Warranty question

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Stingray · #1 Post by **Stingray** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:08 pm

Hola.....
Do you guys recommend paying extra and buying the three year Parts/labor warranty from instead of the regular 1 year??? Or are these things built rock solid????? This is my first time I am buying a thinkpad!!! Any takers????
AK

LtTPfan · #2 Post by **LtTPfan** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:44 pm

Generally I don't go for extended warranties. I figure I'd be "betting against the house." However, an item like a Thinkpad that is so expensive to fix (even just the parts) is something I'd have to give serious thought to. How much is it? If it's $100 I'd go for it, more and I'd have to think harder, maybe search here for problems noted with the model I'm considering.

#3 Post by **jdhurst** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:47 pm

I just got two T43's at a good price for two clients. The warranty was upgrade was less than the cost of a hard drive. Laptops are one product where I think the three year warranty is an excellent investment. For one client, we are going to get a fourth year warranty service from the vendor because there is no need to replace the machines (all IBM, all work well, XP is quite good enough). ... JD Hurst

smugiri · #4 Post by **smugiri** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:54 pm

My advice is buy all the warranty that you can buy when you can buy it. It will hurt for a little while now but in 2 years 10 months, when your $500 before labor system board fails, you will thank yourself for spending the money now ...

#5 Post by **BillMorrow** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:06 am

i always recommend at least onsite warranty and all the extension the user thinks will be needed to cover his time of ownership..

cheap peace of mind..

and with onsite there is little chance of some sillieness at the memphis facility..
always better to be eyeball to eyeball with the serviceing tech..

christopher_wolf · #6 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 4:39 am

I would go for the 3-year warranty myself for many of the same reasons as stated above; if one really thinks about a laptop purchase, especially a Thinkpad, it will look more and more like a long-term investment. Considering that the operational lifespan of most laptops goes upto 2 years, and can be significantlly higher for Thinkpads, it would turn out that getting a 3 year warranty would be a wise decision in any case. Also, consider that the warranty will also help the quality "last" much longer; if you have a problem, it gets fixed and you need not spend the rest of the operational lifetime of the system with it doing something funky. That is a good thing to have when you make an investment on a Thinkpad as your primary/major/adjucnt mobile computing platform. As such, it has given me a pretty good Peace-of-Mind quality. Take care of your Thinkpad, and it will take care of you.

Also, Thinkpads are built rock solid; I still have my little 701c that is a little over a decade old and it still boots up fine, has near an hour of battery life, and can still connect to the internet. That is truly amazing for a laptop; the only other laptop Ihave that did that is a Powerbook that is of the same age as my 701c Butterfly Thinkpad. I also foresee my T43 lasting just as long, if not longer.

leegaard · #7 Post by **leegaard** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:02 am

Here in our part of the world every T- series comes with at 3 years carry in warranty by default. Any sense in prolonging that?

wolfman · #8 Post by **wolfman** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:43 am

Another possible option (check to ensure you can still do this first...) if price is a concern - when I bought my thinkpad it came with a 1 year warranty. Within that 1 year you can call and extend it to 3 (or whatever desired length) for the same price (unlike companies like Dell that don't allow this type of thing). So you can spread out the cost of the warranty if you are a little short now (for example instead of choosing a lesser model with the better warranty).

mdarnton · #9 Post by **mdarnton** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:14 pm

I have a three-year one--does anyone know if that can be extended again (it's been 2 years for me now)?

If my T41 is any example, the three-year warranty is a great buy--I've certainly used it enough, anyway.

#10 Post by **GomJabbar** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:45 pm

mdarnton wrote:I have a three-year one--does anyone know if that can be extended again (it's been 2 years for me now)?

If my T41 is any example, the three-year warranty is a great buy--I've certainly used it enough, anyway.

Read for yourself.

IBM ServicePac for Warranty and Maintenance Options

Note: AFAIK, ThinkPads purchased after about May, 2005 are warrantied by Lenovo.

DIGITALgimpus · #11 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:49 pm

I agree with getting an extended warranty.

My 2002 Thinkpad A31 kicked the bucket back in August of 2005. Extended warranty. They couldn't fix it so they replaced it with a T43 of similar specs (since the A series doesn't exist anymore).

It's only worth while if they back their warranty, and I have to say they do. They were a bit slow due to some inventory problems, but they did take care of me.

So I'd say get the warranty. It was a very good investment for me. I'll keep mine going as long as I can.

vizda · #12 Post by **vizda** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:03 pm

If it's a few hundred dollars or less, I'd strongly recommend getting the three year warranty.

If you read some of the other threads on this board, you'll see that quite a few folks are having problems with T4x system boards that are a little more than a year old. My machine started to have issues a few days after the 1 year warranty expired, and now it's a lovely jet black paperweight that's going to cost me $600 to fix.

They seem like solid machines (this is why I bought mine) but apparently there's some kind of defect in either the case, motherboard or video card design as a number of these issues are starting to pop up. Some institutional customers are reporting no problems, but one who posted here said a quarter of their machines had had issues.

Another indication of systematic problems: the part isn't in stock. Caveat emptor.

padpad · #13 Post by **padpad** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:35 pm

Older ones are more apt to fail, so an insurance is worthwhile...

Gar · #14 Post by **Gar** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:48 pm

I've had a few cases where I had to quote a customer $1000+ to fix their T4x because the original warrenty expired, it just breaks my heart.

Go for the extended warrenty. Chances are you'll have troublefree usage for years, but why take chances with that kind of investment?

Stingray · #15 Post by **Stingray** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 2:16 pm

Thanks for all the replies guys…. But I have one more question…. What does it actually mean by “Three years parts and labor (system battery: one year)”. Does this mean the service tech will come to the house and fix the laptop or will I have to mail it some where?
Thanks

wolfman · #16 Post by **wolfman** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 3:01 pm

That sounds like a depot service warranty (IE, send it in). IBM sells an onsite warranty to individuals or businesses and they have verbage like "Extended service contract 3 yr onsite repair 9x5 next day" or some such.

Typically (from what I've seen...) the units come with 1 or 3 year depot warranty and you can upgrade that to onsite (in the case of the 3 year I believe it is ~$125 US).

Good luck....

Stingray · #17 Post by **Stingray** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 3:28 pm

wolfman wrote:That sounds like a depot service warranty (IE, send it in). IBM sells an onsite warranty to individuals or businesses and they have verbage like "Extended service contract 3 yr onsite repair 9x5 next day" or some such.

Typically (from what I've seen...) the units come with 1 or 3 year depot warranty and you can upgrade that to onsite (in the case of the 3 year I believe it is ~$125 US).

Good luck....

So if it indeed is the “Depot service warranty”…. Who picks up the check for the transportation cost of the parts or the laptop?

wolfman · #18 Post by **wolfman** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 4:08 pm

I had depot service twice on a port replicator II and once on a previous thinkpad that I had purchased and subsequently returned within the 30 day money back period (needed a motherboard replacement). IBM paid shipping in all cases - not sure if this has changed since Lenovo took over, but I don't think so...

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