mmm..should I??

when you guys ordered your Dell's did you do the accidental care package? is it really worth it? i know i got a 14 month old son runnin around but it's not like i'm gonna let him play with it..lol. I'm thinking about getting the Dell Vostro 1500 and I was just wondering who did or who didn't include the 1 yr. accidental damage service. thanks

 

if you have the money please do get the warranty

 

I have never gotten extended or accidental warranty.
oh i'm curious how much did you pay for your desktop?

 

I got 3 year warranty without accidental...I figure the only things that can hurt my notebook is overheating and hardwars issues. By making sure I wont drop it or spill on it, I save $150.

 

Me too. Gotta be carefull with that early morning coffee

 

hlcc- The desktop was FREE! we got it through my hubby's VA benefits. he's a disabled vets. i guess being in the army has its privledges huh. I didn't know him wihle he was in the army though..we met at college. we didn't know about these certain school benefits until last year. So my hubby got hooked up with it. Free computer (the one we have now) does need a few upgrades though. money for school, free schoolbooks..monthly money for living (will not say how much though) yep our desktop was FREE..i will be upgrading it when we can afford it, and after i get my lappy.
I did use to have one of those cheaper models dell made a few years back. I remember i had dropped it..actually it fell down a few steps..but there was nothing wrong with the hard drive at all. i did have to do a couple things..but no major damage..and i would imagine the Vostro's are a lot better build then that C1600 or whatever cheaper one they made a few years ago. thats why i was wondering. I know i should get it but i'm not planning to drop it or spill anything on it. I know i can save money by not getting it ..but i should be better safe than sorry by getting it..not sure.

 

It's insurance on the laptop which is the same as listing it on your homeowners or renters insurance. I didn't get it on mine because I'm pretty careful around stuff like that. If I were still in college or have kids who would use it, then yes I'd add it on.

 

forgot to add..if spills or drops do happen and something does go wrong we do have great IT here at the bible college my hubby goes to. they are always willing to fix and diagnose what's wrong and also willing to order new parts. thats also why i'm wondering if i should spend the extra money and have to go through dell's customer service (not so good things i've heard) and instead just stick with IT fixing stuff for me!

 

actually spill should not hurt a vostro(spill proof keyboard), and unless you drop the laptop from some ridiculous height more likely than not you'll just suffer some cosmetic damage.

lets just hope your son don't pick up the hobby of poking at the LCD screen with a knife or pen.

check out this video
http://www.dell.com/html/us/products/latitude/veritest.html
sure the vostro is probably not as sturdy as the latitude d610 but it shouldn't be far behind

 

i think remember reading somewhere one these forums that someone spilled something on there keyboard and it messed it up, they called dell and dell said they voided the warranty (because they did the spill to test it intentionally) and then dell changed the description to spill resistant. I might be wrong though

 

LOL..thanks for the tip hlcc..ill def. not let him poke at it..lol. i'm sorry that was just kinda funny. knowing my son he would thats why what you wrote was so funny. I know i def. gotta keep it away from him though..otherwise its doomed!! haha.

 

i went for the accidental repair and warranty but im a senior in college so im expecting accidents to happen

EDIT: and dells website just says the keyboard helps guard against spills and dust. direct spills can still mess it up

 

if you want the accidental damage protection too, get the "plus protection package" because you get a % off and it should come out to be less than buying them a la carte.

 

+1

I got Dell Care Plus as well because my significant half (the primary user of the notebook) is a little goofball, and with combined discount (7% on total) on care plus, the cost was only a fraction of the total value of the notebook! So, why not protect the investment for less than 10% of the total cost of the notebook which is more than a grand!

 

devsk- so how much did you actually spend on the notebook? and what was the cost with the percentage off with the dell care plsu

 

thanks devsk

i chose the dell plus package and got 7% off. for me that was about $150 off total price. i also got the standard $X amount off that dell always offers and 12% off via university discount b/c i chose plus package and the raw total was above $1600

as a "bonus", choosing the plus package gets you other things besides just 3 year warranty and accidental damage protection. you also get subscription to antivirus software, off-site data backup, 3-year lojack service, etc. whether you need those other things or not doesn't really matter because it'll come out cheaper than getting the warrany + damage separately

 

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/services/inspnnb/1520_DNDWKA2?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

^for info on the different protection plans

 

sorry to post so often, but..

as an example: I picked the 1520 with..
Core 2 Duo T7100
Vista Home Premiu
Glossy XGA screen
Integrated graphics
free upgrade to 2gb ram
free upgrade to to 160gb hd
cd/dvd burner
no webcam
6 cell battery
integrated hd audio
no extras

and then i added the 3 year warranty and accidental damage protection, it came out to be $1,228.

However, when i picked the same computer components, but selected the dellcare plus package instead, it came out to be $1,187.61.

in this case, that's not a huge difference, but you do get more things. However, if you add more expensive components (cpu, gpu, etc), the gap between selecting a la carte and choosing the plan becomes larger