter into a Complete Care contract with everybody who wants one. They have the right to filter who can and can't get onto the contract if it is not done at the time the computer is purchased. The conditions for deciding who can or cannot enter into the contract do not need to be part of the language of the contract. That's nothing special, just how contracts work.

I'm not claiming to know what CSRs ask buyers when they call to buy complete care after they bought their computer but a caller desirous not to find himself in an unethical situation should pay attention to what the CSR says at the other end of the line.

 

I added Complete Care and extended my warranty about a month after I purchased my computer, and Iceman is right about it being backdated to the original purchase date. This is how it shows on my account:

Type of coverage/start date/end date/days left

Complete Care DELL 2/8/2007 12/28/2010 1304
Next Business Day DELL 12/28/2006 12/28/2007 208
Next Business Day, Includes Nights/Weekends DELL 2/8/2007 12/28/2010 1304
Technical Support - Phone Assistance DELL 12/28/2006 12/28/2007 208
Technical Support - Phone Assistance DELL 2/8/2007 12/28/2010 1304
XPS Technical Support DELL 12/28/2006 12/28/2007 208

She didn't ask me about damage to the laptop when I added Complete Care, although there wasn't any.

 

Dell may not lose money in this case, but what about a case where the cost of repairing the damage is greater than the net revenue generated from selling Complete Care? Is it okay then?

And pretending that things affecting a company don't also have an indirect effect on the people associated with that company is simply a rationalization, not a logically consistent justification.

 

Look up your service tag, it will show what warranty you currently have and how long, and will show you what options you have to extend the coverage.

And yes its completely okay, if you are still within the window to buy the coverage, as stated earlier, most reps will recommend you do exactly that . Your not pulling the wool over anybodys eyes, think about it this way, ALL Dell computers ship with complete care, its just not activated and you have a set amount of time to activate it, if disaster strikes and your still within the time period to activate CC, how could doing so be sneaky and underhanded? Simply put its not, and sometimes they lose money on it, 9 times out of 10 they make bank on it, and incidents such as the one that started this thread sells many CC subscriptions, and of those many sold, only a small percentage will actually use the coverage, its an insurance plan plain and simple, and it starts the day your machine ships, its up to you to take advantage of it or not.

 

you don't understand that the major incidents that require a whole unit happen so infrequently when compared to the common accidents of spilling wine on the laptop, or breaking the monitor, or something else. Yes, they will lose money when a major accident happens but their loss is compensated by the countless numbers of complete care they sell to minor accidents. It's completely legal and I don't think this discussion needs to be taken any further. If it makes you lose sleep at night then don't do it.

edit - and quit accusing me of trying to justify an immoral act.

 

Maybe there's something I don't understand in these numbers but I'm not seeing any backdating there. I see warranties and support contracts for a Dell XPS bought on 12/28/2006. The Complete Care is dated 2/8/2007 12/28/2010. Not only is the beginning date later than the purchase date but the entire coverage is about a month short of 4 years which corresponds to the fact that the coverage was bought about a month after the purchase date of the machine.

 

If you enter a contract with Dell based on you misrepresenting the state of your machine, it's an immoral lie and fraud.

If you tell Dell the state of your machine, and they enter a contract with based on that correct knowledge, I have no objections.

So, it does not depend on if the machine is broken or not, it depends on what you tell Dell.

 

Yep, do what ya gotta do to make yourself feel better about your scam Sirius...

 

You bumped it just for that? Get a life

 

Okay. I think you've all done enough personal attacking.

Thread close.