urgent - should i buy extended warranty?

[nazziek]

Hi, I've looked through the forum on info about extended warranties but since each case is unique I was wondering if anyone knew what my rights were. Its a very long story so i'll try n give a short version but with all relevant details.

 

04/06/08 Purchased dell laptop online with credit card for £380 from dell site

 

06/06/08 Laptop arrived. switched on but got a message regarding memory error. contacted dell, they guided me through reseating the memory and the error message stopped showing up every time i switched laptop on but did still occassionally show up

 

DATES CAN'T REMEMBER FOR THIS NEXT BIT BUT DO HAVE SOME E MAILS ON A USB SOMEWHERE...

 

Started getting error messages for charger and battery. e -mailed dell. Said they would pick up system and repair. They asked if there were any other problems. Charger not charging, memory error messages still coming up occassionally, laptop overheating ridiculous temperatures, mousepad becoming unresponsive (i think wen overheating but not sure)

 

Laptop picked up by dell. When returned still overheating and now keyboard becoming unresponsive too. I contact dell to ask I thought you would look at overheating issue? They told me to FLASH BIOS, and with their help did, but still no change and i told them that.

 

17/07/09 Laptop was getting slightly hot so I switched it off to let it cool. Came back hour later and switched on laptop, it started making weird noises and error on screen said no hard drive detected. tried all dignostic tests, all said hard drive failure. E-mailed dell.

 

23/07/09 Dell reply: sorry your warranty has expired so to even diagnose the problem there will be a charge

 

24/07/09 E-mailed Dell: I don't feel its right that I should have to pay for anything let alone diagnostics

 

28/07/09 Dell reply: Please give us a phone number and give us a time we can call u between 11am - 7pm weekday and make sure its a 2 hour slot.

 

02/08/09 E-mailed Dell: Call anytime 03/08, 'll keep all day free and stay at home. NO CALL

 

03/08/09 I stay at home and keep day free just in case they call. I keep portable house phone and mobile with me. DELL LET MY HOUSE PHONE RING FOR HALF 1 RING!! (other people in room too with me)

E mail from Dell: we tried contacting u

 

03/08/09 E-mail Dell: please try again

 

04/08/09 Dell call: Hi, so you are having problems with your battery? (E-MAILED THIS SAME GUY 3 TIMES TO SAY HARD DRIVE HAS FAILED, PLEASE HELP)Run a few tests, they realise hard drive has failed but also realise through the error messages that previous problems which i reported have not been solved! Realise for those problems motherboard needs replacing (as probs were reported before warranty expired they are prepared to replace that)

We are not prepared to replace hard drive unless u buy the extended warranty. Hard drive will cost u £350. or buy warranty for £150 for 3 year warranty.

 

Laptop is being picked up 07/08/09 to fix motherboard, if i buy extended warranty before then, they will also fix hard drive (think, not sure, they are going to get back to me about it)

 

I have photos of most error message, some i saved as printscreens but they were on my laptop

 

Anyone have any advice? Or know what my rights are in this situation?

 

My data is all lost and it is way to expensive to try and get recovered so anyone reading this MAKE HARD COPIES OR SAVE SEPARATELY TOO!!

 

Sorry, i know it was crazy long but i figure i'll get the best advice if u know everything.thanks for any help in advance

[dx100uk]

i would see what happens.

i deal with dell repairs dept on almost a weekly basis through work & typically if something is in for warranty repair, then the lot gets done regardless.

 

you should get a working lappy out of it now!

 

even if they dont do the HDD, they are cheap as chips to buy, stick it in yourself and install windows from the disc supplied easy!

 

dx

[jo1lygrngiant]

£350 for a laptop hard drive, they must be having a laugh.. Cripes even a Veoloiraptor 300gb comes in at around the £211 mark. The most I would expect to pay for a laptop drive, (considering its a Sata), is £90, for a 500gb.

 

I'm like dx, I'm a self employed PC engineer, and if things come back under warranty, everything gets checked, and fixed regardless of the fault.

 

One thing though DX.. Dell may not of supplied the cd, as these days, most recovery partitions are already on the hard drive. There are ways of getting everything installed though.

 

If you do need to get a new drive installed, (which by the sounds of it you do), and Dell, havent supplied a recovery cd, you can use a normal OEM windows installation disk. (you may need to beg, borrow or buy one).

Irrespective of if its XP, or Vista, with using your XP/Vista code (found underneath the laptop), you can install windows. Get it activated, then install a antivirus / firewall, few other programs, inc open office, and it hasnt cost you a penny, as all these programs are available foc.

 

Hope this helps.

Take care for now.

Be safe

JGG

[nazziek]

thank u for ur help dx, even though i tried to giv all details it seems i still missed some

Dell told me to take out the hard drive from the laptop and keep it if i don't buy the extended warranty so I'm certain they won't look at it.

Its a 160GB hard drive, and for £150 I'm getting hard drive and 3 year cover, I don't know much about laptops etc but i thought that that was a good deal for a hard drive, not that i feel i should have to pay them at all.

[jo1lygrngiant]

Hi Again Nazziek.

 

Assuming its a sata drive, you can pick these up for around £34.00 plus postage.

 

Re the extended warranty, im of 2 minds. Personally I dont take them out. As a business, I dont sell them to my customers. I aim to always fix any issues, irrespective of a warranty.

 

But, for laptops, Personally, I would say yes go for it. for £150 for 3 years, is worth it imo. Laptop parts, can be VERY expensive to source, yet alone fix. (I had a laptop in very recently for repair. Admitedlly it was a sony, and sony's are expensive for parts. Turned out to be a screen issue. Sony themselves quoted around £400 for the screen + fitting extra. My customer purchased the laptop for around £390, at xmas 08, and obviously did not want to pay the cost of the laptop again on a single repair. It was customer misuse, hence why not covered under warranty). I manged to source one, and installed it for at least half of the cost from sony.)

 

So its 50/50 with warranties.. re lappies I would personally say yes get it. Others may say no, you have other avenues open to you.

 

Hope this helps

BE safe

JGG

 

PS, if this post gets removed for commercial reasons, I'm not advertising my services, website etc, its just a sidenote on the 1st issue.

[nazziek]

speaking to dell as i type. now theyre saying sorry fixing hard drive with warranty was only an offer for yesterday! but buy the warranty n we do u a great deal on a hard drive, in fact why dont u upgrade from 160gb to 320 gb?! - told him i didn't want it then, he wanted to know why i thought it was a good enough idea a while ago to have warranty n now i dont want it, told him i thought i was getting a hard drive and 3 year warranty for £150 but now since they want extra for hard drive, i dont want it.I'll get one myself.

After 15 mins said 'ok, we'll put in new hard drive too for £150 and 3 year cover'

now being collected monday instead.

not happy about it but i need a computer asap.

i think its easy enough to replace the hard drive and find a good bargain, i only did it for the cover. still won't get my data back

thank u all very very much for ur help.

[dx100uk]

ok thats that bit done then

 

now whats the fault with the HDD do you know?

 

you can by a converter from CPC or maplin to enable you run your old lappy HDD on your PC usb port

then we might be ablee to do some diags with it and get your data back.

 

unless it s going tick tick tick.

then that could be a bummer!

 

dx

[nazziek]

The hard drive is not making a clicking sound, its an unexplainable err funky sound!

I tried allsorts, nothing worked for me but as i say i don't know too much about pc's. I tried every diagnostic test i could do and i tried vista repair too. I tried reseating as instructed on dell website. I can't tell if it is still spinning or anything but there was never any sort of clicking.

My prob is if i get it working but they still want me to send the disk to them will they think i was lying?

 

I agreed to the warranty and paid for it and then I was told it would actually start from the 17th so I couldnt have the laptop back before then Was also told that the Dell warranty does not cover accidental damage, water damage or any sort of wear and tear, eg if the pin where the charger is inserted breaks or bends etc, u have to pay or hinges come loose and so on. I agreed to the warranty so that they could fix the lappy n get back it back to me asap. N now i have had time to look on the net there were some pretty good deals that did include accidental damage etc etc.

Now the major problem with the hard drive is that dell phoned me n asked me do u want the hard drive back? it will cost u. so i asked how much and she said she had no idea, she could get someone to call me but i was getting so fed up with talking to them (i spoke to 6 different people all who had all my details and lappys details wrong n i had to explain them over n over) anyway, i said i wouldnt be able to afford to get data recovered so dont send it back. but now people r telling me maybe i can save my data myself

 

I know i write way too much but i just want people who end up in the same situation to have all info available to them.

[dx100uk]

charge you to get your own faulty hdd back...?

 

nice guys!

 

dx

[jo1lygrngiant]

this 'funky' sound.. are you positive its coming from the hard drive?

 

when are they coming to collect your lappy?, If its in a few days time, then I would try as dx has suggested. Purchase the adapter to try the drive on a desktop pc. It's called a USB / IDE-Sata connector. Shouldnt cost more then £15-£20.

 

Remove the drive from your lappy, connect it up to the adapter, and connect to a desktop pc. This way you can check if the drive is spinning, and from there, we can try some recovery tools as mentioned in the IM to you. Also we will have a better idea of what sound its making, and any diagnosis tools we can try to help you.

 

really nice guys.. As an aside, just received a pc from a customer, the drive is failing. Asking me to try and backup her data. She has contacted the original builder of the pc, as its 2 years old, to be told, its out of warranty. Irrespective of the drive still in manufacturers warranty period. She has asked me to source and install a new drive, trfr all data over etc.

 

She will not contact the original builder again, even though all they have to do is RMA the drive, use ghost, and image the drive. It will take 2 hours max to do.. which is what im having to do for her, but im not happy about it. Why should she have to pay again for something which isnt really her fault.. Sorry for the off topic.

[nazziek]

Well i thought the sound was coming from the hard drive, it only started when the hard drive failed and i removed battery and cd/dvd drive and ran the laptop from charger and the sound was still there but when i tried without the hard drive the sound was gone. thanks for all ur suggestions, I'll buy the USB / IDE-Sata connector tomorrow and let u guys know how it went.

[kiptower]

usefull device Magic Bridge II

 

has sata 1, sata II and IDE inc a 2.5 drive adaptor ,

 

because its output is USB 2 its hot swap

 

average price is about £20 is you search on net for it

[nazziek]

ok so yesterday I tried 8 different shops to try and find a cable, i gave up trying to find magic bridge. there was one store that was selling a sharkoon (i think ) for 45 pounds but i couldn't get there before they closed. 3 of the shops said they could order a cable for me but it would arrive next week. Dell have said they could come anytime between 8am and 6pm so I'm going to try in the morning and if it doesn't work out, its ok. I'll learn my lesson about not backing up my data regularly and not just once every 6 months.

[kiptower]

you can get it over the counter in Maplins BUT its expensive there , sent you a couple of links to where you can get it on line starts @ £15

[nazziek]

In vain I tried to get to the computer shop to get myself a Magic bridge. While i was athe shop at 9am the courier turned up and took the laptop so i was unable to attempt to recover the data. On the 18th the laptop was returned to me and i was amazed to see that the although the hard drive had been replaced the motherboard was not! There was literally nothing on the laptop, not even works etc.

The only reason I agreed to have the hard drive replaced by Dell and get the 3 year warranty was because as they were going to replace the motherboard for me, they said they'd just do it at the same time and therefore i felt that i would be without a laptop for a shorter period of time. I have contacted them but as yet have had no reply. The motherboard replacement was not a maybe - it was a 'we will do that for u since u r having so many problems with laptop and they will be due to the motherboard since everything is ruled out'.

The laptop now makes a high pitched sound as soon as i switch it on and i dont think the fans are working and even though i have warranty i just don't feel i want to contact dell and start the hassle all over again.

I feel very let down by them.

They turn everything around and will not let it be seen as their fault or problem.

A few weeks back when i spoke to them and they asked why i was not purchasing extended warranty i told them that i felt i was covered by law but didnt have time or money to fight them. The reply was 'oh no, ma'am that is just not true and irrelevant' or something along those lines. I wanted to scream at him that u live in india, how do u know the law of this land but i don't see that particular comment the falut of the guy that was talking to me. i see it as Dells fault.

Lets see what happens now. I'll keep u guys posted. Wish me luck