Accidental Warranty coverage?

[rschapel]

Greets all:
Looking at getting a dell, one of the big reasons is the accidental warranty coverage they offer. For 150 bucks they'll replace my laptop if I spill, drop or other wise damge the unit. Now this doesn't cover things like fire damage, but I have home owners for that. Has anybody here taken advantage of it?

[SkyDog]

I personally haven't paid for any kind of extra warranty protection on my laptops, but then again, all of mine have been work-issued so I never needed to!

I used to service a few makes and models of laptops, so I'm familiar with what it costs to buy replacement parts that aren't covered by warranty. With that in mind, here's my take: If you plan on using this laptop as a take-anywhere workhorse kind of machine, then I'd recommend you look into the accident coverage. Machines that get hauled around day-in and day-out are pretty prone to breakage, simply from wear and tear. And if part of that expected breakage is the LCD screen, a $150 warranty is a bargain to replace a $800+ part! On the other hand, if it's not going to see the "daily driver" treatment and you're normally pretty good about not breaking things, then you probably won't need the extra coverage.

[ua549]

I agree. If you are accident prone or otherwise hard on your equipment, buy the coverage. Otherwise it is a waste of money.

I traveled more than a million miles every year from Europe to Hawaii and Scandanavia to Mexico with portable computers for ten years without a single incedent. I've never had a computer break because it was dropped or inundated with liquids although I have dropped computers and spilled coffee on the keyboards. They kept on working.

[medunaweb]

gateway also offers the accident warranty too but personally I have found that most of the time you can get away with those type of claims under their standard warranty. Like if you spill something on it and it brakes just say it wouldn't turn on one day no clue why hahaha or if you drop it and hte screen cracks say something like you were just opening it and it cracked you think the hinges might be too tight.

[SkyDog]

Most laptop manufacturers I've dealt with WILL NOT let you get away with obvious damage like a spill or cracked case, and they will charge you for parts and labor even if the unit is still under warranty.

On most laptops, there is a clear plastic membrane beneath the keyboard to protect the machine's circuit boards from spills. By looking at that membrane, it's VERY easy to see if anything was spilled on the laptop -- even water. If a spill is evident, most companies won't cover repairs under warranty.

[ua549]

Originally posted by medunaweb
gateway also offers the accident warranty too but personally I have found that most of the time you can get away with those type of claims under their standard warranty. Like if you spill something on it and it brakes just say it wouldn't turn on one day no clue why hahaha or if you drop it and hte screen cracks say something like you were just opening it and it cracked you think the hinges might be too tight.

Dishonesty will not work. Repair techs are not stupid (even though many may disagree).

[medunaweb]

well call me lucky or one pain in the but because i have argued my way and have gotten away with it in the past. CLEAR things that i broke and they replaced them for free. Like my toshiba laptop my brother stepped on the headphone cable while it was pluged in braking the sound card that is integrated i took it back and said um it just fell apart from normal use. and they laughed and said don't worry we'll BS it for you. and that was that. I have never been dumb enough to spill a drink on my laptop heck i don't even keep liquids near my computers but that is just a little rule i have always lived by. So i don't know what "most" companies you speak of but i have found most are nice and reasonable compaq did the same for my uncle.

[ua549]

If someone can live with themself after being so dishonest and stealing from the manufacturer, . . .

[jagojago12]

Originally posted by ua549
If someone can live with themself after being so dishonest and stealing from the manufacturer, . . .

If I can't say anything good I won't say anything at all. If you consider this a personal "attack" to you, well, it's not.

But I'm sure I'm going to get personally attacked for my insinuation by another particular member in this thread .. . My insinuation is kind of deep, I hope he doesn't get it.

[SkyDog]

Where were you taking the laptop for repair? When I performed warranty repair work on IBM and HP machines (those are the two whose practices I remember best), I could replace anything I wanted "under warranty" as far as the customer was concerned. But when the manufacturer received the broken parts from my company, they could override our judgement and bill us for the part if was found to be a non-covered item like a spill or abuse.

There was some real incentive to verify whether or not the part would be covered under warranty by the manufacturer. If we just replaced anything that was broken, we'd end up footing the repair bill, and that's no way to stay in business!