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Dell's Accidental Damage Replacement
Mai-Kero
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Does anyone have experience with how Dell replaces their laptops with accidental damage or warranty issues?
I've got a two year plan on mine for both, it's a Dell Vostro 1500 that's awesome but is showing some signs of wear because I may have dropped it like three times. It still works fine, but there's a dent, the USB ports are kind of wonky, and the keyboard is crumbling into dust.
If I send it in, will they replace the offending parts and send it back, or just replace the entire laptop? What about for more serious problems? Is it always a refurbished one? Is it possible to ask them to upgrade it and pay the difference?
I've got a two year plan on mine for both, it's a Dell Vostro 1500 that's awesome but is showing some signs of wear because I may have dropped it like three times. It still works fine, but there's a dent, the USB ports are kind of wonky, and the keyboard is crumbling into dust.
If I send it in, will they replace the offending parts and send it back, or just replace the entire laptop? What about for more serious problems? Is it always a refurbished one? Is it possible to ask them to upgrade it and pay the difference?
Mai-Kero on
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Why don't you call dell support and ask?
My keyboard was closer than my phone, and I wanted to know if anyone has had personal experience with Dell.
It also matters what kind of warranty you have, their "Complete Care" warranty is the only one that covers any accidental damage due to dropping or spilling liquids or similar. A regular warranty won't cover those issues, but it should still be possible to get a new keyboard, for example (which they'll probably just ship out to you and you'll have to install yourself). And you might be able to get them to work on the USB issue, but they might just ship it back to you with a note that it's from wear and tear that you did to the system, if it's obvious that it's been dropped and you don't have a Complete Care warranty.
And if you're not sure what warranty you have, you can put your service tag into their website and look it up.
He got so mad at how slow his old laptop was running because of all the stupid shit he maganed to get on his computer that he threw it off the third floor balcony of our apartment onto the paved parking lot below. Called up Dell and they sent him a coffin to send it back in. They asked if it had ever been dropped, he responded "No." A few weeks later they had sent him a brand new laptop. I guess they must have stopped making the old model as well, because he sent off a single core Pentium 4 machine and came back with a Centrino Dual core machine that had Vista pre-installed instead of XP like he'd been running.
YMMV.
I guess maybe I was mad that he got away with fraud?
Mostly that he had a better computer than me afterwards.
See, the thing is, if he had accidental damage prevention, he could have thrown it off the roof. On purpose. And it still would have been replaced.
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I told them I wasn't satisfied with what I ordered, and they sent that coffin then let me spec out a new computer and pay the difference. This was after a year or so. It was never dropped or anything though, but a better graphics card came out later that month and I stewed and was all pissed about it until I called them and bitched. Like he said, YMMV.
Greatest plan.
No, for it to be accidental damage, it has to actually be an accident. If your friend called up Dell and said "I poured water all over my laptop to see what would happen, now fix it", that should not be covered by the warranty, even if he has the warranty that covers liquid damage. But it's true that a lot of people commit warranty fraud, and that it drives up the prices for all of us.
That's what I'm hypothesizing happened - he had ADP and decided to abuse it.
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Also, sometimes you just get some incredible service though. I had bought a refurb thinkpad from a 3rd party. 2 months after the standard warranty expired a line appeared on the screen. When I called up IBM they shipped me a box to send it in. It came back with a new screen, new keyboard deck, new motherboard, new processor (faster), new rubber feet, and twice the RAM. That was 9-10 years ago.
I'm guessing they didn't have my model anymore and gave me an equivalent, but all my data was there so they must've swapped the harddrive?
They're really good about replacing parts, even if it was clearly your stupidity that caused the damage (like coffee stains). And parts almost always come in the next day.
However, they have never replaced an entire unit for us AFAIK. They've gone so far as to replace the motherboard, RAM, hard drive, and keyboard on a unit - leaving only the shell and the LCD. My understanding is that the damage would have to be catastrophic - like it got run over by a bus.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I wish I knew more details, but it sounded pretty awesome considering he always had a top of the line mac laptop that got stolen frequently.
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Within the first few months I'd managed to spill hot chocolate on the keyboard, then get water in the keyboard (alas, the water didn't clean the hot chocolate and fix both problems...). A few months later it got left in my luggage on an airport apron in -50 Celsius and cracked the case (though it still worked fine). This, along with a few pieces of wear and tear damage (hinges were coming apart, machine was overheating, etc.) made me send it in before my warranty expired.
They replaced the LCD (where it was cracked) and hinges, popped in a new keyboard, and probably just dusted out the interior, and sent it back. It looks like they -cleaned- the outer case, but it certainly wasn't new, nor was anything else besides the LCD and keyboard. So more than likely, you'll get your same laptop back, minus any parts that -absolutely- required replacing.