Question about Dell's International Warranty

As some of you may know, I'm planning to let a friend buy me an M1330 in Singapore this February 2008. Due to financial constraints, I'm forced to opt for the basic 1-year DellCare warranty. Unfortunately, it's the 3-year DellCare Premium warranty that includes international support for notebooks. The problem is, I'm based all the way here in France.

How exactly will the 1-year warranty apply in this case? Am I going to have to pay for repairs in case my M1330 fails me?

I've been quite worried about "substandard" M1330s. I hope that the hardware-related problems that have beleaguered customers this year will have been ironed out by the first quarter of next year, thus lessening the chances of getting a "bad" M1330.

 

Why not just buy a notebook in France?

 

I don't know about France, but here in Turkey (close enough to Europe) we get the short end of the stick so much, the 750 dollar round trip ticket to New York from Istanbul is well within the price difference of equally specced HP DV2500t (Customizations are a no go here, and a top spec customized 2500 costs the same as a prebuilt model here), even worse for the XPS.

I don't know about France, but read the International Warranty very carefully and contact local Dell authorities on the subject. I found out Turkey isn't covered, and I would have to pay for repairs, shipping, customs etc AND have to wait for however long it took (the normal legal maximum here is 30 days).

Not to create any discussions, but most of the problems with the VAIO SZ are software/driver related, so it may be a better buy. Then again, the yellow screens are worse than any XPS cosmetic issues, and warranties Sony provides are even worse...

Couldn't your friend just check it out for you and return/replace if necessary? I've read here on the forums the thing to look out for is a new motherboard revision, and that disregarding all other build quality issues, if the only error is an uneven base, it can be corrected by firmly bending the alloy base with the screen open of course...

 

I want to get it from Singapore because...

1. It's cheaper
2. The keyboard is QWERTY (in France, it's AZERTY)
3. The OS version is in English

I'll try contacting customer service, but I fear they'll say that the 3-year Premium DellCare option is the only way to go to get the International Warranty.

 

Yes, but if you have no warranty, what good does that do you. You know that premium care includes international coverage?

 

Yes I do. I'm still thinking about it. It costs around 300 singapore dollars (141 euros) more to upgrade the warranty.