7 ms·

Dr. Servicelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the On-Site Warranty

21 points by krn 8y ago

curiousgal 8y ago
Dell's ProSupport is God sent! I bought my XPS 15 in the States but left to Africa a few months later. On my trip my UHD screen developed burn-in and needed to be replaced. Obviously there was no Dell support where I was and their terms basically say that you are out of luck. After a few exchanges with their support, they agreed to ship the screen to a friend in a European country and I had a co-worker grab it for me while on a work trip. The whole thing took about 3 weeks but it was all thanks to their support team sticking by me. They even told me not worry about shipping the old screen back. In essence, Dell's ProSupport is more than worth it!
joss82 8y ago
If you're so obsessed about build quality, why don't you buy Apple? You are basically asking for premium quality from cheap brands. Not going to work unless you get lucky, which (spoiler) did happen to you in the end.
- NullPrefix 8y ago
  I think the obsession was about build quality, not marketing and PR.
- curiousgal 8y ago
  Because the specs are better and cost way less and the support/warranty also costs less. It's a no-brainer.
- krn 8y ago
  > If you're so obsessed about build quality, why don't you buy Apple? > You are basically asking for premium quality from cheap brands. Neither Lenovo ThinkPad, nor DELL Precision are cheap brands. They are marketed as business-grade premium quality laptops, and can be more powerful, more lightweight, and more expensive than Macbook Pro[1][2]. [1] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/ThinkPad-P1/p/22WS2WPP101 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thi... [2] https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/new-precision-5530/spd/precision-15-5530-laptop https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...
znpy 8y ago
I always opt for Pick&Return. I live in Europe and mainly use ThinkPads. Pick&Return means my laptop is mailed to some Lenovo facility in Frankfurt (Germany), serviced and mailed back to me. The good thing is that once there, all the replacement parts are available and I just get my laptop back in fully working order. When I sent my X220 for a LCD cable connection issue they replaced the cable, the motherboard and the LCD panel. Maybe that was not necessary at all, but my laptop came back fully working and has been working for the last four years since that servicing. And all the replaced parts had three additional months of warranty. It's also worth noting that this whole process took only a week (sent in on monday, came back on friday) Some friends used the on-site warranty, and their experience was similar the X1C6 described in the article. It's worth noting that apparently Lenovo-licensed technicians can only bring one replacement at the time so if their guessing of the faulty part is wrong, they have to come back another day. Or if, as happened to a friend of mine, they screw up the laptop (a service technician shorted the power connector, don't ask me how), they still have to come back another day. So yeah, in my experience Pick&Return is the best option.
- Steve44 8y ago
  > technicians can only bring one replacement at the time so if their guessing of the faulty part is wrong, they have to come back another day. We've a BT maintained phone system and a few years ago when it was a Nortel BCM the engineer had a van full of parts and could resolve pretty much any problem on his one and only visit. We 'upgraded' to an Avaya IPO a couple of years ago. When it developed a fault the engineer who came out said they don't carry any spares any more. Because of the fault it wasn’t clear which part had failed so guessed which of two cards it was, that had to be sent to our site from a central warehouse. When it arrived we were to call BT to arrange the next visit to fit the part, not pre-arrange to turn up with the part. The part didn't resolve the problem so he ordered a different one to be sent to us and again we had to wait until it was physically here to call him out. In the end it took 3-4 days to fix the system, we got a small amount of 'compensation' from BT but the whole process was torturous. I expect they've done a cost analysis on carrying parts and decided the central warehouse is best for them. Horrendous for their supported customers though.
- michaelt 8y ago
zubairq 8y ago
Next Day Onsite support from Dell was always fantastic for me
rubenbe 8y ago
I always op for "next business day on site warranty." Unfortunately my laptops have the tendency to break on a late Friday evening. I call the helpdesk on Monday morning to have the device repaired on Tuesday, four days after it broke.
gargravarr 8y ago
How does anyone have this many problems with so many laptops? I know every company is allowed to have quality-control exceptions, but it seems this guy managed to pick up every single one of them! Sheesh. I have only ever bought one laptop brand new; all the others were second-hand and came with no warranty. My 2008 MacBook Pro is a benchmark for reliability - 5 years of daily use with no major failures, only issues being a disconnected bluetooth antenna and a worn out webcam cable, both issues I fixed myself. My new-bought laptop had an issue with the screen cable failing at full extension after about a year, and although the issue was indeed fixed under warranty, it involved me shipping the laptop back (thankfully I kept the box and all the packaging materials), waiting 2 weeks and THEN being told I was responsible for the return carriage - turns out it was hidden in the fine print that I agreed to. It cost me about the same to have my laptop shipped back as it would have if I'd bought the cable and replaced it myself, and it wouldn't have taken 2 weeks without my laptop. The only place I truly value warranty repairs is as a sysadmin at my company; Dell will usually send a technician out next-day to replace motherboards and batteries in our XPSen. Each time, we've been given a fully usable machine back. Excellent.
- Theodores 8y ago
  Also, how are you supposed to get any work done if you spend so much time reinstalling your computer every few days? Going through 'a dozen computers a year' is not good for productivity. Even getting used to differences in keyboard layout could be taxing on the muscle memory on such a schedule. I think it is fully possible to have a mass-market affordable computer last for five years with no problems. It is a nuisance tantamount to moving house going from one computer to a new one.
  - gargravarr 8y ago
    Could not agree more - I only replaced my MBP because it finally wore out, not because I wanted a new machine. There was so much on my machine that it would be a massive disruption to move it all.

21 points by krn 8y ago

Dell's ProSupport is God sent! I bought my XPS 15 in the States but left to Africa a few months later. On my trip my UHD screen developed burn-in and needed to be replaced. Obviously there was no Dell support where I was and their terms basically say that you are out of luck. After a few exchanges with their support, they agreed to ship the screen to a friend in a European country and I had a co-worker grab it for me while on a work trip. The whole thing took about 3 weeks but it was all thanks to their support team sticking by me. They even told me not worry about shipping the old screen back. In essence, Dell's ProSupport is more than worth it!

joss82 8y ago

If you're so obsessed about build quality, why don't you buy Apple? You are basically asking for premium quality from cheap brands. Not going to work unless you get lucky, which (spoiler) did happen to you in the end.

NullPrefix 8y ago
I think the obsession was about build quality, not marketing and PR.
curiousgal 8y ago
Because the specs are better and cost way less and the support/warranty also costs less. It's a no-brainer.
krn 8y ago
> If you're so obsessed about build quality, why don't you buy Apple? > You are basically asking for premium quality from cheap brands. Neither Lenovo ThinkPad, nor DELL Precision are cheap brands. They are marketed as business-grade premium quality laptops, and can be more powerful, more lightweight, and more expensive than Macbook Pro[1][2]. [1] https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/ThinkPad-P1/p/22WS2WPP101 https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thi... [2] https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/new-precision-5530/spd/precision-15-5530-laptop https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...

znpy 8y ago

I always opt for Pick&Return. I live in Europe and mainly use ThinkPads. Pick&Return means my laptop is mailed to some Lenovo facility in Frankfurt (Germany), serviced and mailed back to me. The good thing is that once there, all the replacement parts are available and I just get my laptop back in fully working order. When I sent my X220 for a LCD cable connection issue they replaced the cable, the motherboard and the LCD panel. Maybe that was not necessary at all, but my laptop came back fully working and has been working for the last four years since that servicing. And all the replaced parts had three additional months of warranty. It's also worth noting that this whole process took only a week (sent in on monday, came back on friday) Some friends used the on-site warranty, and their experience was similar the X1C6 described in the article. It's worth noting that apparently Lenovo-licensed technicians can only bring one replacement at the time so if their guessing of the faulty part is wrong, they have to come back another day. Or if, as happened to a friend of mine, they screw up the laptop (a service technician shorted the power connector, don't ask me how), they still have to come back another day. So yeah, in my experience Pick&Return is the best option.

Steve44 8y ago
> technicians can only bring one replacement at the time so if their guessing of the faulty part is wrong, they have to come back another day. We've a BT maintained phone system and a few years ago when it was a Nortel BCM the engineer had a van full of parts and could resolve pretty much any problem on his one and only visit. We 'upgraded' to an Avaya IPO a couple of years ago. When it developed a fault the engineer who came out said they don't carry any spares any more. Because of the fault it wasn’t clear which part had failed so guessed which of two cards it was, that had to be sent to our site from a central warehouse. When it arrived we were to call BT to arrange the next visit to fit the part, not pre-arrange to turn up with the part. The part didn't resolve the problem so he ordered a different one to be sent to us and again we had to wait until it was physically here to call him out. In the end it took 3-4 days to fix the system, we got a small amount of 'compensation' from BT but the whole process was torturous. I expect they've done a cost analysis on carrying parts and decided the central warehouse is best for them. Horrendous for their supported customers though.
michaelt 8y ago

zubairq 8y ago

Next Day Onsite support from Dell was always fantastic for me

rubenbe 8y ago

I always op for "next business day on site warranty." Unfortunately my laptops have the tendency to break on a late Friday evening. I call the helpdesk on Monday morning to have the device repaired on Tuesday, four days after it broke.

gargravarr 8y ago

How does anyone have this many problems with so many laptops? I know every company is allowed to have quality-control exceptions, but it seems this guy managed to pick up every single one of them! Sheesh. I have only ever bought one laptop brand new; all the others were second-hand and came with no warranty. My 2008 MacBook Pro is a benchmark for reliability - 5 years of daily use with no major failures, only issues being a disconnected bluetooth antenna and a worn out webcam cable, both issues I fixed myself. My new-bought laptop had an issue with the screen cable failing at full extension after about a year, and although the issue was indeed fixed under warranty, it involved me shipping the laptop back (thankfully I kept the box and all the packaging materials), waiting 2 weeks and THEN being told I was responsible for the return carriage - turns out it was hidden in the fine print that I agreed to. It cost me about the same to have my laptop shipped back as it would have if I'd bought the cable and replaced it myself, and it wouldn't have taken 2 weeks without my laptop. The only place I truly value warranty repairs is as a sysadmin at my company; Dell will usually send a technician out next-day to replace motherboards and batteries in our XPSen. Each time, we've been given a fully usable machine back. Excellent.

Theodores 8y ago
Also, how are you supposed to get any work done if you spend so much time reinstalling your computer every few days? Going through 'a dozen computers a year' is not good for productivity. Even getting used to differences in keyboard layout could be taxing on the muscle memory on such a schedule. I think it is fully possible to have a mass-market affordable computer last for five years with no problems. It is a nuisance tantamount to moving house going from one computer to a new one.
- gargravarr 8y ago
  Could not agree more - I only replaced my MBP because it finally wore out, not because I wanted a new machine. There was so much on my machine that it would be a massive disruption to move it all.