DELL Warranty rip off

WillieDH

Saw a dell on offer for 449 + VAT incl 15" tft, when you ring up they tell you that warranty is "90 day collect & return"

You can have 3 year standard warranty for 190 + VAT, I thought 1 year was required by law !!!

Ciaran500

So wheres the rip off?

stevenmu

Nope, I'm pretty sure that the law doesn't require any form of warranty. Consumer law does protect you though in that something must last for a reasonable amount of time (can't remember the exact wording). The time varies depending on the product, you wouldn't expect a loaf of bread to last more than a day or two, but I think in general for most PCs and components it's considered to be at least a year. Any warranties are always in addition to consumer law and you have those rights no matter what. More detailed info can be at The Consumer Associations website

egan007

You are entitled to 1 year Manufacturers warranty.
This applies to anything you buy.

If a part fails within a year on product X you will get that part replaced.

As your contract is with Dell and not the manufacturer of the part, it is up to dell to contact the manufacturer for you and replace the part. Dell sold the part as a component of their product 'a computer'.

So to reply to the original query. There is really no point in buying extended warranty. You will get a faulty part replaced within a year (although they are not required to collect and redeliver your computer). Should your computer fail after 12 months. The 190 Euro you would have spent on a warrenty would be more than enough to replace any single part.
That new part then gets a new 12 month warranty

Shane O' Malley

egan007 wrote:

You are entitled to 1 year Manufacturers warranty.
This applies to anything you buy.

If a part fails within a year on product X you will get that part replaced.

As your contract is with Dell and not the manufacturer of the part, it is up to dell to contact the manufacturer for you and replace the part. Dell sold the part as a component of their product 'a computer'.

So to reply to the original query. There is really no point in buying extended warranty. You will get a faulty part replaced within a year (although they are not required to collect and redeliver your computer). Should your computer fail after 12 months. The 190 Euro you would have spent on a warrenty would be more than enough to replace any single part.
That new part then gets a new 12 month warranty

Not quite True.

The €190 gets you a 3 year Next Business day On Site Warrenty.

It covers all labour costs and parts.

With so many components built onto the motherboard these days, a failure on one of those means that the whole board needs to be replaced.

Lastly, I do not think that under consumer law that computers must come with a 12 month warrenty. Only that they are of merchantable quality.

4Xcut

Shane O' Malley wrote:

Not quite True.

The €190 gets you a 3 year Next Business day On Site Warrenty.

It covers all labour costs and parts.

With so many components built onto the motherboard these days, a failure on one of those means that the whole board needs to be replaced.

Lastly, I do not think that under consumer law that computers must come with a 12 month warrenty. Only that they are of merchantable quality.

Your right there is no law saying that yoou must get a warrenty. Don't get a warrenty as picking it up is the last thing they will do. I understand that they cannot come out and fix every coputer that has the caps lock on or something stupid but they really try to guide you through any repair. Its very hard to physically fe*k up a dell without opening it up or weeing on it or something, most problems will be with os or software and you will therefore be instructed over the fone when you ring to call someone out.


DON'T BUY THE 3 YEAR WARRENTY

Boggles

4Xcut wrote:

Your right there is no law saying that yoou must get a warrenty. Don't get a warrenty as picking it up is the last thing they will do. I understand that they cannot come out and fix every coputer that has the caps lock on or something stupid but they really try to guide you through any repair. Its very hard to physically fe*k up a dell without opening it up or weeing on it or something, most problems will be with os or software and you will therefore be instructed over the fone when you ring to call someone out.


DON'T BUY THE 3 YEAR WARRENTY

Not for a desktop, but 3 year warranty would be worth it on an expensive laptop. Screen or Mobo goes, your looking at major money just for labour not to mention parts.

WillieDH

LIGHTNING wrote:

Another jackass who thinks DELL should give everybody a 5 year warranty and hold you hand while you use the PC.

you missed the point, thats not what i'm saying but they are reducing the street price by messing with what should be standard !

Why else then do they call their package for 190 euro "standard warranty" !!!

It's all about the upsell, god help the poor idiots who think they represent value for money !!

Stick that in your pipe - jackass !!!

AceHigh

How many PCs would Dell sell do u think if they gave No warranty...Hmmm. Not as many as they do now.

Hobbes

Just ask them does that 3 year warrenty kick in after the 1 year warrenty required by law? If they say no, ask for a discount then seeing as its a two year not three year.

Zascar

They did it to get the minimum price point down as low as possible. Only giving 3 months warrenty as opposed to a year's cuts cost a lot, which makes a big difference at the value/cheap end of the market. There are a Lot of people who just want the bare minimum at the lowest price and don't care what waranty is on it. To go back to what is the normally standard 1 year warrenty is about €50,. By reverting to the 3 months they can make the computers about €50 cheaper, so they're not ripping you off per say... The 'extended' 3 year warranty has just been renamed 'standard' to encourage upsales.

They only changed the warranty on the bottom of the range notebooks, anything haft decent still has the standard 1 year. These days there is very little money in hardware, they make most of their money on services and upsells, larger margins on that sort of stuff. It could turn out to be a very wise decision to have taken the warranty if something does go wrong, its nice to know your minimizing risk of further costs later down the track.

If you are going to buy it, bear in mind that they really want to sell it to you, and if you haggle you should be able to get a discount, or even free depending on what you are buying. Always call the buisness sales line not the home/consumer one. You don't have to be a business to buy from them, and you are far more likely to get a discount.

WillieDH

typical dell "snake-oil" sales tactics, fu(ks sake the price should be the price !!!

axer

They can give a 3 month warrenty. But the sale of goods and supply of services act 1980 states that goods must be of merchantable quality. Now if a monitor breaks down in 91 days after pruchase - i sure as hell don't think it is of merchantable quality. It should last the reasonable time that is expected of the type of product as stevenmu said. The warrenty doesnt matter! Just saves time from arguing.

lomb

but the point is 99% of people would accept it if it broke 91 days out of warranty so that covers dell anyway.
i think people should get a 1 year warranty on cheap desktops as standard though - 90 days is an american thing, this is europe where 2 year warranties on the continent are the norm.

MorningStar

lomb wrote:

but the point is 99% of people would accept it if it broke 91 days out of warranty so that covers dell anyway.
.

I very much doubt 99% people would accept that. The law wouldn't cover dell either. There was a story in Readers' Digest (how sad is that) about a man who's computer died after a year past the warranty. He won the case in 10 minutes. It was the UK but our legal system is based on theirs and can be used as an example.

egan007

Shane O' Malley wrote:

Not quite True.

The €190 gets you a 3 year Next Business day On Site Warrenty.

It covers all labour costs and parts.

With so many components built onto the motherboard these days, a failure on one of those means that the whole board needs to be replaced.

Lastly, I do not think that under consumer law that computers must come with a 12 month warrenty. Only that they are of merchantable quality.

I think you did not read properly / misunderstood me then
Consumer law is one thing i have a very good grasp off

masterK

Can anybody tell me if you open up a Dell box does that invalidate your warranty? I remember hearing somewhere that is does. The reason I ask is that I am having problems with my Dell, I contacted there customer support and they asked me to open the box and re-seat the memory modules.

MorningStar

masterK wrote:

Can anybody tell me if you open up a Dell box does that invalidate your warranty? I remember hearing somewhere that is does. The reason I ask is that I am having problems with my Dell, I contacted there customer support and they asked me to open the box and re-seat the memory modules.

I don't know how they would know you opened the box. It's all quick release now. They do ask that it is returened without additional hardware added to fix it. I don't think a car warrantly would be void if you looked at the engine

Zascar

You can open the box, everyhting inside is designed for ease of use. They just won;t support any 3rd party products you put in, or support it if it causes a problem with the PC because of it.

WillieDH

so whats the consensous, are dell trying to rip us off once again ?

Fenster

WillieDH wrote:

so whats the consensous, are dell trying to rip us off once again ?

Not really. You get what you pay for, for starters.

They offer a reasonable warranty for their products, out of the box. If it breaks within 90 days, they'll replace it. Lets be fair, for most people here, anything short of a monitor dying isn't something they'll worry about.

Beyond that, if the fault is caused by a third-party product, they've every right not to service it. Was it their fault you added that new graphics card that fried your motherboard?

Was it their fault that you installed that partitioning utility that you accidently wiped your hard drive with?

Etcetera.

Its actually the same in most places. If they offer a warranty for a shorter or longer period of time, its their choice to do so, and if they won't repair your machine becuase of something you did to it, they similarly won't cover it.

lomb

WillieDH wrote:

so whats the consensous, are dell trying to rip us off once again ?

dell are excellent vakue when u consider the hassle it takes to provide good support to people who dont know basic computing. their prices reflect providing this kind of support. for joe average dell offers excellent deals in my opinion.of course for joe boards dell are dear as joe boards knows how to use a pc.

axer

Fenster wrote:

If they offer a warranty for a shorter or longer period of time, its their choice to do so

but they must adhere to the law!

formatman

Dell break the law on a daily basis , charging more for the same spec pc if you buy one of their business bundles ( the apparently cheap ones they fax to you and you have to add 500 euro of extras to ake it work) !

...Also getting grants to employ Irish people and then giving the jobs to goons out in India

But to answer your point , the 90 day refers to the shipping warranty I think , you still get your one year but now you have to pay shipping to limerick after 90 days , parts and labour are free etc ,

I'm just curious how they get away with not offering the 2 year standard warranty that most euro countries like sweden etc have

novarock

I have a dell laptop. i paid for the three year next business day warranty, but when the motherboards power supply failed i called dell and asked for a replacement, the agent tried to blame me for the fault. The warranty obviously doesnt cover user damage i know, but this couldnt be my fault.

An hour later the agents supervisor eventually conceded that it could not have been my fault (after much haggling), and replaced the motherboard, but after years of loyal custom, the experience left a sour taste in my mouth!