"Your one-one-time only offer" blah blah blah

Dell sent me an offer to extend my warranty.(I only have the basic one year. 10 percent off and 50 Dell Dollars towards my next purchase. I was thinking of picking up an extra year plus onsite repair for 80 USD. Does anyone have any suggestions for this. I saw some posts that say I can call a few times to try to pick up the best offer. Any ideas?

 

you should get a new laptop... your specs look like a computer from 3 years ago... just athought

 

It does everything I need it to so far. I just want to know if there is a way to haggle a better warranty plan using my offer.

 

Am I missing something? I'm curious as to why you advise someone with a Core 2 Duo laptop to replace it. Sounds awfully throwaway and wasteful for me, considering you don't know what the OP uses it for.

That, and three years ago we didn't have Core 2 Duo --we didn't even have Core Duo (which didn't come out until 2006), we had the Pentium M (Dothan).

To the OP, I doubt you can haggle a best offer on a service plan. However, if you have had no problems with your Dell laptop to this point, I'd consider letting the warranty expire. If the hinges are still solid, and the system passes a complete extended diagnostic test (boot to the diagnostic partition to run this), and I'm assuming you take good care of your system, it's doubtful you'll have a need for that second year. That $80 might be better saved in case you do need a notebook hard drive or a minor replacement part.

 

The notebook is about one month old. As a rule I never buy extended warranties on anything except for washing machines. (many moving parts under stress etc..) As my sig says this is my first notebook. It does not travel on a regular basis only when I teach in a location that does not have a workstation but does have a projector. I figured I could extend the warranty for another year. What do you think as the laptop is new? Thanks LoneWolf15 for the advice.

 

The 8400m GS was released summer last year. The T5270 was released fall last year. Please don't post if you don't know what you're talking about.

 

Extended warranties are always a gamble, based on the chances a system will break, and how much it might cost to repair if it did.

Some parts of a laptop aren't major-costs (RAM, HDD), and are easily user-replaceable. Others, like the mainboard or LCD panel can cost more. But parts like a system board, if they last for 90 days, will probably outlast your warranty, and I've seen plenty of Dells (more often than not, honestly) which outlasted the three-year business warranty they were purchased with. Also, you say you don't move yours around much, which lessens the chance you'll have a problem.

$80 isn't too bad for an extra year, but only you can decide. Your best bet is to look at what percentage that $80 is of the total amount you paid for the machine, and decide if the added peace of mind is worth it to you. I'll admit I paid an extra $59 to take the warranty on my ThinkPad T61 to two years, since I haven't dealt with Lenovo before. But I think any warranty longer than two is rarely worth the money; you pay a lot more money, and laptops are depreciated enough after two years that it isn't worth the added cost.

 

Unless the laptop cost you $400 and you can afford another $400 next year, I'd definitely extend it for $80 + $50 Dell cash.

While some parts may be off-the-shelf, most are not, and, even the ones that are, even one part could cost you $80 if you have to replace it yourself, assuming you want to do so yourself and not pay someone to do it for you, in which case it would cost you more.

If you amortize the cost of the laptop, you will have paid, say, $800 for the laptop + $80 for the warranty; if the laptop lasts exactly 2 years, you've paid $440/year; if it lasts 1 year and 3 days, you've paid $880/year with the factory warranty, and still, at most, $440/year with the extended warranty.

 

I just bought a dell laptop, i am regretting not adding the 3 year extended warranty. Do you know if they send these coupons to everyone that didn't buy an extended warranty yet?

 

Supersimon, they sent it to me in the mail. They will probably do the same for you. What Dell did you buy? A smart move as I am thinking of adding onto the warranty now. The laptop cost me 629 USD I think. For the extra 80, I think I'll add to the warranty. Thank you Samuel and LoneWolf for the advice. I'm still trying to understand the way Dell handles such matters.