Do you recommend the service plan on a new dell lappy?

Just curious as to if it's really necessary.

 

I had a bad experience with the support (or lack of) on my Inspiron 6400 when I bought it in 2006. I only took the basic support and about 4 months after I bought it the hinges started to break and everytime I would open/close the lid the laptop case would come apart by half an inch with scary cracking noise. When I got a hold of a Dell Tech and started explaning the problem he would cut me every 5 words and say "total care, covers all... total care". When I finally managed to say more than 5 words and explain that I only had basic coverage his attitude changed a lot... "Oh... well then we don't cover esthetic problems"... I tried to argue that the freaking case coming apart was more than a small esthetic problem but he psomewhat politely told me to go away. When my sister bought a similar laptop the next month I encouraged her to get the complete care for the first year and when she had 2 small problems with windows and her keyboard the replacement parts were delivered at our house the next day.

Dell's complete care is excellent but the basic warranty leaves a lot to be desired. I recomment the complete care for the first year if you have a little money to spare.

BTW my Inspiron still works well after 4 years but it has spent the last 2 years as a desktop raplacement as I can no longer open/close the lid without agravating the damage.

 

Thanks kowell, I am wondering if the advanced warranty package is what we need to upgrade to, I am looking at a inspiron 15, so I don't know how the hinges are on it, but I can totally appreciate leaving your old one as a desktop replacement. I would be scared to mess with the hinges too. Thanks for the reply!

 

My history:

XPS M1210 (refurb): Battery died after a year. Inverted died after two years. Replaced inverter and screen died again two weeks later. Not sure if it was the inverter again or the actual display. Didn't want to risk sinking more money into it so I sold it "as is" broken.

Inspiron 1501: After two years it stopped charging. My parents took awful care of this thing and broke two chargers. The third one was some ebay junk and it stopped charging after two weeks. I figured there was no way it was the new charger breaking already, but who knows.

Complete care would be nice to have, but for the cost I'd rather put the money off to the side. If the laptop has a serious hardware issue within the first year, the basic warranty should cover it. After a year I'd rather have the extended warranty money to put towards a brand new replacement.

 

I never buy the extended warranty... I've been lucky, no issues. Although, my 6410 came with a three year warranty... my old inspiron (five years old?) is still kicking, no issues. lol

 

I would absolutely recommend the complete care warranty for a long as you intend to keep the computer. Computers are fairly fragile items in general and having them covered is a must, unless you are buying a cheap "disposable" one.

 

If you get the warranty, get CompleteCare. After around 2-3 years, most of the damage is from wear and tear, not component failure (as defined within the warranty, anyway).

 

Thanks everyone, I think we'll have to go with complete care, I don't want to be left high and dry without a lappy once I'm used to having one you know? Thanks for the advice.

 

I would totally agree with your choice ......BTW a lot of dealing with the CS is knowing what to say to them to bypass their script that they have to go by. Once you figure out some of the keywords you can have a fairly painless experience. I recently got upgraded from a 6200 to a 6300 for free .