>They have another practice I disagree with. If you don't buy the extra warranty support package and call in to talk to a tech to see if you need to send your computer in for repair, they won't even talk to you without you first purchasing the package. First you get someone in India unless you request someone from the states (that's an option most don't know about), then you have to convince them to talk to you. This happened last year to a friend of my mom's. They are both in their 70s. My mom's friend called my mom and asked what should she do? My mom got the info on the problem, called Dell herself (her original warranty was still in effect), and described the problem. They wanted to remotely control my mom's machine. My mom said her internet was down and could they please give her instructions to do it herself? They did. My mom then called me, I remotely connected to her friend's machine and fixed it. They could have just called me to begin with (it was not a serious issue but it prevented her from doing some things). In essence they wanted to sell her a warranty to fix basic configuration stuff, not hardware at all. Not such thing as free quotes anymore - you can't even get them to tell you if you need to send it in for repair or it can be done by you or someone else. Not even basic troubleshooting stuff anymore.

I've highlighted the key phrase in your post. There is a definite limit to how much configuration support vendors will give, even under warranty (i.e. what is "basic"). Users can buy and install any manner of 3rd party software (AV, firewall etc.), they can tinker with settings themselves, they can get infected with malware etc. etc.

Suppose, for example, someone changes their machine to have a static IP address, and their Internet "doesn't work any more" because their ISP changed DNS server addresses. In that case, if the user wants Dell to help them I think it's completely reasonable they should pay for that support.

Dells come pre-configured to give a pretty good out-of-box-experience. By answering a few basic questions at first boot, they'll typically "just work" in most regular environments. If you have to modify it because your environment is different or unusual, AFAIC you should be prepared to support those changes yourself.

All of the Dells I've encountered have been bought by my business clients, who usually call me first if they have a problem. Almost always I can fix it without contacting Dell. To give them their due, I can recall few instances where I've had to call them about in-warranty computers, but I've never been asked to purchase an extended warranty/"Complete Care" etc.

Neither my clients nor I even bother to contact Dell for out-of-warranty computers.

I admit the quality of Dell tech support isn't what it once was. Back last January/February a client bought a fairly high-end Dell for her accounting business (Core i7, dual HD in RAID1, Win7 64-bit, 8GB RAM etc.). She needed to run XP mode for some accounting programs that aren't Win7 compatible, and to support some hardware with no Win7 drivers that she still needed to use. I put a bunch of time into getting that all set up, transferring data from her old machine etc.

After a while, XP mode wouldn't start any more. She called Dell instead of me. When the easy scripted support didn't work, the next scripted step was to get her to restore the system to its original factory configuration (!) She followed their instructions, blew away all the configuration I'd done, and in the end XP mode still wouldn't work. She was pretty livid. In the end it turned out to be a hardware problem of some kind - both HDs were replaced, I think there might have been either a mobo BIOS upgrade or mobo replacement as well. Dell is too quick to resort to system restore, without making sure the user fully comprehends what that means.

There's little profit in computer hardware, the real money's in extended warranties and financing so it's not surprising Dell is trying to upsell warranties. It would be a little troubling if Dell support techs are scripted to ask or demand these extra warranties and/or to press harder on less-sophisticated users