Is Accidental Warranty worth it?

Hey all,
I was wondering if the accidental coverage from Dell is worth it on the m17x? Does anyone have this coverage and has had to use it? Please post experience if anyone does.

 

Depends on how accident prone you are.

 

If you will never eat / drink next and are very careful, I don't think you'll need it. I tend to have drinks all the time so I got the accidental coverage just in case I spill something over.

 

well I was thinking in case I drop it... would be nice since it does weigh 12lbs. Do they just try to fix it or is it a replacement

 

get it. the M17x is slippery as a wet frog and it's heavy. the extra coverage is what, $150 for 4 years? no brainer imo....

the coverage would be just like the basic - try to fix and then replace it if that doesn't work.

 

Actually it's alot more than $150 haha. It's like $400 I think? But yeah IMO it's worth it. If you do drop it, they will TRY to fix it then if it still doesn't work or breaks down again, you can ask for a replacement.

 

Not only is it worth it, but it's one of the main reasons I buy Alienware/Dell systems. That's just my opinion, though.

 

I always take the next buisness day warranty, but not the accidental damage, but then again, i'm extra carefull with my stuff.
Also I think if you only have one accident in the +- 3yr you are using it, its probably cheaper to get the damaged component of ebay and replace it yourself (depending on the severety of the accident offcourse)

 

I would look at your track record with electronics and see for yourself if it's worth it.

Do you usually drop/spill something on your electronics? Or lend them out to careless friends? Or happen to find butter on your fingers on a regular basis??

If you are careful with your things, and keep care of them, it's not necessary. But if some of the above tends to happen, you might want to look into it.

 

Seriously not worth it, my advice is simply to be conscious when around the laptop. I've never dropped my PSP/DS nevermind either of my laptops.

 

I purchased my first XPS gen 1 back in 04 with accidental coverage and have extended that warranty every time they have offered. During these extensions I have had numerous parts replaced from ac adapters, monitors, keyboards, gpu/cpu, and motherboards. But the best thing is system replacement, my original was replaced with a genII, the genII was replaced with my currant genIII. Due to major heat/shutting down issues my genIII is currently being replaced with a M17x-r2.

So yea the warranty is definitely worth it. As a side note it may appear that I have had bad luck with my laptops, but as any parent knows nothing is safe with kids around no matter how careful you try to be.

My current warranty is valid until 2013. I will always purchase a Dell/Alienware with this warranty as long as it is offered.

 

i think im going to get it (4 yrs).... I work in the hospital and would be carrying the laptop around quite a bit... Im pretty careful but you never know. Thanks for all the responses!

 

actually, i meant increase in price over the basic. And I just looked now and advanced is the same price as basic for the M17x in the US. Seems silly not to get it...

 

I think it is certainly worth it if you travel with your laptop often. If it rarely leaves the house then maybe not so much. I get it on all my laptops and it offers a certain piece of mind. Accidents happen and even if you are careful, it doesn't mean that others around you will be. If you can afford the extra money then go for it.

I once had a bag strap give out on me and down went the laptop, cracked screen and plastics. I had little downtime with on-site repair and swap of the lcd. The AD pretty much paid for itself right there.

 

IMO, strictly, it is worth every buck! I am ultra careful around my gadgets too... but still it helps to have the accidental warranty. You never know when some part or the other might, say, get a bit lose or some corner get a dent or warps, or worse some surge fries your laptop.... no matter what if you have the accidental damage warranty you can rest assured that they are gonna take care of your system. Also from my personal experience I can tell you Dell is more likely to give you a replacement if you have the accidental damage warranty than if you don't.

 

Accidental is so worth it. It paid itself off for me.

I am 110% Accident Prone & Certified (just ask my friends & family).

I accidentally dropped my brand new XPS 1640 (that I had only had for not even a month)...and due to the damages ~ Dell replaced it with a XPS 1647.

Any and all future laptops will carry Complete Care on them.

Cin...

 

The accidental coverage is a form of insurance. You insure things against risk to prevent a large financial loss. As others have pointed out, your track record of accidents in the past is a good predictor of your risk. The other side though is whether you can bear the cost of fixing/replacing it yourself (your computer skill level plays into this side of the equation). So if it is worth it depends on the degree of care take with your expensive electronics, your ability to fix computers, your financial situation and the level of risk you are willing to live with.

Based on my personal factors, I would not get the accidental coverage unless it was under $100. That really isn't a recommendation for you though, since I have no idea what your factors are.

 

Id say its hit and miss, if your feeling lucky dont get it lol. If you want to play safre get my 2 cents

 

Can you buy Accidental Warranty after purchase ? Laptop arrived week ago .

 

Im thinking you can.

 

I'm glad that I opted for the CompleteCare (same thing as Accidental). I just invoked mine on an almost 4-yr old E1505 after having never dropped it in the past 4 years. Was in a rush and didn't strap it properly into my bag, it ended up taking a spill onto concrete and asphalt (8 feet to the first landing, then another 4 to the driveway). Wish I'd had the presence of mind to take pictures, but basically, the screen shattered (but still powered on), the right hinge completely dislocated, all kinds of plastics fell off keyboard, dvd cover), and the corner of the laptop that housed the heatsink radiator was bent up about an inch. It was in pristine condition after a handful of hardware replacements under NBD warranty a month or so ago, so I'm a little sad. It only takes one instance of carelessness to wreck a laptop.

 

Hi,
I'm trying to purchase extended warrenty for 1558 that just arrived, and the sales rep is quoting the following:
NBD in home service after remote diagnosis parts and labor+complete care
until 2013 (2 more years) US$372.32 and $75 gift card
until 2014 (3 more years) US$439.36 and $75 gift card
until 2015 (4 more years) US$485.15 and $75 gift card

Are these good deals??
I'd appreciate any comments!

 

If it were me, I would just go with the 1st one $372.32 thru 2013 w/the $75 GC.

No need to extend thru 2014 or 2015 right now. Trust me, even before the end of 2013..they will be contacting you to extend the warranty out..with a good deal. You may even want to sell or upgrade before then, who knows! Save yourself on that extra bit of money right now!

And, they didn't even offer you a better deal on the Gift Cards if you extended thru 2014, or even thru 2015 to get you to bite on the higher rates. (If I would have been a Dell Rep, I would have given you $75 for 2013, $100 thru 2014, and $125 thru 2015)!!!

You could always go back and say..."If I take the rate thru 2014, will you give me a $100 GC" and see what they say!! Never hurts to try.

Cin...

 

What do you think about Squaretrade ?

I get a qoute of 159,99 $ - 3-years with Accidental .

Now have 2 years NBD from Dell without Accidental

Dell is asking 330 $ for 1 year upgrade with Accidental .

 

Only problem i can see with squaretrade is the warranty is only worth the value of the laptop. ie. $500 laptop, will be covered for 500.00 of repairs, having gone through horrendous issues with my E1505, multiple screens, motherboards, and tons of other parts...the warranty with squaretrade would have been used up on the first repair visit i'm afraid, and is that $XXX amount of coverage good for parts or parts + labor? Because labor can get expensive quick...
(at least i think that is how it works, i have a warranty through them on my washer/dryer and that's how it works for appliances)

and by the way it just cost me $500+$75GC for 2 years on my Studio XPS 16 they sent as a replacement I felt like i was backed into a corner, because there was less than 25 days left on my original warranty when i got the replacement and there was all kinds of problems with it... basically told me if there was further problems i'm screwed even though its a "new" refurbished replacement...

 

I currently have the two year complete care on my Studio 17, it only amounts to pennies a day and makes life less stressful when carting your laptop around in this dangerous world....I think I payed about 250.00 which in my case is a good deal for the peace of mind it gives me...

 

I'd be wary of a coverage limit, since you really don't know how much a repair will cost. A screen replacement alone can run $400 at market value (not cost to them, of course). I've had far more value replaced than the $300 I plunked down for 4 yr completecare on my e1505, probably closer to 800 if I really had to guess, and there have been no battles at all to get parts replaced, only the occasional send to depot to verify it's as borked as I said it was.

 

If it's possible, you can try to ask your boss to pay for the Complete Care. I was working on a stupid slow desktop at my job and i was looking at the XPS series for a long time. I made these arguments:

Dear Boss;

1- I'm gonna buy a XPS laptop for personnal use but I'm willing to use it for work. Because the laptop is pretty performant I will be able to work faster and also it will be easier for me to bring work at home.

2- Then you could use my actual desktop for another purpose (Save $$$)

3- Then you will not need to Upgrade/install/maintenance and cleaning my new Laptop (I'll take care of that)

4- It'll just cost you the price of the extended warranty! Deal?

So it was a deal and because the company was buying the laptop for me I saved the taxes. With the complete care That's almost a 600$ save for me

 

I was under impression that if they can not fix it, they give you laptop purchase price. ( Squaretrade)

 

I happened to get connected to a great rep and she got me 2 year extension (until 2013) with Night and Weekend support and Complete Care for US$265 and $75 gift card. (Other reps were quoting over well over 300)

I also got my brother's system (XPS M1530, warranty expires in Sept. 2010) 2 more years+complete care for $262 plus $75 gift card.

Amazing deals I believe. She's been so nice and I'd recommend anyone to get in touch with her for warranty and parts/accessories purchases. Just email [email protected] and ask for Ms. Samantha Smith to contact you.

 

Yes, you did get a really good deal! Nice! And, glad you were able to work one out for your bro's 1530, also!


Cin...

 

Spilled water on my keyboard and screen accidentally.

Price to fix without accidental warranty:
-$300 just for screen
-$50 for screen labor
-$$$ for keyboard
-$$$ for motherboard
-$50 extra warranty
-Add in fan replacement too
=Totaled about over $900

Luckily I had accidental damage.

 

Cool stuff, do they ask a lot of question when that happens, like spilling water over ur xps? Whats the proceedure like? I mean anyone could just spill water on his laptop right?

Is that an internal Insurance or is dell using a different company?

 

I got Accidental Warranty, because , i figured "What the Hell, Accidents happen!!", But if something happens what is the actaul procedure, as stated above?

 

1. Accident happens
2. You call Dell or go online to chat with rep (Have your info ready)
3. Tell them the issue and that you are covered.
4. They will send a box to where you are.
5. You send laptop with power supply back to Dell in box they provided.
6. They fix it.
7. They send it back to you.

Simple.

 

That easy, no paperwork?

 

There might have been small paper work but I don't remember because it was probably too easy and not worth mentioning.

I think it was a sheet of paper asking what is wrong with the laptop.

 

Had to do it twice recently, so here's the list of things it asks (from memory)

The total paperwork consists of a single sheet of paper they send you in the ship-to-depot box. It asks:

Name
Address
Contact Info
System Tag
Login Info and permission to wipe the drive
List of symptoms
Steps to recreate the problem

The other side of the paper has instructions on how to ship and seal the box. Make sure you fill out the paper work and stick it in the box before you seal it. sounds obvious, but if you're reading the instructions step-by-step, you'll have to cut it open and reseal like I did, because I didn't realize the info sheet was on the reverse of the instructions. I'd also suggest adding extra tape to the box, because the little rectangle of sticky paper they send seems iffy to me.

 

I never send them my lappy with info on it.. if it is being replaced, I wipe the drive myself. And if it is getting serviced, they can put in their own HD : )

 

One of the first things I did when I got my laptop was to pull my HD and pack it in storage, then put in my own bigger faster drive. Whenever I need tech support to take a look at it, I just swap em out and let them have at it with the original equipment, with the drive I normally use safely locked up at home.

 

If it is a software issue, I think you'll have to send in the hard drive too.

In my case, it was a hardware issue so I just took out the hard drive and sent in the rest of the laptop.

 

hey guys, when i ordered my dell the guy said i could extend the warranty up to 5 years. now that i have problems with speakers i said, oh well lets extend to 3 years next day + accidental warranty.

at the moment i have 2 years within 6 days return + accidental warranty.

ok, well, i asked for an upgrade to 3 years, but the technician said its only possible to upgrade the dell next day service but not the accidental one.

if i knew that i would have chosen 3 years from the start...


Im just past my 2 weeks period where i coudl have returned it, ordered a new one with 3 years.

He said its not Dell that does accidental, its a diff company...

What shoudl I do?

 

I do not consider myself accident prone and take nice care of my gear, but the accident coverage is one of the best things I have bought. Hot tea got spilled into the keyboard of aging laptop..... bsst. One thing led to another and *bling* got the latest & greatest model for a replacement.

I also got run over by a car while biking home from work and a little corner of the laptop got busted. They came out and replaced the bezel the next day. BTW, you shoulda seen the car!

Perhaps I'm a little more accident prone than my self-image reveals. Complete coverage is one of the reasons I stick with Dell.

Ever use your laptop in a coffee shop?

 

this accidental warranty, is that international?

btw, i got 2 years accidental warranty, now i thought oh well i better upgrade to 3... and dell now says thats not possible. only the dell service can be upgraded not the accidental warranty. thats what one technician said.

i guess i have to talk to the guy who sold it to my since he gave me false information. anyone had a problem with this or knows how i shoudl deal with it?

 

I don't believe DELL's any warranty worth, reason why? Their technical team sucks !!!!!

I have been dealing with their technical support for my E6500. Every time I got the laptop back, it only getting even worse. First was the battery, then the motherboard dead, then without my confirmation my screen was exchanged by a really cheap one, dark and has a LOT dead pixels. Sending my laptop to dell 3 time a month, for each time, the old problem can't be fixed, and you will get new problems.

Good luck with DELL!!!