Dell refurbished PCs warranty - when bought from 3rd party

We bought some Dell refurbished PCs recently.

1 from Ebay

1 from a local store

Usually both above refurbished PCs say they carry 90 days warranty from date of purchase.

I think most of the times these refurbished PCs are off lease computers.

Now when we got these computers and looked at the Dell service tags online in Dell support site they warranty expires in 7/2020.

Questions:

  1. Since we are 2nd owner and bought these refurbished PCs from 3rd party, do they still carry warranty until 07/2020 (or) only 90 days from today ?

  2. Usually when you buy Dell refurbished from 3rd party, do you still call Dell for any hardware warranty issues or call the 3rd party directly.

If you buy PCs directly from Dell refurbished website that is a different story, but wanted to make sure how things work with 3rd party.

Let me know what your experiences are when you buy refurbished from 3rd party.

Thanks

16 Spice ups

Warranties need to be transferred from the original purchaser on record. If not you cannot execute your warranty or any associated support you may be due.

3 Spice ups

On a personal note I have had good luck claiming the warranty on 3rd party purchases with dell. Not sure if it’s supposed to work that way though.

1 Spice up

Since the third party you bought the from aren’t registered as the owners, when you do a ownership transfer it’s the company on file with Dell that purchased the systems that may have to okay the transfer. It use to be really easy, but Dell tighten their guidelines on transferes.

1 Spice up

When you buy a system from a 3rd party and a warranty is offered it is typically that third party offering the warranty.

When systems have a portion of a manufacturers warranty it is up to the manufacturer to determine if they will offer warranty support, and they many have different steps for consumers and businesses. Dell’s US program information is here https://www.dell.com/support/assets-transfer/us/en/04#/Identify which requests the name and zip code of the original purchaser. This adds a step for unauthorized resellers that many skip.

Please do not call 2nd hand PCs as Dell refurbished…there is a reason as to why they are called Dell refurbished…

  1. Sold directly by Dell (refurbished PC & lappy sector)

  2. Warranty of 1 yrs to 5 yrs by Dell

  3. Hardware to be registered to customer using Dell service tag (would have sn of all parts at the point of “refurbished” sale)

…

5 Spice ups
  • Did the sellers tell you who to contact in terms of warranty ?

  • Are there any parts replaced with non-Dell parts ? Like RAM, CPU, HDD or SSDs etc ?

In the past, some of our IT people get 2nd hand stuff (in these I will only mention Dell hardware) but soon discovered that some of them had longer warranty as like yours vs what was given by the 2nd hand sellers. But when they contacted Dell, Dell asked for the parts failure and discovered that the parts were not supplied by Dell…likely the Dell parts failed and the 2nd hand sellers replaced these parts. There was a lot of issues contacting these 2nd hand sellers while some offered to replace the parts (RAM and.or HDD), the shipment costs and waiting time made it “too costly”, We opt to use overnight shipping while the seller used ground shipping…which meant changing of parts took at least 5-7 days to arrive and they would just send other similar parts …you could even see things like 2 pieces of RAM of different brands etc.

Then there were no options to have OS media…great when it is a HDD failure right ?? The sticker says OEM Win 7 home while media sent and installed is Win 10 pro…even if used for testing of application, I do not want to go to prison for any license violations (just by saving the Organisation $100 ??)

Note to you, buying refurbs is a great way to save money, much easier if you buy them from the Dell outlet though, then the warranty transfers.

I’ve noted that Dell’s warranty tracking systems are so poor, you can just claim to be the original owner and they have no way of knowing. For one of the biggest computer vendors in the world, their software systems are a joke.

2 Spice ups

Yes. The factory warranty still holds. We buy off-lease servers and Dell has honored the warranty when we’ve needed it. A few times they’ve noted another party had been named on the warranty, but they still cover it in the end.

In addition, I’ve seen nothing in writing that indicates the warranty only applies to the first owner.

1 Spice up

I haven’t had any issues using Dell warranty even if I have been the second or third owner of the system. As long as the the Dell support site is showing a valid warranty you should be good to go.

1 Spice up

The times we purchased refurbished Dell machines from Ebay all we looked forward to was the 90 day warranty offered by the seller. Never considered anything else. Our deal was with the reseller not with Dell. Although all of the machines made it way past the 90 day mark.

1 Spice up

if you buy from authorized reseller like xByte, you get total dell coverage directly through them. Which you then contact dell for any issues from then on.

1 Spice up

It needs to be transferred by the original owner. I’ve dealt with this.

Also, you could run into a stolen computer when buying from eBay, you definitely won’t get the warranty if the service tag has been reported as stolen.

1 Spice up

I typically don’t buy machines from ebay because I have been burned. I have, however, bought from xbyte and that transaction was super easy. Just called them if I had an issue. The thing, though, was that I never needed to call them. The warranty has since expired and the server is still going strong.

2 Spice ups

Yeah, I wouldn’t buy a server from eBay unless it was as a test platform or some role where you can handle it out of warranty, and only then if the seller has a good and long-term review record. We buy from one of two trusted off-lease refurbishers/resellers, and all the equipment comes with a Dell 4 hour on-site. BTNSystems has been really good and configures to order.

With regard to the transfer by original owner, Dell doesn’t seem to hold too tight to that as we’ve run into 2-3 situations where previously owned servers have been serviced by Dell authorized techs even after their support team has noted the original owners name and ours don’t match. There was no requirement to find the original owner to undertake a transfer.

Dell Support may have an entirely different protocol if they find the service tag on a blacklist of stolen equipment, but we’re not buying off eBay.

1 Spice up