Extended laptop warranties worth it?

[Fat Tone]

We've bought a number of Dell laptops over the last year or so, usually with the NBD warranty. They are starting to come up for renewal and I'm wondering if it is worth the cost.

The current example is an XPS M1330. The NBD warranty cost is £90, £109 and £139 for 1,2,3 years respectively.

I can replace the components myself, and I imagine the only parts that cost more than £90 are the motherboard and the LCD panel.

So is it worth it?

[dZeus]

don't get you 2 year warranty on laptops without additional costs throughout the EU?

I doubt the 3rd year is worth 139 quid if you do.

edit: I see NBD probably means next business day? If so, I'd keep old laptops around as temporary replacement instead if you have any

[Jammrock]

We've bought a number of Dell laptops over the last year or so, usually with the NBD warranty. They are starting to come up for renewal and I'm wondering if it is worth the cost.

The current example is an XPS M1330. The NBD warranty cost is £90, £109 and £139 for 1,2,3 years respectively.

I can replace the components myself, and I imagine the only parts that cost more than £90 are the motherboard and the LCD panel.

So is it worth it?

I usually recommend 3-year NBD on hardware only. Laptops can rarely be self repaired so I get the cheapest 3-year warranty the OEM offers. After 3-years it's time to get a new laptop, imo.

[Fluff]

Didn't the XPS-M 1330 have the nvidia bad bumps problem? So maybe the risk of a replacement motherboard could be higher?

Dell also provide optional extended battery service. (3 year guarantee).

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/services/prosupport/extended_battery?c=us&l=en&cs=555

If I was buying new I would do the same as Jammrock. 3 Year NBD.

However as an option you could spend the warranty money on an online backup solution such as mozypro for the laptop users. www.mozy.com/pro

[Fat Tone]

Ta for the suggestions. We bought 1yr NBD at time of purchase as it was very price sensitive at the time. I reckon I'll go for a further 2 years.

Having said that, the screen on my Vostro 1720 died on the 11th. I am expecting a replacement on the 21st. Hardly NBD. They blamed a lack of spares on the weather but I have trouble buying that story.

[VJ]

Isn't there some clause that reimburses you or something? Clearly they fail the contract. Then again, the excuse that it is due to circumstance out of their control will still work...

[paulw]

The only item I ever buy an extended warranty on is laptops. 3 ~ 5 years. Everyone we have bought so far has had a major problem (expensive) before the extended warranty was up.

[Fat Tone]

Well it took over two weeks for them to fix my 1720. Needless to say I didn't spend any more on warranties during that time. I got a 250GB Iomega USB powered HDD for my trouble. Small and neat.

Anyways, Dell just emailed me an offer for 2 years on the M1330 for £96 inc VAT. I'm taking it.

Cheers,

T.

[UtwigMU]

At previous job, we were HPs authorized server warranty repair. Basically, when you get or are given a claim, you can go to HPs depot and get hardware on loan (if you expect a failed disk or some cars, you usually get it before going to location). HP was supposed to keep sufficient number of parts in stock based on how many warranties were sold and warranties were pushed hard as they increased margins a lot.

Though if parts are not available (which in case of notebooks is common), you have to wait for parts shipped from central depot somewhere in EU. My experience with IBM service depot were: 2 days to swap T42p mohterboard but on some Z61p it took more than a week. They also honored my US-only warranty on X61 Tablet in Slovenia. When the fan became loud, I just called them, they ordered new fan and let me know when it arrived to bring the notebook in. They replaced it by afternoon.

NBD basically means techie is on site next business day, not that your problem is fixed next business day. IMO on notebooks it's not worth it - if the part is trivial and is in stock, it will be fixed fast anyway and if it's not it will take time for part to be shipped.

Though I would recommend 3 or even 5 year warranty on any notebook. You can generally use decent business notebook for 5 years and the more often you switch, the more time is spent or the more it costs (someone has to reinstall it, transfer programs, settings, files, configure online banking...)