I'm impressed with dell;s warranty plans

Ok so I've had my 1520 since late July and everything had gone great until today when I dropped it about a foot while it was in its case. The lower left corner where the silver panel and the black panel meet took soem damage. they both dented in and the silver part cracked as well, so I got on dell chat and asked about the damage. They told me that all the damage was entirely covered even though this is just cosemtic damage. I just wanted you all to know that complete accidental damage really means Complets accidental damage repair. yea, I was amazed so I wanted you all to know.

 

They don't mess around with their warranties. They are best in the business at that.

 

Agreed and that reason alone is why I keep buying Dell time and time again...

 

Egad!!! Another Dell love in forum!!! lol

 

While is second the notion that Dell's warranties (in this case more like insurance) are the best in the business, I find it disturbing that the 1520 is so fragile.

I have plenty of dell cases of all vintages. They are so well paded a 1 foot drop should not damage anything. Even eggs.

I once left my old Insipiron 4100 notebook sans case on top of my car. Came out of that ordeal with a chipped case.

Are the new dells that fragile?

 

i'll try and take a picture of the damage later. it's not that bac, but the silver part just cracked which is why i want it replaced. The case it was in was some terrible targus slim one where its just made to basically protect the laptop from scratching. I did drop onto a floor that was concrete with a very small later of carpet on top so it was a hard surface. It wasn;t that bad, it jus tleft a crack is the main problem

 

lol..get a better case... The standard Dell cases will take most of anything you can throw at it, short of running it over. The older ones are even more robust.

 

I dropped mine and kicked it, from walking and using it at the same time. The LCD cracked cuz it landed on it and the painted lid got scratched to crap from skittered over my gravel driveway.

I only have the default 1 year depot warranty, called Dell and within 10 minutes they had a new screen and lid being shipped.

 

So how much did the accidental damage care plan cost you and what was the base purchase price w/o it? Trying to get a sense of what percentage of the replacement cost they hit you with for that plan...

 

Well the damage is probably around $60-80 dollars because they will need to replace the entire silver plate and maybe the black one as well. I think I paid for the dell care plus plan which costs $229, but it gives 7% off the toal purchase price so $229-$138=$91 plus the plan includes 3 years of mcafee which is $70 a year (even though dell probably gets it for free) so $91-(70x3)=$-119 and 3 years of lojack for $99=-119-99=-218 so I'd say I got off pretty good. Plus the complete care is good though august of 2010.

 

The completecare/completecover (depending on which region) is crucial if you somehow castastrophically kill your notebook accidentally, ie. drop it in a river, crack the LCD...these can amount to the cost of a replacement notebook.

My XPS came with default 3 year XPS+ completecover. Was a free upgrade so no additional cost to it. So that would be worth it. Other wise I'm not so sure. If anything, try to ask for a free warranty upgrade.

 

Question: How does the next business day support work? My purchase (see signature) has the 3 year option but I have no idea what it does.

I feel better knowing that my laptop will not be scrap if airports give my luggage grief.

 

Very Simple. Say your part fails. Dell will send out a tech to your location WITH the part, the tech will replace the part at your designated location.

Pretty nifty and saves a lot of time and hassle that you have to deal with when shipping to Depot.

Only crappy part is that the some of the techs are clumsy and don't take care of the product while working on it.

Thats why I just tell Dell to ship me the part and I'll do it myself.

 

Cool. Do you call them by telephone or contact via email?

 

just call their customer service line.

 

wow - i wonder how they do it

i mean - theoretically - people can get the accidental damage plan - and 2 years down the road toss their computer out of the window - if its completely irreparable, does dell just replace it? have people every gotten far better computers for just the price of shipping the damaged one in?

please note - i am most definitely NOT condoning this kind of behavior - but its GOT to happen from time to time

 

I'm sure it happens and it is fraud but Dell will have a hard time proving that damage was intentional.

I wouldn't hurt to practice a bit of ethics..... But people still do it.