When I purchased my Dell Inspiron 1520 Notebook over two years ago, I did something rather atypical – bought an extended warranty.

I usually don’t ‘waste’ my money, since rarely have I ever had to use one. But for some reason (maybe because my livelihood depends on my functioning computer), I bit the bullet and added a 3 year warranty to the order.

Over all, this has been a great computer – and no need to use the warranty. I did break one of the USB ports (connector broke off while still inside – my fault, not covered by warranty), and I’ve completely worn the letters E, R, N and M off the keyboard. But aside from that no problems.

But a couple of months ago, the screen started doing something weird. It was pink when I turned it on, though would become white quite quickly. Over time, the pink has gotten darker and lasted longer. And yesterday, the screen just went black.

OK, I figured that warranted a call to Dell Tech support – surely that would be covered by my warranty. Fortunately, I purchased an external monitor I could hook up to, went to the Dell website and started an online chat with tech support.

It was one of the easiest, most satisfying tech support sessions I’d had. He didn’t just want to know about the screen – he also asked me all about the condition of the notebook – did it have all its screws, rubber feet, condition of the keyboard, if I had any concerns at all.

Because I mentioned it sometimes gets hot, he asked if I’d use compressed air to clean out the air vents. I hadn’t. He asked me to that, (which required me buying a can of compressed air), and that he’d call me the next day (today) to see how it worked – and based on that, he’d put in an order for replacement parts. He confirmed that the USB port wasn’t covered by the warranty – but I figure I’ve lived without that 4th port for a year, I can manage.

So today I get a call at the appointed hour. I’m told that not only will my screen be replaced, so will my keyboard, my touchpad – AND my motherboard, so I will have 4 working USB ports (they made a special exception for me). Basically a new computer.

And the best part of all this is that I don’t have to ship my computer off to be fixed – they’ll send a technician TO MY HOUSE to swap out all the parts…. no charge. Well, I guess there was a charge – the warranty. But today I’m thinking it’s worth every penny. So thank you Dell.

I’d buy another Dell in a heartbeat (and an extended warranty).

Do you have any warranty (or lack there of) happy or horror stories to share?