Once upon a time, I was a desktop user. I preferred desktop because it was cheaper and much more powerful (mostly for gaming) compared to laptop. Then, we entered the world of wireless connectivity.
People started to go online in cafes, coffee shops and even food courts where the owners provide free wireless LAN to their customers. The trend picked up and the price of laptops went down drastically and it is the era of laptops. Of course, in terms of gaming power and flexibility, desktops still came out the top.
Me, being a pc game addict resisted laptops for a very long time. I rented houses that don’t have any phone lines and thus I was ‘disconnected’ to the World Wide Web for quite some time. Then, my desktop crashed… the famed ‘Blue Screen of Death’ appeared for innumerable times. Of course I took it to be fixed, but at the same time, my very first desktop which is located at my hometown crashed beyond fixing. So, I offered my desktop while I purchase a new laptop for myself.
One of the main factors that I chose a laptop then was because I was sick and tired of moving my desktop around. I have been changing places to stay quite frequently these few years and with a laptop, now it takes only one trip to move all my stuff to a new place. I know… the reason is not really a very concrete one… but I really hate moving houses. Another reason is of course, the connectivity. With a laptop, I can go around cafes and utilize the services that we have actually paid for. It was quite worth it. Now, I can watch Naruto and Bleach every Saturday online!
Everything is well… I was quite satisfied with my Dell notebook albeit the gaming power has been reduced. At the beginning, it frequently jumped out of a game for no particular reason. I suspect it’s a bug from Vista. After a few months and several patches later, it doesn’t happen anymore. I am also unable to do any major upgrades to my laptop’s gaming power since it can use only a limited range of hardware. However, overall, I was content.
People said that the good thing about Dell is their services. The servicing people would come to your place to fix your pc if there is anything wrong with it… provided it is under warranty, of course. However, personally, I preferred that they set up some service centers where I can go and visit them during the weekends. Their warranty service is for weekdays only and if you want them to come over during weekends, you will have to pay extra money for the warranty when purchasing the pc. Well, duh, a large percentage of those who own Dell’s pc would be working during weekdays and it would just not look nice if your boss saw you asking Dell’s service team to come to your office to fix your personal computer
Anyway, recently, just after one year I purchased Dell’s notebook, my battery started to deteriorate in performance. A message would also appear every time I turned on my laptop saying that my battery is nearing the end of its life and I should change the battery. I was feeling smug because I purchased a three year warranty from Dell and was thinking how to ask Dell’s people to come over to give me a new battery. Anyway, I went online and mailed them my problem. As an extra, I asked them why my laptop had such short life span.
Imagine my horror when they mentioned that my battery is not under warranty anymore! They said that no matter how many years of warranty I bought, the battery is for one year only! Also, they told me that the battery is supposed to last for one year before it starts to deteriorate!!! OMG!!! I checked the price of a new battery and it is RM400++!!!
So, I’ll need to fork out RM400++ every year to change my battery!!! Not to mention the price will increase in the future too. I was fuming mad. If I buy a warranty for three years, I expect all parts to be covered for three years, right down to the last screw. Of course I can do nothing about it. I’m sure all those ‘battery not included in extended warranty’ are buried somewhere in the T&C I got from them which I did not bother to read.
Well, being a hardcore Malaysian I did not purchase the new battery. The battery is still usable only it will run out of power very fast. This is not a big problem for me since I almost never use the battery for my laptop. I always use the power supply from my house or from the cafes. One thing that I can’t stop blaming myself is that I should have taken out the battery when I’m using the local power supply. If I did that, then it would have lasted longer. So, now I’m using my laptop without the battery, but I’m in danger of losing my data in case of interrupted power supply. Sigh…
People started to go online in cafes, coffee shops and even food courts where the owners provide free wireless LAN to their customers. The trend picked up and the price of laptops went down drastically and it is the era of laptops. Of course, in terms of gaming power and flexibility, desktops still came out the top.
Me, being a pc game addict resisted laptops for a very long time. I rented houses that don’t have any phone lines and thus I was ‘disconnected’ to the World Wide Web for quite some time. Then, my desktop crashed… the famed ‘Blue Screen of Death’ appeared for innumerable times. Of course I took it to be fixed, but at the same time, my very first desktop which is located at my hometown crashed beyond fixing. So, I offered my desktop while I purchase a new laptop for myself.
One of the main factors that I chose a laptop then was because I was sick and tired of moving my desktop around. I have been changing places to stay quite frequently these few years and with a laptop, now it takes only one trip to move all my stuff to a new place. I know… the reason is not really a very concrete one… but I really hate moving houses. Another reason is of course, the connectivity. With a laptop, I can go around cafes and utilize the services that we have actually paid for. It was quite worth it. Now, I can watch Naruto and Bleach every Saturday online!
Everything is well… I was quite satisfied with my Dell notebook albeit the gaming power has been reduced. At the beginning, it frequently jumped out of a game for no particular reason. I suspect it’s a bug from Vista. After a few months and several patches later, it doesn’t happen anymore. I am also unable to do any major upgrades to my laptop’s gaming power since it can use only a limited range of hardware. However, overall, I was content.
People said that the good thing about Dell is their services. The servicing people would come to your place to fix your pc if there is anything wrong with it… provided it is under warranty, of course. However, personally, I preferred that they set up some service centers where I can go and visit them during the weekends. Their warranty service is for weekdays only and if you want them to come over during weekends, you will have to pay extra money for the warranty when purchasing the pc. Well, duh, a large percentage of those who own Dell’s pc would be working during weekdays and it would just not look nice if your boss saw you asking Dell’s service team to come to your office to fix your personal computer
Anyway, recently, just after one year I purchased Dell’s notebook, my battery started to deteriorate in performance. A message would also appear every time I turned on my laptop saying that my battery is nearing the end of its life and I should change the battery. I was feeling smug because I purchased a three year warranty from Dell and was thinking how to ask Dell’s people to come over to give me a new battery. Anyway, I went online and mailed them my problem. As an extra, I asked them why my laptop had such short life span.
Imagine my horror when they mentioned that my battery is not under warranty anymore! They said that no matter how many years of warranty I bought, the battery is for one year only! Also, they told me that the battery is supposed to last for one year before it starts to deteriorate!!! OMG!!! I checked the price of a new battery and it is RM400++!!!
So, I’ll need to fork out RM400++ every year to change my battery!!! Not to mention the price will increase in the future too. I was fuming mad. If I buy a warranty for three years, I expect all parts to be covered for three years, right down to the last screw. Of course I can do nothing about it. I’m sure all those ‘battery not included in extended warranty’ are buried somewhere in the T&C I got from them which I did not bother to read.
Well, being a hardcore Malaysian I did not purchase the new battery. The battery is still usable only it will run out of power very fast. This is not a big problem for me since I almost never use the battery for my laptop. I always use the power supply from my house or from the cafes. One thing that I can’t stop blaming myself is that I should have taken out the battery when I’m using the local power supply. If I did that, then it would have lasted longer. So, now I’m using my laptop without the battery, but I’m in danger of losing my data in case of interrupted power supply. Sigh…
2 comments:
Oh dear... I understand your woes completely! Nothing you can do except to rely on AC power and hoping there will never be a blackout when you're using it.
iamthewitch: Moral of the story - read T&C
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