onsite warranty with Dell?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Is Dell the only company that provides that?

I've gone through two laptops within 9 months.

Gateway: When I hooked up a flat screen monitor to it, sparks begin to fly
and fried up the mother board. Gateway's response? Customer damage. NEVER
buy Gateway computers

Sony VAIO, refurbished. Bought from www.notebookshop.com in Cerritos
California. Supposedly after the 90 day warranty expired, the store was
supposed to provide 1 year warranty. WRONG. The problem occured with the
power jack. It kept dying. The scholars' response from notebookshop.com?
"Customer damage" What? Just plugging in and out the AC adaptor
constitutes "customer damage" They say SONY's power jacks are known to go
bad. Then why did you sell it to me?

Again, it's Notebookshop.com. You are heavily advised against shopping
there.

I work as a self-employed consultant. That means I go on site a lot.
Without the laptop, I don't make money.

Any recommendations? I heard about Dell's onsite service. Is it worth it?
Do they play hardball with warranty too?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"David C" <nospam@nospam.com> writes:
> Any recommendations? I heard about Dell's onsite service. Is it worth it?
> Do they play hardball with warranty too?

Note IBM's:

"IBM ServicePac for Warranty and Maintenance Options (applies to United
States only)

These upgrades are available for machines normally used for business,
professional or trade purposes rather than personal, family or
household purposes. Subject to IBM ServicePac Maintenance Service
Agreement. For ServicePacs with onsite repair, the customer may be
asked certain diagnostic questions before a technician is sent, and
there may be some repairs that require depot service."

1. Personal laptops are not covered (although they will very happily
sell you worthless coverage anyway for your personal laptop if you
don't read the fine print).

2. They don't guarantee on site service. They just offer the OPTION
at their discretion.

Conway Yee

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

In article <bqwzn3734g9.fsf@bronze.lcs.mit.edu>,
Conway Yee <yee@bronze.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:
>"David C" <nospam@nospam.com> writes:
>> Any recommendations? I heard about Dell's onsite service. Is it worth it?
>> Do they play hardball with warranty too?

I've managed sites with hundreds of Dell and Toshiba systems, 95%
laptops. We always took the 3 year warranty. Dell did service
on-site. Toshiba was on-site for desktops and authorized service
centers for Toshiba.

Both companies were very good. A call to Dell service would try to
troubleshoot over the phone, or identify the necessary replacement
part. They would schedule a time and place, next day, and the service
guy always showed up with thr right part, on time.

The Toshiba service center was very good. Sometimes parts were on
backorder and took a week to come in, but most repairs were done on a
couple days.

This was before Dell outsourced they phone people, and I _have_ had
some horrible problems with Dell customer service on the phone, but
the technicians have always been great. I think Dell has turned the
boat around and is fixing their phone support problems.

I never had a Dell or Toshiba guy try to claim something wasn't
covered.


I've managed lots of HP servers and printers and the service was
always first rate, but I own a Compaq )HP) laptop and I had to raise
my voice a notch to het them to replace a failed kbd on it that was
covered under warranty. They tried to claim it was abuse until I put
on my corporate voice. They caved in right away.

I've never dealt with IBM laptop maintenance but I expect they do a
first rate job, within the limits of whatever contract you have.

Always read the fine print. For example; on 3 year contracts the
batteries are only covered for 1 year. It looks like you are already
doing that. Never never buy a third-party warranty agreement from a
retail computer store.

All of my experience is from Manhattan sites, where service guys are
only a few minutes away. If you are in Kansas your experience might
be different. This isn't critical if you fedex a laptop to a service
shop.



>
>Note IBM's:
>
>"IBM ServicePac for Warranty and Maintenance Options (applies to United
>States only)
>
>These upgrades are available for machines normally used for business,
>professional or trade purposes rather than personal, family or
>household purposes. Subject to IBM ServicePac Maintenance Service
>Agreement. For ServicePacs with onsite repair, the customer may be
>asked certain diagnostic questions before a technician is sent, and
>there may be some repairs that require depot service."
>
>1. Personal laptops are not covered (although they will very happily
> sell you worthless coverage anyway for your personal laptop if you
> don't read the fine print).
>
>2. They don't guarantee on site service. They just offer the OPTION
> at their discretion.
>
>Conway Yee
>
>


--
Al Dykes
-----------
adykes at p a n i x . c o m