Opinions sought on lenovo warranty vs insurance

I have recently been looking for a notebook to take with me to college and to serve me the next few years.

One helpful member of these forums directed me to the HP 8530p and the Lenovo T500.

I am leaning to the T500 due to HP costing more for the same build and also the lack of customisation on their site.

The one thing holding me back is the topic of warranty. Usually I will just take the standard warranty and leave it at that but I don't normally take expensive items around with me. This would be an expensive item.

The problem I and I am sure other have faced is whether to take out an extended warranty with accidental damage from lenovo with seperate theft insurance or go with a theft and accidental insurance scheme from a third party.

 

Extended warranties from the manufacturer are nothing other than dolled up insurance policies. IMHO go with whatever seems to be the best blend of service, coverage, and cost.

Remember: The BIG PRINT giveth, and the small print taketh away.

You should also check with your school's bookstore or wherever they sell computers on campus. Often there are special deals with Lenovo or Dell or HP for configurations bundled with extended warranties with accident coverage. I was able to get my T400 with 3yr accident coverage through my school for about the same cost as the same T400 config on Lenovo CPP with 1 year depot warranty.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, money making schemes they may be but a necessary evil they are too.

I know fine well that if I skimp on it sod's law will kick in and I will regret it.

Right now I am thinking I will need to make sure I can get it repaired for maybe a couple of years minimum which seems to mean 3 but theft I may be able to get away with just one.

Is there any benefit to dealing direct with lenovo for repairs and accidental damage?

 

I've not had to deal with Lenovo for repairs or damage (knock wood) so I can't comment specifically. I do however suggest you consider an onsite service plan since every manufacturer has stories of people sending their computer away for repair only to have it come back not properly fixed. With onsite service you can sit there with the technician and make sure it's fixed right before you sign off on it.

One other thing to look at -- I don't know about HP, but lenovo extended warranties are attached to the computer itself. So if you sell it to someone the warranty goes with it and that has some amount of value. Check very carefully how that works with third party coverage.

 

Thank you, it has been a while since I had to look at this sort of thing, my last notebook was a massive dell inspiron 9100, 4 years old and bar a failed battery still going strong at my parent house.

Of course it was house bound so this wasn't an issue.

 

Regular insurance also has deductibles. It wouldn't be worth it for covering a laptop. Actual insurance also wouldn't cover the same things (usually only theft, fire, water damage).

 

After a bit of searching a few other posts on the subject I am leaning toward getting the extended warranty just for peace of mind.

I don't fancy forking out the same amount of money in a years time and at the very least I will need some theft insurance as whilst it won't be left unattended, it will spend most of the time it is used out of the house.

I would rather have the replacement and repair of the item handled by the manufacturer.

There are quite a few differing opinions on this subject, I will probably go with better safe than sorry.

 

Get the 3yr onsite with accident protection. You may be careful of your notebook, but those around you aren't.

 

You may wish to look at the warranty guide.

 

Hi, thanks I did see that linked in another thread.

The difficult thing right now is to convince myself to spend the cash, so many other laptops but so many seem to be lacking in an all round sort of way.

 

Another thing to consider is how attached to a machine you will become. What I mean is that with a warranty from Lenovo, they will fix your machine and give it back to you. Where as with a 3rd party insurance, such as from Square Trade, they will try to fix the machine but if they can't they will give you money back. That way you can buy another machine. But if you are the type of person who likes to keep their machine for a long time and are attached to it, then a 3rd party might not be so good.

But, I would defined get some kind of warranty as fixing a laptop can be expensive if not impossible/cost effective, unlike a desktop.

 

I tend to hang onto things for as long as they are useful, hell I still have a Mini Disc player as my portable music player.

If something works to satisfaction I don't waste money on something newer, hence why I prefer to buy good rather than cheap and disposable.

I just wish nice things came cheaper.

 

As Fire Snake mentioned, I would definitely recommend the SquareTrade laptop extended warranty, go here

http://www.squaretrade.com/laptop

 

i read the hong kong's insurace thing's terms and conditions, and afaik it does not include the following (amongst other things)

damage due to natural events (lightning frying your thinkpad i guess)
damage due to man-made events

damage in hardware
damage in software

in other words, i don't know what is included

 

I can tell you with direct experience:

HP warranty service is poor. In some cases they will not honor it, even when there are recalls.

Lenovo warranty (depot) is slow but okay.

I would STORNGLY urge you to get the next day onsite service. It is very cheap ($30 bump up in first year from depot), but you will be very happy if you have an issue. The tech comes out with the part and boom, you are done. No sending the laptop in for repair and waiting a week or several weeks (if there is an issue) getting it back.

 

Hi,

Forgot to update this although I thought I had. I did go with the next day onsite accidental damage cover for peace of mind.

Hopefully won't have to use it but it is there if I do.

Thanks for the response though.

 

I've had a HP and Compaq laptops and they were both crap with crappy warranty. Both died one month out of warranty. Luckly there was a recall on that stupid HP but I had to send one HP across the ocean just to get repair work done on it. This HP's webcam always interfere with something cuz it doesn't work half of time. I'd take my Lenovo over HP any day.

 

There are many sites that let buy health insurance online , so it is important to read the policies carefully. Anyways thanks for sharing information.

 

And thus, Wal-Mart was born, to convince people less intelligent than you or I that such things are actually possible.

"You get what you pay for" is always wise advice. Think of the fact also that four years ago, a high-end ThinkPad cost double what it does now.

While I don't know exactly how things work in the UK, do you have renter's insurance for your flat/dorm room/dwelling? If you do, this should generally cover theft or accidental damage of the item. Of course, should such happen, you'd need to file a claim and probably pay a small deductible to replace the unit (back when I had renter's insurance, it was $100 on my policy).
Accidental damage coverage, should you wish to buy it, is probably better purchased direct through Lenovo than a third party. I wouldn't get a warranty longer than three years, and I often recommend about two to people I consult for, as the extra you spend beyond two could be saved towards a new unit. Systems depreciate rather rapidly, and prices on new kit keep coming down, or, when they stay the same, you get more features for the same price down the road.

 

Did you have a consumer-level HP (e.g., the dvXXX series) or the business-level models?

There is quite a difference between the two in product quality. The 8530p business notebook is quite nice, however, it's definitely more expensive than a ThinkPad, which is why I went with Lenovo myself.

 

If we factor input costs such as material, labour, administration costs, transportation and exchange risk, etc.... the only way to make a laptop cheaper while maintaining the quality, is to seek cheaper products at the same quality, is to find a country that has cheap enough labour to overcome the increased transportation and exchange risk......

This is also why production gets outsourced to countries like China, it is the labour costs and to a certain extent parts price (because many other electronics are located in the same locality, less transportation costs and better use off just-in-time system) are lower than other more developed countries. But there is only so much saving that can be made, before other corners are cut to meet the expectation of cheaper price for goods, which will produce lower quality goods.

 

any use of upgrading to 3 years? The upgrade is 119$, my warranty expires in 15 days.i dont have problems so far. can i repair it later from parts from ebay?

 

It is much cheaper to have a warranty from lenovo for any major issue.
Upgrade it to 2-3 years. On-site is preferred since it is a lot less hassle.

 

Guys! Best things finally do come cheap! Check my last post out and you might be a little amazed . Any suggestions on what laptop I should get for gaming purposes?

 

Get the lenovo warranty. I always used it a lot and have had very good luck with them. They differ from normal insurance in that they are involved with Lenovos constantly and there is no paperwork.
Renee