[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":221},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog:2006:dellgetpushywithinsuranceextendedwarranties":3,"blogMore-Technology":207,"comments-dellgetpushywithinsuranceextendedwarranties":220},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":188,"commentCount":189,"date":190,"description":12,"excerpt":191,"extension":192,"filenames":193,"hidden":194,"image":193,"meta":195,"minutes":196,"navigation":197,"path":198,"seo":199,"showCategory":193,"stem":200,"tags":201,"updated":193,"url":204,"wordCount":205,"__hash__":206},"content\u002Fblog\u002F2006\u002Fdellgetpushywithinsuranceextendedwarranties.md","Dell get pushy with insurance\u002Fextended warranties",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":178},"minimark",[9,13,16,27,32,44,59,62,65,69,72,75,78,81,84,88,91,94,119,122,125,129,132,136,139,142,145,148,151,154,158,161,164,173],[10,11,12],"p",{},"We’ve all experienced the pushy salesman trying to get us to buy insurance\u002Fextended warranties when buying goods in stores but now it seems Dell are taking this to the extreme.",[10,14,15],{},"Last month we decided to buy my little brother a PC of his own and headed over to Dell and so my story starts.",[10,17,18,19,26],{},"We found a Dimension 1100 with 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, CDRW\u002FDVD combo drive, Celeron D 2.5GHz with on-board sound & video, XP Home and the usual keyboard\u002Fmouse combo for £144 (ex VAT). You can see the ex-VAT prices by choosing ",[20,21,25],"a",{"href":22,"rel":23},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww1.euro.dell.com\u002Fcontent\u002Fdefault.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd",[24],"nofollow","Small Business"," instead of Home.",[28,29,31],"h2",{"id":30},"pushy-web-site","Pushy web site",[10,33,34,35,39,40,43],{},"Dell show lots of attractive prices but the moment you hit ",[36,37,38],"em",{},"Customize & Buy"," the tricks start as the price shoots up when they tack a ",[36,41,42],{},"3 Year on-site service"," on.",[10,45,46,47,50,51,54,55,58],{},"To remove this massive increase some ",[36,48,49],{},"£80"," on this system (40% of the purchase price!) you must expand the ",[36,52,53],{},"Cover It with Dell Support Services"," section and switch to ",[36,56,57],{},"No service upgrade selected, 90 Day Collect and Return service only",".",[10,60,61],{},"It’s interesting to note that they refer to the standard warranty as “90 Day” when in fact it is a full year warranty. I guess they are hoping to scare people into shelling out for insurance.",[10,63,64],{},"Anyway, I had the spec I wanted and because the site doesn’t understand the VAT-free nature of the Channel Islands it was time to call them to try and order the system…",[28,66,68],{"id":67},"pushy-salesman-1","Pushy salesman 1",[10,70,71],{},"The moment I got through to sales I made it clear I was ordering from Guernsey and so would need the order VAT-free. I didn’t want to go through the whole process twice once with the wrong department.",[10,73,74],{},"My Indian sales representative took the details of the system I wanted to order, and it took over 15 minutes to get the right system for the right price.",[10,76,77],{},"At least half that time was him trying to get me to not remove the 3 year warranty. Eventually he took my address details and said he couldn’t help me because they didn’t deal with the Channel Islands and that I’d need another department.",[10,79,80],{},"Exactly the problem I’d hoped to avoid with my first statement.",[10,82,83],{},"I asked which department and number I needed but he didn’t know. He did however get somebody to call me back. That leads to my next salesman…",[28,85,87],{"id":86},"pushy-salesman-2","Pushy salesman 2",[10,89,90],{},"My second Indian salesman couldn’t pick up the order from the first salesman so we had to start again.",[10,92,93],{},"If I thought the first salesman was pushy then the second one took the biscuit. Some of his phrases included;",[95,96,97,101,104,107,110,113,116],"ul",{},[98,99,100],"li",{},"“What will you do if it goes wrong”",[98,102,103],{},"“Listen to me” (x3)",[98,105,106],{},"“If it is shipped back you will have to pay 50% of the costs”",[98,108,109],{},"“It is just a few pence a day”",[98,111,112],{},"“You can not fix it yourself”",[98,114,115],{},"“Isn’t that a good deal for peace of mind”",[98,117,118],{},"“It even includes accidental damage” (Err, so does my home insurance)",[10,120,121],{},"Anyway, eventually I had to be very firm with him and we proceeded with the order. He went through a similar thing with needing ink and a cable for the free printer, neither of which are cheap. In the end I told him to keep the printer as we didn’t want it anyway.",[10,123,124],{},"The order details were taken although I had to chase a couple of days later for email confirmation the system arrived and worked just fine.",[28,126,128],{"id":127},"aftersales-1","Aftersales 1",[10,130,131],{},"I received an email saying I could rate the buying experience online. Needless to say I made my feelings on pushy salesman trying to offer support contracts known.",[28,133,135],{"id":134},"aftersales-2","Aftersales 2",[10,137,138],{},"Today was the final pestering that would inspire a blog rant… a call from Dell asking how my Dimension 1100 is going.",[10,140,141],{},"Me: “Absolutely fine, no problems.”",[10,143,144],{},"Dell: “Oh, that’s good. You didn’t take the 3 year support, is that really what you wanted?”",[10,146,147],{},"Me: “Yes, absolutely.”",[10,149,150],{},"Dell: “Ok, bye.”",[10,152,153],{},"Well, okay at least he wasn’t pushy but how many times must I tell them no. By my count it’s at least 3 if you exclude the sales and after-sales rating web sites.",[28,155,157],{"id":156},"are-they-worth-it","Are they worth it?",[10,159,160],{},"If you are really lost with PC’s maybe they are, but if you write software for a living and put your first PC together 10 years ago probably not.",[10,162,163],{},"My Hitachi TV came with a free 5 year extended warranty. It covered £140 of repairs when it decided it wouldn’t switch on any more, and finding somebody to repair it was a whole other issue. My thanks to Sarnia Radio in Victoria Road for rising to the challenge and doing a sterling repair job.",[10,165,166,167,172],{},"I did once take out an extended warranty of sorts on a 3 piece sofa suit for £100 (less than 10% of the price) which included coating the whole thing with ",[20,168,171],{"href":169,"rel":170},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.3m.com\u002Fus\u002Fhome_leisure\u002Fscotchgard\u002Ffurn_pap.jhtml",[24],"ScotchGard protector"," which has kept it totally mark-free for the last 10 years :) If you burnt or damaged it then the warranty would kick-in.",[10,174,175],{},[36,176,177],{},"[)amien",{"title":179,"searchDepth":180,"depth":180,"links":181},"",2,[182,183,184,185,186,187],{"id":30,"depth":180,"text":31},{"id":67,"depth":180,"text":68},{"id":86,"depth":180,"text":87},{"id":127,"depth":180,"text":128},{"id":134,"depth":180,"text":135},{"id":156,"depth":180,"text":157},"Technology",0,"2006-05-15T13:51:00+00:00","[object Object]","md",null,false,{},4,true,"\u002Fblog\u002F2006\u002Fdellgetpushywithinsuranceextendedwarranties",{"title":5,"description":12},"blog\u002F2006\u002Fdellgetpushywithinsuranceextendedwarranties",[202,203],"hardware","Dell","\u002Fblog\u002F2006\u002Fdellgetpushywithinsuranceextendedwarranties\u002F",834,"BUwwk1YCSOQrFHjB5JTzd4Pn0SNBoSIcZ7ss4ECZeYo",[208,212,216],{"title":209,"date":210,"url":211},"VTX5000: Part 4 - Communications","2026-05-06T10:19:24.727Z","\u002Fblog\u002F2026\u002Fvtx5000-part-4-comms-routines\u002F",{"title":213,"date":214,"url":215},"VTX5000: Part 3 - Software ROM","2026-04-15T23:00:00.000Z","\u002Fblog\u002F2026\u002Fvtx5000-part-3-software-rom\u002F",{"title":217,"date":218,"url":219},"VTX5000: Part 2 - Hardware","2026-03-30T23:00:00.000Z","\u002Fblog\u002F2026\u002Fprism-vtx5000-part-2\u002F",[],1780900522525]