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Should I extend the warrently?

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/75274/Should-I-extend-the-warrently Is extending my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptops warranty for three years worth $160 or would that make me a sucker? I got a call from Dell informing me my warrenty is up, and they tried to pull the hard sell for extending it for three years for only $160. On principle I walk away from hard sales pitches. Hard sales pitches are for suckers.

Still, I do see myself using the laptop in three years. I added RAM myself and am my considering replacing the hard drive with something bigger, so that may invalidate a warranty.

So really I have three questions:
1. Is extending my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptops warranty for three years worth $160?
2. If it is worth it, will Dell reject any future claims because I added my own RAM or hard drive?
3. Is Dell any good at honoring their warranties? IE, fix things with little hassle and not try to weasel out of honoring warranties. I'm looking more for customer satisfaction data rather than good or bad anecdotes.

Thanks!

Jilted Jockey Heebee Jeebees.

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/76103/Jilted-Jockey-Heebee-Jeebees Ack! My DVD receiver slammed against the cabinet. Now when I play Cd's (I Know) -or DVD's, My receiver screeches, Loudly. It plays fine though. Obviously the disk is spinning against something. I don't want to hit this thing again to make it stop. It cost me an arm (Samsung Home theater). Should I bring it in for repairs at a third party repairer, or can Samsung nudge it for a fee?. I m looking for something cost-effective.

To preserve car warranty how do I handle maintenance?

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/76342/To-preserve-car-warranty-how-do-I-handle-maintenance To preserve car warranty how do I handle maintenance? I recently bought a slightly used car that still has a lot of time/miles left on the manufacturers warranty. My question is this: Do I need to use the dealers service department for all the regular service listed in the manual or can I use an independent mechanic shop that I trust and have used for years? Again the goal being to have my maintenance done in such a way to ensure that if I need warranty work done I will still be covered.

I know if I use the dealer I'd be ok but it's quite a ways away and I've never used them. I really like my regular mechanic as they're close by and I totally trust them.

Thanks for any advice!

Help! My MacBook is now a MilkBook.

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/78101/Help-My-MacBook-is-now-a-MilkBook Spilled milk in my MacBook's keyboard, and the technician at Apple suggested I bend the rules to get it fixed or replaced. What does my warranty cover, anyway? While I was away at work today, my 3 year old (bless him) spilled about 1/2 cup of milk into the keyboard of my new MacBook (purchased this past Sept.) It immediately powered off.

Then, my wife (bless her) unwittingly made things potentially much worse by attempting to turn it on several times and plugging it in, then using a hair dryer to attempt to hasten drying the milk. (It won't turn on.)

She called the Apple phone support 800 number, and the tech told her there's nothing they can do, that the warranty expires in 6 days, and that what she should do is buy the Apple Protection Plan, then send it in without telling them about the spill.

I found this information odd, to say the least. A little research online reveals that phone support is the "warranty" that expires next week, and the regular limited warranty is good until next September.

So my course of action to (hopefully) recover my computer or at least its data (what seems like my entire life) depends on a few things.

- Does the actual warranty status change 90 days after purchase of a MacBook? Would ponying up for the Apple Protection Plan change this?
- If we send it in to Apple for repair or replacement wouldn't they find it obvious there was a spill, and tell us we're out of luck?
- Is there any point to us taking the machine to the local Apple Store for a second opinion?

Where do we go from here? Thank you, MeFi, for any help you can offer.

Is 3 1/2 months too long to wait for a laptop to be repaired?

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/79190/Is-3-12-months-too-long-to-wait-for-a-laptop-to-be-repaired Averatec is holding my laptop hostage for the last three months, what should I do? They've had the computer since September 29th when I sent it back for an under warranty repair for a faulty motherboard. When I have gotten through on the phone they keep telling me the part is on backorder and they don't know when it's coming in. I asked them if they can get some kind of time frame from the vendor and they say they cannot. They've used this excuse about 5 times. They have a repair log online that I can access but it hasn't been updated since October 3rd. I reported it to the Better Business Bureau about 3 weeks ago asking them to repair, replace or refund my laptop and haven't heard anything back aside from a confirmation email that the complaint was logged. I haven't been able to get through to customer service for the last week. At what point does this become theft? I just don't understand how a company stays in business holding someone's computer for 3.5 months.

My car is not running out of warranty!

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/81402/My-car-is-not-running-out-of-warranty An auto dialer seems to be calling my cell phone frequently about my vehicle running out of warranty. How do I stop it? I know it's illegal for auto dialers to call cell phones. Gooling the number tells me I'm not alone. I called Verizon and asked if they could block this number. They said that they couldn't do it. The agent noted on my account that this is illegal and the only thing she could suggest was that I call them and ask to be removed from the list. Others in link 1 have noted that this didn't work.

What are my options?

HP Laptop died 2 months out of warranty

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/86553/HP-Laptop-died-2-months-out-of-warranty A few lights blink, but no-one's a home. No bios, no whirring, no help from the retailer (PC World UK, and no I didn't go there, this question is for a friend)... PC World say that the motherboard is finished and that it will cost more than the £700 original cost to fix it.

Now this thread offers some good sounding advice for someone in a very similar position but with two vital differences: it was still in warranty and they are in the US, so the tip for getting to a Level 2 rep probably won't work so well.

My main question is am I right in thinking that the warranty is not the be-all and end-all of the situation? 14 months is very much like 12 months, if you ask me, especially for a underused and never dropped, no spills, no damage etc. laptop. (This thread seems to say that EU regs say a warranty must be minimum of 2 years, does anyone know if this has any force in the UK?) Secondly, has anyone got any good tips for handling HP UK?

Dell says take a downgrade or wait 2 months to fix system

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/87721/Dell-says-take-a-downgrade-or-wait-2-months-to-fix-system I bought a high end Dell laptop for my business. When I purchased, I bought the 3 year OMG "complete care" warranty. Two days ago, the system bluescreened with a "memory parity 500 error". System won't reboot. In the last couple of days, I've spent over 6 hours on the phone with tech support, none of whom are native English speakers, to be told that my options are to either wait 3-6 weeks for a replacement system, or to accept a significant downgrade in components to have a tech come out and repair the system. Am I just screwed if I need to get my system up asap? For the record, I'm using someone else's system to post. I have an ancient alienware that I'm going to pull out of the closet and try to limp along, but the laptop is my primary business computer which has all of my company database info and all kinds of other goodies.

The downgrades that they are suggesting that I accept are to take a significant downgrade in video cards...to two generations below my high end nvidea ge force, a downgrade in system board, and slower memory than the fast mem I paid for.

If I refuse the downgrade; they're saying that I can't get a replacement system before the end of April, and I can't get replacement *parts* before the end of May.

The complete care contract says that replacement parts must be "functionally equivalent", which doesn't, to my non-legal mind, seem to suggest that a downgrade is what I paid to insure.

Is there some trick to getting Dell to honor their warranty that I'm missing?

Do appliance installers avoid attaching water lines?

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/87821/Do-appliance-installers-avoid-attaching-water-lines Scam-Filter: Do appliance installers commonly try to avoid attaching water lines? I bought a washer/dryer and a refrigerator, with delivery and installation (supposedly). The washer/dryer folks came, put the washer/dryer where they were supposed to go, and hooked up the dryer. Then they said "oh, we don't have the right hose for the washer, you'll need to go buy one and hook it up yourself".

Well, lo and behold, a couple of hours later the refrigerator guys came. They put the refrigerator in place, and then said "oh, we don't have the right hose, you'll need to go buy one and hook it up yourself".

This was enough to trigger my scam detector. Do appliance stores commonly try to avoid attaching water lines? Something to do with liability and/or warranty coverage? This is in the US (Oregon), btw. If all I'm getting is delivery, and not installation, I could just buy the bloody things directly off the net.

Whoops should have checked ALL the paperwork

- posted: 22.08.08
http://ask.metafilter.com/88163/Whoops-should-have-checked-ALL-the-paperwork Ooops. Really should have checked the service history before I bought the car... I recently bought a second-hand car, a Mazda, from a local non-Mazda dealership. Unfortunately, in my excitement about buying the car, I forgot to check one thing (actually, I forgot to check a few things, but this one's a whopper): the service history.

According to the paperwork... it doesn't have one. Not even the pre-delivery checkout is filled in according to the warranty/service book, even though there's a separate checklist form that shows it was actually complete - at the official Mazda dealership which sold the car, new. That same book contains a stern warning that "Failure to properly maintain your vehicle can result in your warranty being voided in whole or in part". I think that the car has been maintained and looked after properly, but I can't prove it.

Some details: the car is a 2006 Mazda 6, 21000 miles on the clock, and visually is absolutely flawless. As far as I can tell, it's also mechanically flawless, there's no sign of any problems at the moment. I have a full year's state inspection certificate to show that the car is in good condition from that point of view. However I deliberately bought a car within the manufacturer's warranty period to get the associated peace of mind that I'd be covered if anything went wrong.

I know I was a complete idiot for not checking the service history before I agreed to buy. During a recent trip to my local Mazda dealership (not the one who sold the car originally) because of an engine warning light, I took the car in to the service department. They didn't ask to see paperwork, but cleared the fault on the car computer (it was due to loose gas cap) and said there was no charge, as it was under warranty (based on the VIN, which proved the age).


My questions:
- The (non-Mazda) dealership sold the car to me as having "the balance of the manufacturers warranty". If I am refused warranty coverage by Mazda in the future, do I have any legal comeback against the dealer who sold me the car?

- The (non-Mazda) dealership have confirmed to me (verbally) that they performed a service on the car according to the schedule before I bought it, just before the 24-months mark (when one would be due). Should I get them to fill in the appropriate box in the warranty book, even if that leaves 3 or 4 boxes unfilled before it?

- The local Mazda dealer fixed a problem "under warranty" based on the car's VIN (granted, it was effectively a "free" fix for them, taking 3 minutes and using no parts, but they'll doubtless have billed Mazda for the work). Might they have access to the car's service history, if it had been done at another Mazda dealer (e.g. the original sale dealership)? Should I ask them, and risk them declaring my warranty invalid from this point onward?

My alternative seems to be the "head in the sand" approach and hope and pray that if anything goes wrong, I can get them to honor the warranty at that point - perhaps "lose" the book completely...

I'm in Texas, if that makes any difference to the answers you give. Anonymous to avoid potential legal implications with who-knew-what-and-when.

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