Dell Support Services

My sister's thinking of getting a laptop from Dell. I've picked out a spec for her but was wondering about the support service

Has anyone have experience of the support services and which option would you recommend?

The options are:-

1 yr Collect & Return Cheapo option
2,3,4 year at home basic package + £117.50, £176.25, £211.50
3 year at home standard package + £211.50

Thanks.

Tbh, I've not heard good things about At Home Support Services but then, people never really talk about good things do they?

I've recently got a laptop from Dell and gone for the 1 year cheap option, but I'm in IT so apart from a hardware failure in which case I would send it back to Dell, I'm confident I can fix anything else that comes up.

Business users yes fine, great. We have effectively a partnership with Dell. Our software ships their parts by their chosen courier, so it's sort of in their best interest to provide us with gold plated server cabinets pretty cheaply, if you get my point lol.

Home users, it's not worth the paper it's written on. I know a few people that used to work for Dell CS, and well, it's not pretty.

Even in business use, we've had an issue with a server where teir techs couldn't tell us what RAM we needed to put in, matched pairs, non-matched, same product code, different product code, tried everything, nothing worked. Then we swapped some RAM from one of the other servers into the problematic one, worked fine, so we ordered RAM for the second server, and that worked fine. Though that's the only problem we've had with the office.

Since it's a laptop, get her to ask her boss if they'll order it (they might have an account with Dell) and she'll pay. It might not be possible, but if it happens that way, she'll get a discount over public price, and she'll get business user backup, even if she changes employer.

i got the 1 yr collect and return cheapo option on my laptop, i cant say what the customer service is like though as its never gone wrong

I've got a desktop at home and the 3 year support which it's fine. They do what they claim in the timeframes mentioned in the contract (they had to replace the cd/dvd drive).

The downside is that the call centre is in India and I found myself speaking to some very polite people, who were keen to help...but didn't quite understand what I was saying! So, it's a bit of a slog to explain the problem.

I took the 3 year option as I figure that it's about the average lifespan of a pc if you don't want to be left behind and it's therefore covered for it's life expectancy.

[northwind]

I downgraded mine as far as I could, I'd sooner have got none. Dell's customer services have never been any more than atrocious where I've been involved. Way I see it, that's one of the reasons they're so cheap, so I don't really mind.

For a home user, if you plan to upgrade it these warranties tend to be a poor choice... I'd invalidated much of mine after 2 days anyway by replacing bits. And you're unlikely to want to leave most Dells standard for 3 years, I'll tell you that...

Originally Posted by northwind

I was a home user with a support contract

A thought suddenly dawned on me. Home Dell users, don't pay for the extended warranty. Yes, if you need parts it can be cheaper, but 99.9999999% of the time, you wont in 3 years. If you do in the first year, you're covered anyway.

Save yourself the money, add me to MSN/Skype, and drop me a message/email. Support calls will be answered at the current exchange rate of 1 pint per support request

(Just to make it clear, I'm not talking about pints of milk! )

Originally Posted by Baph

A thought suddenly dawned on me. Home Dell users, don't pay for the extended warranty. Yes, if you need parts it can be cheaper, but 99.9999999% of the time, you wont in 3 years. If you do in the first year, you're covered anyway.

Save yourself the money, add me to MSN/Skype, and drop me a message/email. Support calls will be answered at the current exchange rate of 1 pint per support request

(Just to make it clear, I'm not talking about pints of milk! )

how will that work if the PC's f**ked?

I used to be interested in PC's so I'll have to take the annoying my PC's broken calls from my relatives. My stock answer is format and reinstall as it saves me looking for the problem plus they're less likely to ask me again unless the PC is really screwed!

I guess cheapo option then and tell my sister. Thanks everyone.

Originally Posted by Law

how will that work if the PC's f**ked?

I said answered, not resolved

Originally Posted by Baph

I said answered, not resolved

I was thinking more of the "My PC won't boot up to send the e-mail!" problem.