On-Site vs. Mail-In Warranty

Hi,

I've got two i6400s with warranties coming due. I've always had On-
Site warranties, and they have served me quite well. I've gotten my
monies worth. I had two motherboards replaced On-Site, one for the DC
connector, the other for a USB port. I'm not sure they would have
gotten fixed under warranty if mailed in.

But, I looked into the cost of Mail-In warranties.

Mail-In will cost me $179 for a three-year warranty.
On-Site will cost me $167, for a one-year warranty.

Anyone have strong opinions about either type of warranty for a
laptop?

What is the mail in process like? Do I first diagnose the potential
problem/failure over the phone with Dell? (I do have the time to wait
for turnaround.)

One thing I wonder about is that if I had to mail in my machine, and I
take out the drive, and the repair requires a new motherboard, is Dell
still able to move my service tag to the new motherboard? I assume
the answer is yes, since installing a new hard drive doesn't require
changing service tags to the motherboard. That is, this information
is held in the bios, yes?

Thanks.

On Jan 11, 8:36*am, Boris <boris-badeno...@excite.com> wrote:

>
> Anyone have strong opinions about either type of warranty for a
> laptop?
>
> What is the mail in process like? *Do I first diagnose the potential
> problem/failure over the phone with Dell? *(I do have the time to wait
> for turnaround.)
>
> One thing I wonder about is that if I had to mail in my machine, and I
> take out the drive, and the repair requires a new motherboard, is Dell
> still able to move my service tag to the new motherboard? *I assume
> the answer is yes, since installing a new hard drive doesn't require
> changing service tags to the motherboard. *That is, this information
> is held in the bios, yes?
>

Mail-in has served me well with my daughter's laptop. 2 service issues
with her machine, handled both with Dell online chat, rather than
phone call.

First issue was failure of optical drive to recognized a CD in the
drive. Had already run the recommended diagnostics, gave the results
during the online chat. Response was, "known problem, we'll ship you
another." Amazingly enough, had a new drive on my doorstep less than
24 hours later, with printed instructions for replacing it. Took less
than 5 minutes to swap the drive.

Second issue was the top cover developing cracks near the hinges.
Again, a known problem, they asked if I wanted to replace it myself.
Didn't feel so confident about replacing the cover. They sent me a
prepaid shipping box for the computer the next day. Removed the
battery and hard drive prior to shipping. From shipper pickup to
return was something like 8 or 9 days (weekend included).

So yeah, if you have the time to wait for turnaround for the stuff you
can't do yourself, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the mail-in
warranty service.

Sorry, don't know the answer to your last question about moving the
service tag to a new motherboard.

Jerry

you get on site if you can not afford to be without your machine for an
extended period of time (usually one week). but keep in mind that onsite
isn't all that much faster in the case of a major problem. if you call late
in the day, then the part won't go out until the next day, the tech will not
get it until the day after that, and the tech then aranges with your when
they can come... so at best, one site it next business day vs mail in being
5 business days. for $167 for one year on site you might want to consider a
new machine as it represents a large percentage of the cost of new and your
machine isn't getting any younger

"Boris" <boris-badenough@excite.com> wrote in message
news:1f0bd15f-e6e7-4f9a-8598-595e0a338e26@k39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I've got two i6400s with warranties coming due. I've always had On-
> Site warranties, and they have served me quite well. I've gotten my
> monies worth. I had two motherboards replaced On-Site, one for the DC
> connector, the other for a USB port. I'm not sure they would have
> gotten fixed under warranty if mailed in.
>
> But, I looked into the cost of Mail-In warranties.
>
> Mail-In will cost me $179 for a three-year warranty.
> On-Site will cost me $167, for a one-year warranty.
>
> Anyone have strong opinions about either type of warranty for a
> laptop?
>
> What is the mail in process like? Do I first diagnose the potential
> problem/failure over the phone with Dell? (I do have the time to wait
> for turnaround.)
>
> One thing I wonder about is that if I had to mail in my machine, and I
> take out the drive, and the repair requires a new motherboard, is Dell
> still able to move my service tag to the new motherboard? I assume
> the answer is yes, since installing a new hard drive doesn't require
> changing service tags to the motherboard. That is, this information
> is held in the bios, yes?
>
> Thanks.