Should I get the Extended Warranty on m1210?

I have owned laptops, without a good warranty. I now get 3 year at home, complete care, so I know if something happens, I am covered. Well worth the 300 or so you will pay for it.

I too ordered with 3 year at home complete care. It's an insurance thing. Maybe I won't need it, but if I do, I've got it. You have to decide if it's worth the risk.

Bob

I say it's worth it. Even though all of us don't wish to see our laptops fail one way or the other, you never know when you may need it. By the way, I've got a 4 year At-Home + Complete Care for both my E1705 & M1210.

I never get it anymore since I don't tend to own any laptop over a year or year and a half. I will likely upgrade at that time and when I sell it, I hardly EVER see laptops that have warranties sell for much more than those without. Also, I used to get it and ended up never using it, so for me...it's not worth the $200-300 extra. And also, most laptop problems are either accidental damages (drops, spills, etc...) which many warranties to not cover or are hard drive related, which is easy and cheap to replace.

Just think of it this way....Dell, HP, IBM, and other hardware manufacturers and retailers make LOTS of money on Warranties because there is a HUGE mark-up. It's all actuarial in that they calculate profits and losses, and profits heavily outweigh losses. For every 10 extended warranties that they sell, they know that there will likely be only 5 or 6 claims, of which 1 or 2 will not be covered and the 1 or 2 will probably be MUCH cheaper than what the extended warranty costs to fix. This leaves 1 or 2 claims out of 10 that they will actually LOSE money on. These figures are simplified and may be slightly exaggerated, but I'm guessing that I'm not off by far.

Now if you're the type that has bad luck with electronics (usually means that you're rough on things and tend to break things a lot), then it may be worth it for you since you may be one or two out of 10 people that may actually benefit/profit/break even with an extended warranty.

*edit*

Also, keep in mind the opportunity cost of that $300 or whatever that costs for the extended warranty. Think in terms of insurance companies, since a warranty is essentially an "insurance" and this is how insurance companies think. You can put the $300 in a conservative fund that gives you 8% growth. That's another $75 or so in the span of 3 years, so it's actually costing you about $375 in the span or 3 years...possibly more. That $375 could probably easily cover any type of damage you may incure or go towards the purchase of an new laptop.

Oh, and I recently purchased a new Toyota Prius for my wife and got the extended warranty so I'm not totally against the idea of extended warranties...especially if it's on a "newer" technology and the long-term prospects are yet to be defined.

Yeah, I would say it is worth it if you are a poor college student and will not be able to shell out funds to buy a new computer in a year or so like Govtcheez. I got 3 year complete care, and I am glad I got it. You never know what life is going to throw at you

I had a friend with a Toshiba Sattellite. He bought it at best buy and didnt buy the warrenty. He had it laying on the couch, and his asshat friend walked in and threw his 15 pound book bag onto the couch. It made the lcd internally bleed or something, the screen was distorted and blacked out in the middle. Ruined it. In college: get a warrenty. Stupid happens.

I got the 3 year complete care. Shit happens. My rule is that if it's a big dollar purchase (digital camera, lcd hdtv, xps m1210, etc..), I get the warranty. It may seem like a waste if nothing ever happens, but that is the nature of insurance. You're spending a lot of money on this laptop, so what's a few extra bucks on a warranty. Your call...

Just think how you'd feel if it broke or was damaged by act of carelessness. Could you afford to replace it? Live without it? fix it? If the answer is no to any of these, get a warranty. The resale value on used laptops with warranty is much higher. You can usually get a good deal of the cash shelled out for the warranty if you sell before it ends, and have all that piece of mind of a warranty while you own it.

Not worth it if you are going for a barebones cheap inspiron or something. But for the M1210 or any XPS computer you have to protect your high class purchase. I will not spend any money on a warrenty, I argued and got my 1 year complete care for free. I know...one year lol.

I am typing my response on a E1505 that dell provided as a warranty replacement for my 3yr old 8600..which was covered under the extended warranty plan, so yes by all means get the warranty.....It worked great for me!!!!!

Warranty replacement:

E1505 T2400 1.83 DualCore
WSXGA+ TrueLife UltraSharp
2Gig DDR2 667
X1400 256Mb
3945 Wireless
80Gig Hd 5400
8XDVDR+/-R Dual Sony
2Yr Extended Warranty
2Yr Complete Care

I didn't know the Warranty covered accidental damage. If it did, people would cheat the system. I'm sure that a few days before the warranty expires, people would "accidentally" drop their laptops off a high table or something and get a new laptop 3 years later.

Similar thing happened with Costco. They offered no-questions asked exchange for full purchase price. People kept trading in their laptops/computers after several months of usage when a new technology or updates would come along. Needless to say, they are not offering this with computers anymore.

The "complete care" covers accidental damage, the regular warranty does not. You buy them separately, but Dell always offers package deals on both. I got 3 year warranty with complete care for about $100 extra.

I got the 4 year with complete care on my M1210. I'd planned to do 3, but the guy on the phone offered me a discount so that it was only $17 for the extra year. I'm back in school, and I need this thing to work until I graduate. My i8600's motherboard died right after the warranty was out, and I don't want to have to worry about things like that again this time. I could probably afford to replace it if it breaks, but the $7.50ish per month of warranty is a lot easier for me to swallow than dropping another $2700 in the next few years would be.

Only reason mine was replaced under the regular warranty was Dells inability to fix it 3 separate times at the repair center...last time it overheated and shutdown less than a day after getting it back from the shop, so dell agreed to replace it....I still had about 3 months of warranty left when I sent it in the first time for a bad motherboard, it was then I decided to go ahead and extend the warranty another 2 yrs, and with complete care only costing about $100 more I grabbed it ......so I have the peace of mind knowing my E1505 replacement has 2yrs of warranty as well as 2yrs of complete care....

Specs: E1505 T2400 1.83 Dual Core
WSXGA+ True Life Ultra Sharp
X1400 256Mb
80Gig Hd 5400
2Gig DDR2 667
8XDVDR+/-R Dual Sony
3945 Wireless

Another big fan of the extended warranties here. I've had things go bad towards the end of 3 years or so because of heavy usage and such so if you plan on using the laptop for a very long time and consider it an investment, by all means, get an extended warranty.

I have a terrible track record with laptops.

I purchased an HP ZD series notebook 8 months ago for around $1500. I recently stepped on the top of the casing and cracked the LCD. $800 LCD replacement from HP direct, a little cheaper on ebay. I parted out this laptop and threw it out. (Hard drive was also damaged, and I didn't want to worry about fixing any of it)

So I purchased a cheapo old Dell for a few hundred bucks. Last week I dropped it and the thing totally crapped out. Ok time for another...

I just purchased a $1900 m1210 and this time around, I'm buying the extended warranty...

Sound like you should get the complete care too, or a better case!