Warranty? Is it worth it?

So after shopping around at HP and Dell, I think I found some decent laptops from both. I was looking at the DV6000t and E1505 if anyone is curious, but thats not the point. In the Tech Bargain forum, someone posted a pretty nice deal for the E1505 for $860. Sounds great, then I get to the warranty and I'm looking at it. +$170 for 2 years, +$250 for 3 years. That's pretty insane. Especially since I'll be ordering 2 laptops.

Now back to the point, is warranty worth it? Or is Dell pretty solid with their laptops? Did anyone here get/not get the warranty? Just curious before I jump on it.

 

Every laptop I have ever owned I got 2-3 years extended warranties.
Laptops are not as easy to fix as desktops so I would rather have the peace of mind then a large paperweight just in case.
My Latitude has complete care since I use that one to carry around.

 

I'm in Australia so I'm not sure if there are any difference between our warranties and yours but I got a 3 year one and am very glad that I did. I love my 6400 but the motherboard died after only two months (from overheating) and the Dell bloke came over and replaced it the next day.

Awesome service, especially after seeing what happened with the Toshiba my mother-in-law bought from a local store here about a year ago. Every time there was a problem (and there where many!) she had to take it back, then they'd send it off to get checked out, leaving her without the notebook for a week or so.

She is now the happy owner of a Dell 6400 too. We bought them at the same time, thankfully hers hasn't had any problems yet!

Anyway, it was the nightmare she had with the Toshiba that made me get the 3 year warranty. At least if something goes wrong I know it will get fixed promptly and without any hassles.

 

It's a very personal decision. I look at it based on how expensive a system I'm buying. When I bought a $4K+ system, I spent the money to get 3 years of coverage. I used it once for a cosmetic crack in the hinge cover.

On a $860 notebook, I'd probably just take the standard coverage and then take my chances. For 25% of the purchase price, it just doesn't seem worth the extra investment on a lower-priced system. But that is how I see it.

It's always nice to buy a system that has an excellent standard warranty. I was lucky with my current notebook.

Read more about it in the warranty guide.

 

I always recommend to everyone to get extended warranty. Make sure it has 2-3 years. I know some people upgrade every 2 years, and some every 3 years. Make sure it lasts the length of time you expect to keep/rely on the system.

They are difficult to fix yourself and can be PRICEY to fix. I had a Sager, I know... a bit after it's 1 year warranty ran out, the video card decided it wouldn't render in 3d anymore (3d rendering caused vpu deadlocks) and i had to use it in 800x600 software rendering.

 

My sister bought a Dell 600m about two years ago and she went along without any extended warranty (just the 1 year cover) and she haven't had any problems so far. I guess it depends on your luck as well so if you're really paranoid you should probably consider going for the 3-year warranty.

 

You can get an extra year of warranty for free - see my sig

 

Most I'll get is a year or two + the one from the credit card.

 

if your laptop often have problem due to manufacturer defects, then you should get 2 or 3 years warranty. Like the oneI have, only 1 year warranty and the motherboard has some error that causes BSOD, now i have to consider upgrade the warranty for it.

 

I go with borg. When i read his article i decided to use my american express credit card because they match the original warranty. so i get 2 years on my laptop. One from dell and the other from American Express. His article is very helpful u should check it out. I had a 700m before and it had no problems at all after 2 years and since its a portable i take it out alot so i it all depends on you. I'm happy with two years

 

At the very minimum get the 2 year warranty. I've gotten the 3 year warranty on my current and last notebook. Both are from Dell. The hard drive on my Inspiron 8600 went out 12 days before the warranty expired.
The question is, what is "peace of mind" worth to you?

 

I got a 4 year warranty on my dell I8600 and it has way way more than paid for itself....

So far I've gotten
a new 9cell battery ($130)
a new DVD burner (upgrade from 4x +r to 8x +/- dual layer) ($200)
a new WUXGA screen ($500)

And I have peace of mind for another year, during which time if something goes really bad, I'll get upgraded to a nice new core2duo.... (I also got complete care)....

I highly reccomend getting warranties on laptops... replacing a faulty (insert anything here) on a laptop is the cost of a whole new computer half the time....

Just my 2c

 

Thank you guys for the feedback and comments. I think I will get warranty. I don't have the money to pay another $900 for a new laptop should it break on me (being a jobless college student with loans isn't that much fun).

 

I think the warranty is a waste of money for people who are tech savy. If you are not then go for it but you might want to try and order over the phone and ask for a better deal. Typically they give you another year of warranty for free.

 

I'm not sure what you are trying to get at with saying that tech-savvy people don't need warranties. I'm an electrical engineer, and none of the issues that wwere resolved under warranty for me had anything to do with being tech savvy or not...

Are you saying tech-savvy people shouldn't buy the extended phone support type stuff? If so, I agree with you; if not, I would draw your attention to my post 2 above yours and ask you to point out where a more tech savvy person would have not used a warranty in my situation.

(The battery completely failed; just caused the power light to blink. The DVD burner stopped being able to read (or write) cds (but could still read and write dvds) (a laser problem). The screen developed a complete column of only green pixels.)

None of my problems (whose resolution thus far has not cost me over $800) were PEBKAC related, IMHO.

 

I build and sell desktops on the side for extra money. I have a few of the acronyms, MCSE, etc. I feel confident in my abilities to fix any desktop issue that arises, but laptops? forget it.... I always buy complete care type warranties on every laptop I purchase. Came in real handy when I dumped water all over my brand new E1505 2 weeks ago. It's at depot service right now getting fixed and will be back this week. I actually have onsite service and although the service call was pretty useless (Dell only sent him a mobo when I clearly told the rep that water came out of every orifice on the laptop) I did get to see the tech disassemble the E1505. The HD, Optical Drive and RAM are very user replaceable, anyone can do it. The keyboard and LCD screen are relatively easy to replace. Someone with basic electronics knowledge could do it. After that you really get into the meat of the system. After seeing him take down my laptop to the case I would feel confident replacing the things I mentioned before but anything else, nope. I have admit that Dell's manual does do a good job detailing how to replace pretty much every component in the laptop. But if you have complete care, why bother? After you get your DPS number from the tech or Dell rep, call DHL, they send someone right to your house to pick up the laptop. They even provide a laptop shipping box. It gets shipped next day 10:30am service. When they ship it back, comes back the same way. Dell is even shipping me a new HD because it's not a component that will be tested. There have been some bumps...wrong HD was shipped at first, only shipping a mobo when I knew most if not all components were fried but all in all I'm happy with the service. My CC plan is up Oct '07 and I will be extending that until '09. Why take the chance? Like zx10guy said, it's very small price to pay for piece of mind.

 

If you buying over the phone then you can negotiate warranty with dell sales rep. Maybe high priced warranties is the reason for not so robust body. They probably make more money by selling warranties. If you carry around your laptop a lot then u should get good warranty.

 

I started with the 1 year mail-in warranty and extended it to 3 years over the phone a few weeks after.

Now that I'll be doing a fair amount of traveling I was wondering if anyone knows if I can pick up complete care for the remaining 2.5 years and about how much I'd be expected to pay?