Dell Extended Warranty. Rip Off? Worth it? What's Your Take?

Its completely up to you. I guess its just a peice of mind especially if you get the XPS2/9300 because of the Video card.

well most retail companies will record 50%-60% profits from the sales of extended warranties. My take is this:

If it's going to break it will break within the first year. (this is debatable and generally speaking)

If you buy one you are best to get the longest term you can, so you get the most for your money. In doing so you will spend $400 dollars which will replace any one of the major parts on your laptop (generally speaking).

And finally i don't plan on keeping a computer over two years anyway soo no biggie.

just my 2 cents (sense)

For my homeowners insurance to cover 4 years it was cheaper by about $7 a month to use Dell. One repair in the next 4 years, which I know will happen, and its paid for without having to deal with outside insurance.

I travel a lot and am hard on notebooks, despite my care. The last one died when some FAT lady decided she needed the chair next to me more than my bag did, and swiped it to the floor without even acknowledging my existance. She looked up from her food long enough to witness her husband give me their information and they paid for it, but next time I might no be so lucky.

unless youre getting the laptop for over $2500 otherwise extended warranty is waste of money. my friend ordered an i6000 for $890 with 750$ off coupon and that moron added the 4 year extended warranty for like $400+ more. i mean why the hell would you need an extended warranty when you know 1-2 years from now that sh!t dont worth jack plus it would be too slow consider new OS would come out, games and apps that require more speed.

I figure for something that a) is fairly fragile and b) is meant to be carried around a lot, it's worth it. I get it with the additional Accident coverage.

Unlike, say, a DVD player, you DO have a good chance of accidentally damaging a laptop.

Say you (or someone else) spills a coffee on it... or it slips onto the floor from a table... or anything at all. It's covered 100% for the lifetime of the accident coverage. No questions asked.

As someone on this forum said, on the last week of the 2 year accident coverage they bought, if it "accidentally" gets dropped, they get a new laptop.

Sounds like a good gamble to me.

Worth every penny. My mom has used hers twice on her Inpsiron 5100, due to a dead pixel in her LCD, and it overheating. And I've used my mine twice, both due to a LCDs in the i8600. Got fast shipping, and great people to come out and fix it. It's well worth it considering its around what $250-$300 purchase, when some of the parts are in the $500.00 range.

I purchased a 2-year At-home warranty with the Inspiron 600m, and I'll probably upgrade the warranty as soon as I have enough money to do so.

I dunno...

You get a warranty for free for the 1st year. After a year, the computer drops in value by quite a bit (about half), so the replacement cost of a similar unit is low.

If something major dies say... 13-20 months after purchase, you'll make out on the extended warranty (generally). If it dies before, the standard warranty will cover it, if it dies after 20 months, the replacement cost is usually less than the warranty ran you. It's a pretty narrow window, so in general I don't buy one.

I think it depends on how long you plan on keeping your laptop. If you plan on getting a new one in a year to stay on the ever changing technology wave then don't bother. But if you are like me and plan on keeping it for awhile then you might as well make the investment into the extended warrenty. I also got the accidental coverage.

Cornholio,

Im in California so Im sure somebody would have sued me if I wanted to pursue it. Her husband was very cool about it and I actually felt sorry for the poor guy.

I guess it depends on the investment... a $600 laptop, right, it wouldn't be worth it. But $2000 +... that's another story, as even after 18 months they're still worth more than a few hundred.

you have to understand that down the road it may be slower, but the cheapest lappies are still going to cost way more than the warranty. Plus there is no guarantee that you are going to have $750 coupons, nor will there be discounts if you need a laptop right away. The warranty for the 3rd and 4th year are actually very cheap about $65 to add additional year. It is the first two years that cost the most like $300 for the first two years. so $65 versus paying $200-$300 for an LCD, there is absolutely no question I'm going to pay the extra $65 up front.

even though your lappie in 1-2 years ain't gonna be worth as much, it still will be worth more than $65 that it cost for the 3rd year warranty. Plus, if you buy a laptop that is the same you won't have the warranty. If you buy new, you are going to pay substantially more than what it cost you to buy the 3rd or 4th year to get the cheapest model of the laptop.

If you are going to carry the laptop around alot, i would recommend the complete care, but that is me and judging from my past experiences with laptops. Currently, i have replaced four 8-cell batteries, which means that it would have costed me about $800 to replace them.

as with any insurance, it is a gamble. i would say most electronics no need to buy extended warranties. for laptops that you are going to move around with, there is higher probably for damage, so i would recommend CC.

I got the 4 year premium warranty on my 9300 for a couple of reasons. I plan on keeping the computer for at least 4 years as my main desktop replacement. I was able to use the 35% off coupon which brought the cost of the warranty down from about $420 to $273 (not sure of exact numbers but those are very close). For four years, at home, weekend tech support and accidental coverage on a $1700 after 35% off laptop, it is well worth the cost for the piece of mind. Total was $2100 with tax so about 13% of the cost. One service call requiring a repair will pay for itself in four years. Plus we have a 2 1/2 year old... enough said.

As far as my wifes 6000D, since we used the $750 off coupon and only paid $850 with tax, we did not get any extended coverage. We could not justify the cost on this computer.

Did you guys forget about the benefits of using a Gold or Platinum Credit card?

Almost all gold/platinum credit card have a protection policy that includes insurance for the first 90 days (3 months) and they will double the warranty for up to 1 additional year (so if its 1 year standard, then the 2nd year will be covered by Credit Card). This is all FREE assuming you paid with your gold or platinum credit card.

The insurance better than Dell's Accidental Coverage. The 90-day insurance from the credit card covers you if your laptop is lost or stolen within the 90-day period. And instead of paying $xxx for an additional year in warranty you are already covered for that extra year from the credit card company.

Paid with DPA? no problem. Request a CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION/WALK TO MANIFEST form from Dell and fill that out to have them transfer the charge from your DPA account to your Credit Card.

Not true. Not all gold and platinum do, and visa and mastercard have their own rules. Also, not all cover accidents and if they do it is normally for the first 90 days for specific causes. also, you will have to go through them to file a warranty claim, which can take 60 days or longer to resolve. same goes with amex. you also have to consider if you are paying an annual fee for the card. you also might consider what claims will do to your interest rates.

accident coverage normally only includes damage due to fire, vandalism, accidentally discharged water, or weather. That doesn't mean dropping the item. Now the nice thing is that Visa gold/platinum check card has the same bennies as a regular visa gold/platinum credit card. mastercard is very strict and has very specific points.

you can go to usa.visa.com or www.mastercard.com to read the policies. It's not as good as it seems.

I helped my friend order an I600m for his daughter and we got the 4 yr deal for a couple of reasons. First, his daughter is a teenager. Second, the configuration that he wanted for this system put it at about $1750. That made it eligible for the $600 coupon. But when we added the 4 yr deal for something like $300, we were able to use the $750 coupon and it came with a $100 rebate. So we basically paide $50 for an extended 3 yr warranty!

You are correct about MasterCard having more restrictions. In fact, so many that it's ridiculous. MasterCard Assurance(r) and extended warranty DOES NOT cover computing equipment. It also doesnt cover most types of theft or water damage.

VISA's version DOES cover computing equipment i believe, and it DOES cover water damage.