One-Time-Only Extended Warranty Offer

My B130 arrived on 12/20. The next day the system had to be restored because it dropped important portions of Win XP. All appears to be well thus far.

About 10 days ago I received a letter from Dell offering me this telephone-only, one-time-offer to extend my warranty from the regulation 1-year that I got with purchase to an additional 3 years (expiring 12/16/2009.) The cost is as follows:

Regular Warranty Extension $280
Warranty Ext. Discount (Exp.1/31) - $70
______
Price After Discount $210
Exclusive Mail-In Rebate - $50
______
Final Warranty Extension Price $160

This offer expires tomorrow, 01/31, and is by phone only.

Is this a load of snake oil?

I am unable to find any numbers for comparison online at Dell's "Extend Your Warranty" links. I know all too well that things unforseen happen to computers, but this works out to about $53 per year.

Anyone else get this offer in the mail? Please advise quickly, as tomorrow's deadline is about 35 hours away, and ticking...
Many thanks for reading.

Regards,
Lauren

 

I'm by no means a warrenty expert but accordingly for a B130 upgrade to 3 years from 1 year is $189 in the configuration tool.

 

The price difference is because if you extend the warranty after you made your intial purchase, the cost of the warranty will go up significantly.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. Reason is that most problems with the laptop will occur with in their first year. Also there is other options, and you can always extend your warranty towards then end when your current is about to expire.

You might want to check this thread out. It has alot of good information about extended warranties.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=9486

SG

 

I got the same letter and deal offer for my B130. My original purchase had a one-year, mail-in warranty.

I decided to buy the extended warranty. It upgraded my warranty to at-home service and added two more years to it. After reading in various places on the Internet some of the high cost repairs that could happen, it just gave me some peace of mind with the added two years. I figured the $160 was a lot less than the cost of a new motherboard or display. Also, since I'm not using the notebook as I thought, there's a good chance I'll sell it in a few months, and the warranty should make it an easier sale. If I keep it, I won't need to worry about a potential repair so expensive it would be cheaper to throw the notebook away. And this way for three years it's Dell's problem.

I generally avoided service plans, most aren't necessary and are a big income producer for companies or stores. But, in the last couple of years, I've changed my opinion slightly.
It's a gamble either way, don't take the policy and hope there's no problem, or pay for the extra warranty and not have to worry. I did think $160 (after rebate) was a little steep, but not budget breaking. I guessed that Dell probably put the cheapest parts they could into the notebook and no telling how it would hold up.

It's really just how much one wants to gamble, and the $160 is your bet on the table waiting for the wheel to spin.

 

Many thanks for the link, opinions & advice. That's just what I was looking for. After due consideration (and consulting the Magic 8 Ball ) I decided to go ahead & buy the warranty extension. My PC had to have a new motherboard, etc at 11 months, so I'm familiar with early failure. The same PC went on for another 6 years & just died on 01-08-2006, and this laptop is still in the data retrieval/recovery stage (but that's another story. ) Anyway, many thanks for the help!

Regards,
Lauren