I bought my Dell June 24, 2005. I thought I got the three year warrantee for it. Turns out I only had a one year warrantee. Of course.
Both a friend and the tech. I talked to at Dell think the motherboard is fried. Since this is an out of warrantee repair, Dell charges a flat rate of $199. This covers shipping to and from, and fixes of everything (even the keyboard) but the LCD and the motherboard.
A new motherboard from dell will cost me $299, the tech. points out that this price is because I am an existing customer, and that it would cost $400 to $500 elsewhere... right.
So I am looking at a $500 repair. I can find a POS laptop at Wal-Mart for $500. So I ask the guy if I can mull it over and call him back.
He immediatly dropped the price of the motherboard down $100. So now I will be getting it for only $199. So the total damage will be $400, if it is in fact the motherboard that is, err, damaged.
I am not going to find a laptop for $400 that has a 1.8 Ghz Centrino and 1 GB of RAM in it. So I took the deal.
So, the moral of the story is always bitch about the price for a repair.
It looks like the 3 yr. protection plan from Dell costs $250. I don't know why I didn't buy it, as I buy the 3 yr. AppleCare on every Mac I get. Oh well.
I should get the box in the mail soon so I can ship my dead Dell back to them.
