Dell Laptop warranty/ what's your experience?

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bosstone74

Limp Gawd
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May 14, 2002
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My friend has a Dell laptop, I went to visit him over the weekend, and used this Smell laptop....I mean Dell laptop. This computer froze up on me over 20 times. When I asked about it, he told me he purchased the extended 5 year warranty for the comp, and has not gotten ANY good help from dell. He even went as far as writting a certified to Mike Dell himself, which of course didn't get a reply.

I took and did a clean install and updated everything. They did send him new RAM and had him install it but to no avail. When he spoke with the tech support people at Dell, they said the wouldn't do anything for him. (even though he purchased a 5 year extended warranty)

What's your experiences with Dell's warranty plan, and is there and tips, tricks, or suggestions you have so that they will take the comp in and fix this pile?

thanks!

BossTone74
 
with dell, if you change ANYTHING on the computer, consider your warranty fsked...

my brother has had several dells and even changing the OS brought him grief when the disks failed...they wouldn't support him @ all...

tread VERY carefully and read the fine print on the warranties...oftentimes they provide themselves exclusions to common problems.

cheers,

dave
 
I got a dell laptop from my school (mandatory laptops) and have had it for about 3 years now. It has a 4 year dell complete care plan (covers accidental damage (they will fix anything unless it is obviously done on purpose)). The education tech line has no wait so i am speaking to a tech guy in under 2 min. (most i ever waited was 5 min out of 6 or 7 calls). The support on software issues is pretty bad but for a hardware problem they will over night the part to you or send a guy to your house to fix it within 3 days. the laptop i have is not the greatest but it runs well for what i use it for (HD is due for a format though).

I have also called dell for home support for my dads laptop but it was for a software issue and as i mentioned before they dont really help with that.
 
if my experience can be summed up in one sentence, here it is:

I HATE DELL.

Having said that, you can get a general idea of where im comming from.

Their tech support is the worst ive ever had the "dis-pleasure" of dealing with. 4 years ago it was "ok", they had a few people there that knew a thing or two, but now its horrible.

As for their "warranty", its a shady deal for me. When i first got my 4 year old dell, the cd-rom broke within 6 months (generic cd-rom). So they sent a guy out to fix that. After about another 6-12 months, its "semi-broke" again. It would sometimes crap out, and sometimes it worked fine. (its would crap out in games too, such as Diablo 2... and it was'nt the disk itself).

In order to have them replace it, they had to have me a few "tests (LOL)". They said put in the dell resource CD, and it came up fine. So with that test alone they said it worked fine, and they refused to replace it.

Back then, i was not qualified to try and "fix" it myself.... so i just went out and bought myself a nice TDK CD-R/RW drive (love it). Funny, because with this new drive, that Diablo 2 cd worked perfectly. ~_~

I don't have any "special" fast tech support, or USA based call centers......... so my average wait times around 4 years ago almost always average 1 hour... now a days tech support is around 30min wait time.............. but then i get the Foreign tech support.... and i won't get into how much i don't like that .......... instead ill just link to another post about how much everyone on [H]ard|Forum likes dell ^_^ 5 pages of dell good'ness ~_~

~Hope this helps
 
In order to have them replace it, they had to have me a few "tests (LOL)". They said put in the dell resource CD, and it came up fine. So with that test alone they said it worked fine, and they refused to replace it.

I had the same thing happen to me and they want to you to run tests .. LOL also under my cdrom it get's really hot for no reason no disk inside of it so i'm talking to there tech support ( okay some background i'm the Lead Network Eng. for Anthem.com for Ohio ) I don't know anything * cough * as far as dell is concerned.

Has me take apart the whole laptop , memory , cdrom , battery everything and then says okay is it still hot i was like WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT IT'S IN PIECES YOU MOOK.

anyway long story short I use nothing but ibm before and i will cont. to use ibm after the fact my wife uses the dell and as a side note it's corp. standard here at anthem.com is dell it sucks

/end of rant
 
Well i depends on what service you purchased! I only deal business / small buisness, and i get great service.... had a 2 year old dell latitude CPia... old p2... it was still under the extended warrenty.. called dell about a problem with the screen, and they were at my house the next day installing a new screen on my dining room table.
I will say that there home service SUCKS!... long phone waits,, teir 3 tech support... and crappy mail in service... if your going to buy a laptop.. get a latitude... and get their on site next day service plan... onlything not covered is their crappy batteries that tend to nuke themselves after a year and a half! arg!
 
I have the Inspiron 8500 with 3 year warrenty.

Had a hard drive problem and did a Diagnostics Scan. It detect 2 errors with the hard drive.

I called Tech Support and gave them the 2 error codes. The tech looked it up and then said that a new one will be shipped in 2 business days. Got it within the 2 days and installed it. Everything worked after that and sent the defective drive back.

So far, my experience has been really good. No complaints at all with it. Also had a friend who called tech support and he got good service as well.
 
Dell's service blows. I needed a new motherboard for a Dell desktop 2 or 3 years ago since AGP and PCI cards were blowing left and right for the whole life of the thing. Since the diagnostics passed, they refused to replace the motherboard but wanted to keep replacing the cards.

Anyway, I ended up emailing Michael Dell since my boss had his address and received a call from his executive support person a few weeks later. They sent me a new computer which was DOA, then gave me a hard time about getting that taken care of. Eventually I was able to get in touch with the executive support guy again and finally got it straightened out.
 
my parent's ordered a brand new Optiplex from dell and it was DOA on arrival...turns out, they had wired the f**king thing wrong.

cheers,

dave
 
I've had an Inspiron 8200 for about 3 years now. I formatted it right when I received it and took care of it since then and I've had only 1 problem.

The hard drive died at some point (it was a mobile Deathstar..er Deskstar hard drive). I called them up and told them it died, gave them some error codes, and they shipped me a new one and I received it in only a couple days.

When I got the new Hitachi hard drive, I updated the firmware on it right when I received it and it's still trucking along.

I always get the shortest warranties on Dell stuff since it lasts a while if you know what you're doing with it.

Also, the longest I've been put on hold for Dell tech support is no more than 10 min.
 
I havea 3 year complete care warranty on my 600M. The screen after a couple months got a whole bunch of partially dead pixels, and then the onboard ethernet partially died (it would work slowly for about 1 or 2 minutes then die - and I tried doing a clean install and it still did this - so the problem was definitely hardware) - Anyways - I called them up I think on a Monday night - talked with them for maybe 10 minutes about the problems - and they had a dell tech come to my house the next morning. He replaced both the LCD and the motherboard - and my computer has been running perfectly since. Before that I had had mixed feelings about Dell - but now I love them! :p
 
dave_graham said:
with dell, if you change ANYTHING on the computer, consider your warranty fsked...

my brother has had several dells and even changing the OS brought him grief when the disks failed...they wouldn't support him @ all...
Click to expand...
Not completely true. You can upgrade the memory and change the hard drive (when Dell sends Airborne to pick up the system, they instruct you to remove the hard drive) without any change in support. However, upgrading the system yourself gets no support unless you change it back to the way it came from Dell or if you purchased the upgrades from Dell, it is supported. That's really no different from other computer manufacturers.

But you are right in if you replace the OS, they won't help if it's a problem even remotely related to the OS (e.g. crashing) until you restore the system using the backup CD.

I've had 3 Dell laptops and I sent in 2 for repair (5 dead pixels on screen with one, bad CD-RW on another) without problems even though I had done upgrades.

You can get service even if tech support doesn't help you. Write to [email protected] explaning the problem (and troubleshooting steps you've already done) and you'll get it serviced. That's not a cure-all if you just plain refuse to cooperate with tech support since they will ask you to do the same things as tech support if you have replaced the OS or not done a system restoration. But they are easier to deal with than calling in to some brain dead script monkey in tech support if you've already done all the troubleshooting necessary yourself.
 
I LOVE the Dell warranty! The tech support people are a little hard to work with since they don't speak english or know how to fix a computer, but if you know what you're after you can get it. Don't bother with support unless something is broken and needs to be replaced. Ask here if you need to get your software working. Just be firm with them. "My xxxxx is broken, I need a replacement". Usually they'll ask you to do whatever test they have, and when it fails, you get a new part. If not, ask for a supervisor, and you WILL get the part if you are still under warranty. I got a new hard drive for my laptop after it broke because I dropped it. Called and told them it was making a clicking noise, they had me hold the phone up to it so they could hear, and then 3 days later I had a new drive. I've also got some memory and a battery with the only trouble being the fact that I couldn't understand the language they were speaking.

A while ago when the first Axim's came out, I got one with a D-pad that didn't work so great. I called and told them about the problem, and they wanted me to wait a week until a new software update came out. I said no, this is not a software problem, I can see it is physically bad. Asked for a supervisor, and told him I wouldn't be happy until I got a replacement. A few days later I got a new Axim. They didn't even ask for the old one back like they usually do, so I kept it. :D The only problem was a slightly off D-pad....
 
I've had 2 Dell laptops and bought the 3 year extended return to depot warrantee with both of them and was glad I did. On both laptops, the screen backlight went out after the primary 1 year warrantee was over and would have cost more just to replace the backlight/screen than what the extra warrantee cost me. My last Dell laptop was an inspiron 8000 and during the 3 year warrantee I had the original Toshiba hard drive crap out and they sent me a IBM Travelstar as a replacement and the original cd burner drive also crapped out and they sent me a newer/better cd burner replacement for it. If I would buy another Dell laptop, I would definitely pay for the extended warrantee just so I wouldn't get stuck with broken shit I would have to pay for out of pocket. Their people in service suck though; all sound like Hadji from the fucking Johnny Quest cartoons but with a thicker accent. :mad:

This time around I bought my new laptop from Powernotebooks.com and so far the experience is much better than the Dell ordeals. :D
 
If you think dells support sucks call HP or compaq sometime. I have to call companies to get replacements at work all the time and dell isn't so bad compared to the others. Just gotta bs a little if you have a different os than shipped with it sometimes.
 
I call in Dell laptops to get replacement parts a lot at work. Mind you when a business laptop is called in the call goes to a different support call center then a home machine (india :/). The main things to remember when you call are 1) always tell them you are running the OS that came with the system(most of them don't care but some might) 2) you have to BS sometimes or else as you see they have you run the tests. So basically whenever they ask you to do something just tell them you already tried it. 3) if at first you don't succeed hangup and try again. These people are human and different people do different things.

I have had a great experience with Dell so far at work, but I don't call them for tech support perse I call them to replace dead components like hds, lcds, mobos.
 
My Ultrasharp screen on my 8200 messed up a while back.. I called them on a wednesday, got the airborne box on friday, I went home to get the box and mailed it out that friday... I got my laptop back with a brand new lcd by Tuesday. I am definitely going to consider dell on my next laptop purchase. The warrantee is definitely worth it when it comes to things like laptops. I did have to go through the usual tech drone in india but it was worth it. We get dells at work and they are usually very good about replacing parts under warrantee.
 
Wow, talk about a debate. Good or bad.. I am even unsure now.

I know ordering the thing on the phone was hard enough. I got the complete care too. *prays nothing happens to his laptop*
 
complete care is the only way to go. I didn't choose the "in home" option so I could save a little money. I don't mind being without it for a short period of time.. especially when all they do is swap out parts most of the time.
 
I've got in home service about to expire on my 3 yr old inspiron and it's been great. I don't think they offered complete care back then but if they did I would have bought it. It's payed for itself several times in the nitpicky repairs I've made them do, and I have a few more things I'll have them spend their resources on before my warranty is up.

You can get them to do a lot without overstepping the bounds of what the warranty allows, I've got a new monitor, mainboard (firewire port broke and i used it a lot), new removable optical drive so far. I need fans on the mobo replaced, one is grinding and I'll probably have them tighten my display too. Its a little floppy.
 
emorphien said:
I've got in home service about to expire on my 3 yr old inspiron and it's been great. I don't think they offered complete care back then but if they did I would have bought it. It's payed for itself several times in the nitpicky repairs I've made them do, and I have a few more things I'll have them spend their resources on before my warranty is up.

You can get them to do a lot without overstepping the bounds of what the warranty allows, I've got a new monitor, mainboard (firewire port broke and i used it a lot), new removable optical drive so far. I need fans on the mobo replaced, one is grinding and I'll probably have them tighten my display too. Its a little floppy.
Click to expand...


Wow, sounds like someone beats up their computer alot ^_^. What did your poor little computer ever do to you i wonder ;)

Sorry, that was a joke, but i must ask, how did the fan break? Ive never had a fan just "grind" out of no where, unless the ocasional finger got into it.
 
i think this sums it up well

dell tech support is not tech support, its a parts rma department

to get good service from them you need to know what's wrong
if you know what part needs to be replaced then you can usualy convince them to replace it
if you think the cd-rom is dodgy LIE TO THEM
tell them it reconizes NO disc's including the resorce cd
MAKE the problem out to be 10x worse than it is
if the computer is really unstable
then just tell them it hangs on the bios screen every time

if they ask whats in your computer
tell them "what ever you put in it and nothing more"
no matter what might be in it

i manage about 1200computers for a private school system in MD
all dell....
i deal with their blody tech support every day
trust me LIEING IS YOUR FRIEND when dealing with dell
 
tiebird321 said:
i think this sums it up well

dell tech support is not tech support, its a parts rma department

to get good service from them you need to know what's wrong
if you know what part needs to be replaced then you can usualy convince them to replace it
if you think the cd-rom is dodgy LIE TO THEM
tell them it reconizes NO disc's including the resorce cd
MAKE the problem out to be 10x worse than it is
if the computer is really unstable
then just tell them it hangs on the bios screen every time

if they ask whats in your computer
tell them "what ever you put in it and nothing more"
no matter what might be in it

i manage about 1200computers for a private school system in MD
all dell....
i deal with their blody tech support every day
trust me LIEING IS YOUR FRIEND when dealing with dell
Click to expand...

man that's really terrible...kinda makes me think twice about their complete care solution
 
towert7 said:
Wow, sounds like someone beats up their computer alot ^_^. What did your poor little computer ever do to you i wonder ;)

Sorry, that was a joke, but i must ask, how did the fan break? Ive never had a fan just "grind" out of no where, unless the ocasional finger got into it.
Click to expand...
It does get hauled around a lot, and actually in spite of how it sounds, that damn thing has been a tank. The bad fan on the mobo makes a loud grinding noise (still spins), and it was that way ever since they replaced my mainboard. New fans came on the new mainboard and one of them was dodgy.

I've had a great experience with their at home support. I ordered through small/home business because I couldn't get Win 2k as a home user (so sneaky). If I tell them somethings even slightly weird they send out the replacement or come out right away. They've been great IMO.
 
How much money does a support plan cost? I am considering a Lattitude 8100 I think it is. How much for a 3 year on that?
 
Qwestman said:
How much money does a support plan cost? I am considering a Lattitude 8100 I think it is. How much for a 3 year on that?
Click to expand...

When you configure Dell's online, there will be an entire page dedicated to warranty and home care stuff. All the prices will be located there.
 
There is no "Lattitude 8100"..................... as far as i know.
There used to be a insipron 8100, but dell no longer makes them as far as i know.

Their support can be quite pricey, especially if you want that "accidental damage" coverage.
SAVE $140 Instantly with the Premium Service Package plus Night and Weekend [add $427 or $13/month1] Dell Recommended
SAVE $70 Instantly with the Plus Service Package plus Nights and Weekend [add $397 or $12/month1]
3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year At-Home Service plus Nights and Weekend [add $269 or $8/month1]
2 Year Limited Warranty plus 2 Year At-Home Service [add $129 or $4/month1]
1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year At-Home Service [add $69 or $2/month1]
3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year Mail-In Service [add $169 or $5/month1]
1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year Mail-In Service
SAVE $100 (after rebate) 4Yr Ltd Warr, 4Yr At-Home plus nights and weekends [add $369 or $11/month1]
Click to expand...

100$ per month ................ and its not like they have tech support............. its just basically to fix the hardware aspect of it. (ever since the "big outsoucing movement", i have yet to talk with a dell indian call center tech support person who knew more then their big book of windows XP (or similar). ~_~ just my experience .... back 4 years ago there were a few that knew from what ive seen)

But, then again, i guess its good to be able to replace the laptop incase something broke the LCD or something along those lines.
 
Yeah, inspiron 8100 has long since gone on to be in the history books. Thats what I have though. My trusty old beast.
 
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