Approximately 2.5 years ago, I ordered 2 shiny new Dell Inspiron 600m laptops (one for me, one for my wife). After conducting much research, the 600m looked like a clear winner in terms of weight and power. Before completing my purchase, I decided to get the 3 year warranty - my wife would be a student and may drop it... I would be toting my laptop everywhere to conduct work for clients. Ironically, I bought the Warranty thinking about ways WE would cause the machine to break. How far from reality that turned out being.
Since owning our laptops, we've had the following issues:
My Laptop:
1) 3 months into my ownership, my Hard Drive failed. Dell shipped a new one and I installed it myself.
2) Dell Technicians replaced my Keyboard twice. First time, my 'X' key stopped working. Second time, some of the key's were sticking & freezing the machine.
** This was really fun trying to 'troubleshoot' with my Indian Dell Technician
3) My Case was replaced because the front grill cracked
4) My Power Cord started to fray and I saw exposed wires. Dell shipped me a replacement, but it didn't fit. They repeated the process, but the next one didn't fit again. By this time, the cord was shorting out. Upon plugging in one time, I saw a spark and the battery stopped charging. I could only use the power cord (which finally worked on the 3rd one)
5) Once my battery stopped charging, they determined it was my Motherboard. They replaced it and everything is working fine now.
It might be reasonable to think that I was just an unlucky Dell Customer. Unfortunately, my wife has had similar issues:
My Wife's Laptop
1) She's had her keyboard replaced twice. The first time it was loose... the second time keys stopped working and the 'S' key fell off (couldn't be snapped back on).
2) Her Screen was loose & had to be replaced. When she opened it, it would just fall backwards.
3) She had to replace her power cord twice.
4) Last week, her power button became faulty and displayed erratic behavior. Her CAPS LOCK and NUM LOCK keys didn't respond, and the Mute/Sound buttons quit working. Dell had to replace her Motherboard.
For Icing on the cake, some of my employees have echo'd my sentiment. They have also had to call on the powers of the Dell Warranty to keep their laptops in working order.
So this begs the question: Are the Dell Warranties that great? On one hand, I can't imagine what I would have done if I didn't have them. On the other, it's a shame that I've had to use mine this much. They obviously can't be happy with all the work they've had to do - so perhaps they are fixing this by: 1) Raising the price of their Warranty or 2) Making better machines. Who knows... either way, they've convinced me to NEVER turn down their Warranty offers.