Why Buying From Dell Is Worth It

It’s a fair bet that every single one of you who reads this has used a Dell PC or laptop many times, and you may have even owned a few of their computers over the years.

I don’t claim for a second that Dell makes the best computers (I consider them “slightly-above-average”), nor do I claim they have the best customer service, nor do I claim you get the best deals from Dell.

But there is one thing I can say that they do very well, and that’s how they handle returns.

Dell to this day is one of the very few OEMs that will incur the cost of shipping for anything you receive that’s defective. Apple doesn’t do this and never has, and most other OEMs won’t pay for return shipping either – but Dell will.

The way returns work with Dell is that they will physically mail you a return waybill for any item you call in and report as defective. It’s nothing but a sticker that you put on the box, call the shipper and the shipper picks it up – all on Dell’s dime.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a super-duper expensive computer model, a baseline cheap model or even a refurb – Dell will eat the cost on shipping for all that stuff concerning defective units, assuming of course it’s within warranty period.

In my experience, computer stuff from Dell has served me fairly well. In the instances where I’ve had to return items, yeah the call center is a bit annoying to deal with and it will take roughly about a 20-minute phone call to get that return waybill mailed to you, but hey, they pay for the shipping so you really can’t complain.

Oh, and did I mention for certain models they’ll even accept returns for parts so you don’t have to ship back the whole unit? It’s true. For example, if you receive a Dell laptop and the battery is stone dead and won’t hold a charge, you can call in the problem and Dell will ship out a new charger brick and battery. Wait until it arrives, then send back the defective stuff via the return waybill on their dime. It’s a wonderful thing.

It’s easy to poke fun at Dell for some of the crap they’ve released in the past (and I don’t deny they have done that on occasion), but to date they still have the best return policies in the PC/laptop OEM business.