Dell Accidental Damage (Policy Schedule) and Theft Insurance

The name plate is a sticky on the top of this forum. Long story short..they won't give you one.

The warranty I don't know. I never tried the Dell stuff. I do know Lojack for laptops...worthless.

The Lojack for Laptops $1000 warranty is bogus. First off they must be able to connect to the laptop within 60 days. If they can't connect..no money for you. If data delete is activated... no money for you. Even if they connect and you don't get it back? They delete the drive? no money for you.  There is more to this too but I don't want to spill the beans. It's also based on 90% of the value or $1000. It's worthless.

And does it protect you? Not against someone like me. Even with firmware/BIOS level protection I can blow past it like an F1 passing a bicycle. Please don't ask me how just know that I and many others can. Now maybe if someone just grabbed it, went home and started surfing, it will work but if they know this stuff it will be gone asap.

You are better off putting that money in a jar then buying Lojack. Plus there are better ways to protect it. Again, I won't get into that here but I would Google it. I think with some luck you can find the real meat on this stuff.

Buy yourself a lock and never let it out of your sight. For everything else..keep drinks away from it.

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAI8S2houW4]

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTFP6BYXAE]

p.s. I'm starting to think Dell don't want my money :(

I want to give them money for a nameplate they don't want it, I want to give them money for insurance, they don't it. I don't think ive ever had to try and force any other company to take my money :P

Oh I have the accidental damage cover, so the drinks are fine next to it,   I travel with my laptop for work, so always paranoid about it, what is funny is that the website above says if taken by assault they want medical reports and photographic proof of assault.   Scuze me mr mugging me, smile for the camera phone, oh you want my camera phone too now. :P   No way I am fighting an armed assailant to qualify the insurance requirements.

 See..it's a joke.

I travel a lot too. Read the fine print. I wouldn't do you wrong. It's not really worth the money. There are many things you can do to protect yourself. Let me ask something.

Do you password your laptop? If so ... you will not get it back .They need to log on. Even at the BIOS level it needs wifi. I won't go beyond that but you see what I'm getting at? There is nothing on a system I can not replace. Nothing and I will replace it before I let it log on.

If you want protection then make no less then two accounts. Leave one open with minimum privileges. Then keylog it. That is far bettter then any Lojack. Let it phone home and then report it. But even then anyone that knows better won't let that happen.

The dell theft insurance says they replace the machine with a "like or similar" machine, so I assume it works like the warranty.   It looks like a legit policy, underwritten by London General Insurance, so its not like lojack or anything like that.   Here is the link off the back of the policy.   www.delltheftprotection.com

They use lojack and lojack is whacked..catchy. For someone that doesn't know better it may work but for anyone tha would single out your laptop and knows what they are doing...it's gone.

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/services/client_support/completecare_svc?c=us&cs=29&l=en&s=dhs

The dell theft insurance says they replace the machine with a "like or similar" machine, so I assume it works like the warranty.

It looks like a legit policy, underwritten by London General Insurance, so its not like lojack or anything like that.

Here is the link off the back of the policy.

www.delltheftprotection.com

Oh I have the accidental damage cover, so the drinks are fine next to it,

I travel with my laptop for work, so always paranoid about it, what is funny is that the website above says if taken by assault they want medical reports and photographic proof of assault.

Scuze me mr mugging me, smile for the camera phone, oh you want my camera phone too now. :P

No way I am fighting an armed assailant to qualify the insurance requirements.

morblore,

I have a lojack success story. 18 months ago my friends Inspiron 14z was stolen from her college dorm in Texas. 3 weeks ago, she called me. Lojack had found the computer in New Mexico and returned it to her. She gave it to me to "clean it up". Her original image was still there. All of her data was still there. I did find another user that we could not recognize. So whoever stole it, simply logged in as a different user. Lojack found them when they logged into the internet. They contacted the internet service provider, gave them the IP address of the user. The police got the street address etc. and picked up the laptop.

They didn't mention any of this on the phone when I queried them, which is a little disturbing.

They made out like it was a standard insurance policy, just like home/motor insurance. They said I just give them the crime number, proof, fill in a form, and the claim is processed within a week, and a credit is issued if accepted. Certainly doesn't sound like you would have to wait on lojack or anything else.  

Are you sure these 2 policies are the same ? I'm not disputing your account of lo-jack, but the info I was given and available on the site don't seem to match up.

www.delltheftprotection.com/.../Dell_AD_with_Theft%20-%20UK1.pdf

I'm hoping your wrong, but given Chris hasn't stated otherwise I fear you maybe right :(

morblore,   I have a lojack success story. 18 months ago my friends Inspiron 14z was stolen from her college dorm in Texas. 3 weeks ago, she called me. Lojack had found the computer in New Mexico and returned it to her. She gave it to me to "clean it up". Her original image was still there. All of her data was still there. I did find another user that we could not recognize. So whoever stole it, simply logged in as a different user. Lojack found them when they logged into the internet. They contacted the internet service provider, gave them the IP address of the user. The police got the street address etc. and picked up the laptop.

There are theives that seem to just open them up and start using them. If they do that then sure, they can get it back. There are too many ways to prevent it from working though. I also never liked the fact that Lojack is a rootkit that a hacker could use to take control of a system.

Lojack will not replace good common sense and a lock.  Even Dell's insurance requires that it be attached to a laptop lock or kept in a locked compartment to honor a claim. Then there are things like home owners and car insurance that would cover the theft of a laptop without the ridiculous requirements Lojack has.Your friend could have bought renters insurance that would have payed for a new laptop long before the 18 months it took for Lojack to find the old one.

My home insurance bottoms out at £1500 for a computers, motor insurance even less than that, neither would cover it.

Specific insurance all seem to max at £2500, apart from the one which wanted £850 per year to insure at £5,000 inc accessories. My camera gear is insured all risk for more than double that for less then 30% of that cost, that cost is more than home, camera and car insurance combined and the car is a 2012 Honda Civic.

You would think there would be a gamers insurance out there, someone is missing a trick there.