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heydude

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Out of Warranty Computer Repairs

We recently had a lot of computers, and laptops purchased as part of a project at our school. Only problem, all these devices only came with a 1 year warranty, they would not purchase any longer length warranties. For us to try and do it now, would cost a fortune. How do others maintain out of warranty equipment? I'm looking at buying some parts for all the different systems to have on hand in case something happens.  Major issues, I will have to bring someone in for because of time. Just curious about others ideas.

Thanks!
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Serge Fournier
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Dell Optiplex systems (almost all of them) come with three year warranties.  As do Latitude laptops and workstations.  So I guess you bought home class stuff which, in my experience, is about 5x more likely to fail?

In the future, I would note the cost of the extra warranty someplace and then I would track how much time and expense was spent repairing the systems through what WOULD have been the warranty period.  That's how you determine the return on investment.

At this point, I would scour ebay for spare systems and buy a few for parts.  Even if some of the ones you buy are bad, odds are they don't have the same problems.
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heydude

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The systems are not low level systems, and the warranties were included in the proposal. They were removed by the purchasing party and made not to extend past one year.
As I said:

At this point, I would scour ebay for spare systems and buy a few for parts.  Even if some of the ones you buy are bad, odds are they don't have the same problems.

I also did not suggest they were "low level", I surmised that they were not business class.  Business class systems from Dell, at least in my experience almost ALWAYS come with 3 year warranties with NO OPTION for less.

If you are a managed services provider as opposed to a break/fix provider, then I would suggest in the future, you make your support rates contingent upon using equipment under warranty and if it's out of warranty, your rates increase (modestly, I would expect, but increase nonetheless).
chek the warranty status of one of your system on dell site
(with the tag on the back)

you might have a 1 year from distributor on site, but still 3 years from dell
(while on this case you must dignose the computer that have a problem on phone with a dell tech, to have a RMA and send it back to dell, they have pretty good service, they send a spare befiore they receive the borken one, very often)