Printer warranty

Hi

 I got a new printer as a gift for christmas, can anybody tell me whether or not it should be under warranty?

I would imagine that it should be for at least a year, but perhaps I'm wrong.

When I entered the service code to check my warranty status it says 0 days left.

At first I thought it was just because I had not registered the printer. (There's some note there somewhere indicating that your warranty status may not show up correctly unless the product is registered).

I could not register online at first because I was asked where the printer was bought and I did not know.

The gift tag said 'from Santa'.

Fortunately my mother-in-law said she might know where Santa got it. So I asked her she said it was purchased in December 2010 from Argos. ( She must know Santa).

However, Argos was not listed online as one of the Dell stockists where I could have purchased my printer.

I e-mailed support, they advised to select DSG (Currys, Dixons etc.) from the available choices, but they also asked for a proof of purchase and another number from my printer. I supplied these - having to ask my mother-in-law again to ask Santa to get the receipt, which by this stage was getting embarrassing.

I scanned the receipt using the printer/scanner (it's an all-in-one), which I found somewhat ironic and sent it to the support e-mail.

I got a response saying something like "Thank-you for supplying the requested information, we  would like to inform you that we have completed the registration request".

"Great", I thought, "I'll be able to see my correct warranty status now". So I entered my service code and it still said "0 days left".

So I e-mailed support again and told them what had happened saying that they'd completed the registration request and I'd checked the warranty status again and it still showed 0 days and asking was this to be expected, was there normally a delay in the correct warranty status showing up on-line or was there still a problem, - or was it in fact that my printer is not under warranty (but why not if it's a newly purchased printer!?)

I got a reply something like "Thanks, this is to inform you that we have completed the request", which just makes no sense at all.

Why is it so hard to actually speak to someone at DELL?

The support all seems to be voice recordings - or premium rate numbers. Am I not entitled to SOME free support?

Anyway, is my newly purchased printer meant to be under warranty or not. Like I said I don't think it is unreasonable to expect at least a years warranty on new goods.... but maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps I don't have a warranty, but DELL don't seem to want to tell me that. As far as I can figure out they seem to want to tell me that I have an expired 1 year warranty  that apparently expired whilst it was still in the shop....!?

Thanks,

G.