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3 Years of Warranty Free

390 points posted to Service and Support, Laptops by kartikanand 02/21/07

Dell,

If you believe your computers are the best of the best, then I really challenge you to give your customers 3 years of warranty for no additional cost. This would say a lot about your own confidence in your products!!! This would bring unbelievable number of customers.

Last year, I planned to purchase a new laptop, I decided on 1 simple things i.e. not to purchase DELL. This is because I have heard so many complaints about the laptop manufactured by DELL breaking after 13-14 months.

motie35
02/21/07
My brother's laptop broke 11 months after he bought it. He was in the Phillipines(he's a missionary) at the time, and when he called Dell, a rep actually told him to wait until the warranty expired, and have it repaired under the credit card extended warranty. Then when he shipped it to me so I could have it repaired, Dell flat refused to repair it out of warranty. They kept changing their story as to why they wouldn't repair it, and suggested I send it to a third party for repair, who wanted $500 minimum to repair it, half the cost of the laptop. I won't buy or recommend Dell because of this. My brother says the best brand of laptop to buy for international support is Toshiba. I would say IBM/Lenovo has to be high in the list.
olegturaev
02/21/07
I say, don't offer anything for "free". Basically, what "free" means is that you have no choice but to get it, because even if you don't, you're still paying for it. It's good advertising, but nothing is free. If it says it's free, it only means it's included in price. Instead, offer options. Even with basic insurance, one should have the option of taking it off and reducing overall price of the laptop/other. Don't stick us with anything without asking. Just offer options. Choice is good.
stevied
02/21/07
Free? Free?

The cost of the warranty is included in the product.

There is no free lunch. And there is no free warranty.

By the way, I buy roughly 25 business computers each year. Computers are used for 5-6 years. We only want 1 year warranties.. Why? Because the warranty costs for the first year are roughly $100. $200 additional for the 2nd year (combined $300 total). Third year warranty costs are more than $300. 4th and 5th year warranties are even more obnoxious.

If Dell were to offer 3 year warranties, the cost of the warranty would be built into the computer's selling price. Bottom line that 3 year warranty could add $600 to the selling price of the computers.

Considering a large number of people routinely buy new computers, do you think they really want such a high price for a warranty that will not benefit them?

I know I don't want to pay for the 3 yr warranty.
sinthetek
02/28/07
There definately should be some sort of free warranty system in place. And yes, by free I mean FREE. Not an additional charge. The whole point in buying a name-brand product is reliability. You are pretty much already paying for a warranty/guarantee when you pay the extra money for a Dell over Brand-X. If you are charging extra money to assure customers your hardware will do what it should for a reasonable amount of time there is little advantage in going with Dell. Why pay the extra money for the hardware and still have to buy a warranty to make sure it will continue to work? Customers can just goto Brand-X and spend a cheaper base cost for hardware AND a cheaper warranty. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me that you have to pay extra money to make sure you get what you pay for. Everyone should get at least a 1 year warranty for every $500 they spend on the system or maybe for every $200 in the system price get a month or some such. You can't expect to get more than what you paid for but everyone should automatically be guaranteed some level of reliability at no additional cost.
vfun
03/30/07
No, anything that adds to the cost is something I don't want.
phubert28
03/30/07
No such thing as 'free' ... if it's a COST to the SUPPLIER, it MUST be RECOVERED BY the supplier... from whom? From the BUYER, of course!!!

What DO they teach these people????!
dhiruseh
05/21/07
I dont know if this will be ever read or not... My story... I would never buy Dell laptop ever... Reason is simple: NO CUSTOMER CARE.. ITS ALL BS when behind the scenes nothing ever changes.

I bought Dell Laptop. It broke 1 year and 1 day later with broken key. CAN U BELIEVE IT. AFTER 5 CALLS to DIFFERENT DELL CENTERS as they were tossing me around they acted like that nothing can be done due to 24 hrs expiry of the warranty. READING FROM SCREENS. EVERY PART OF DELL WORLD HAS SAME STORY. I say they intentionally make laptops with such situations that people's laptops should break exactly after 1 year and then buy new ones... About 15 days later now, I have laptop with BSOD and all sort of problem.. THE DAMN SYSTEM JUST DISINTEGRATED... ITS PATHETIC. WARRANTY ITS USELESS, it has been calculated internally to check when it should expire as the system should break... PERFECT TIMING.

Dell should have some subjective understanding of their systems. 1 year is nothing as systems are supposed to last for 3 years on replacement cycle.

Somethings will never change... THIS IS NIGHTMARISH EXPERIENCE. as my wife is preparing for her medical exams, when all data is on that system with 2 months to go....NEVER EVER BUY A DELL LAPTOP and its rhymes with this idea. STOP WARRANTIES and BE TRUTHFUL.
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