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DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT YOUR WARRANTYWhen are road warriors not road warriors? When their weaponry fails. If you're a traveling exec whose lifeline is your notebook computer, the same goes for you: All it takes is a meltdown of a four-pound piece of plastic, glass, and silicon to leave you helpless among strangers. So, Lone Ranger, what do you do when your notebook expires? The answer is: Don't wait until then to decide. One of the most important things to pay attention to when you buy your notebook -- along with size, speed, and weight -- is what type of warranty the maker of your PC offers. You'll most likely be able to choose from among several lifesaving options, including an extended warranty, warranty upgrade plans, global coverage, and a guaranteed turnaround of 24 to 48 hours, depending on the plan. From the PC maker or an outside supplier, you'll also be able to buy a replacement-computer rental plan and online phone support. A reasonably comprehensive protection plan will set you back as little as $50, though if you want it all, the tab could reach as much as several hundred dollars a year. Probably the rarest of all these features is the 24-hour turnaround. In fact, leading manufacturers such as Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and Toshiba seem to be to offering mainly a 48-hour turnaround -- which can take even longer if you're in the boonies when your notebook fails. But if you're willing to pay $3,299 for a Hewlett-Packard Sojourn, a notebook that initially was aimed at CEOs, a one-year promise of a 24-hour turnaround comes standard. For $400 more, HP also lets you extend this warranty for two more years (all other HP laptops are limited to a 48-hour warranty). Owen Snoey, HP's worldwide director of service and support, says the company hasn't decided whether it will continue to offer a 24-hour warranty when the Sojourn's replacement arrives. SWAP DEALS. Toshiba's Depot Express Program offers another option -- perhaps the only other one -- for a fast service turnaround. For an extra $49 for one year, or $139 for three, Toshiba guarantees that your laptop will be in the repair shop for no longer than eight hours. If you can't be without your notebook for even 24 hours, you may want to make a list of manufacturers that offer a swap program. With such a plan, you contact the company's tech support center, and after it determines that you have a hardware problem, a courier shows up with a replacement (the Sojourn's warranty also includes this feature). Swap plans also come in several flavors. For $69 a year, Toshiba's On.Deck service plan offers a "cool swap" -- an exchange of your dud for a notebook bundled with Toshiba software. For an additional $75 per year, you can buy the "warm swap" -- a laptop bundled with your corporation's software. And for $379 per year, you can purchase the "hot swap" -- a notebook configured with your corporation's software and all of your personal files. Another option you may want to consider is on-site service, which can be the fastest kind whether you're in the office a lot or on the road. The one hitch is that only a few PC makers, such as IBM and Toshiba, offer on-site service for their portable products. That's because it's easier to ship you a replacement than to pay you a visit. One PC company that would rather come see you is IBM, says David Hume, the company's director of worldwide tech support and service. Hume notes that IBM prides itself on providing on-site service in all 50 states and 24 countries worldwide. IBM's high-end laptops, the 600 and 700 series, come standard with a three-year parts and labor warranty, which requires repairs to be done at an IBM depot. But for an extra $147 for three years, or $295 for four, IBM will visit you almost anywhere to make the fix. Toshiba, too, offers an on-site repair service, called On.Call, which gurantees to send someone by the next day. It costs an extra $79 for one year, or $199 for three. GLOBAL BLANKET. If you plan to travel overseas, of course, you'll want your warranty to tag along. That'll cost you extra, too, since most standard warranties for notebooks are valid only in the U.S. Worldwide coverage does come standard, however, with warranties from Toshiba and IBM. Toshiba's is good in 29 countries, where you can carry your PC in or have it picked up for a five-day repair turnaround. And IBM offers the identical level of service throughout the world. Companies such as Gateway offer global programs for their business customers only (but for an additional fee). One other feature to look for in a warranty is phone and online support. You'll want seven-day, 24-hour assistance for the duration of your warranty (most companies provide such service for only part of the time covered by the warranty). Gateway and IBM also offer services, available around the clock, that let you download the software needed to fix a majority of problems on your laptop. IBM's E-Support service, which handled 4 million queries in August, "is a system based on lessons learned from past experiences," says Hume. In some circumstances, of course -- if a truck flattens your notebook -- no amount of customer service will help. For such eventualities, you may need to consider a laptop rental agreement. For $300 to $600, you can typically get a Pentium II, 266MHz notebook for two or three days. You'll want to sign up with a company that operates nationwide, and thus offers quick response. Yes, "even in Idaho," says Michael Tague of Micro Rentals International (see below). What good is a rental, though, if the truck that killed your laptop crunched your data, too? Knowing that your data is safe, even if your hard drive isn't, may help you to rest easy the night before your big presentation. Moreover, you can leave your awkward-to-carry Zip drive at home -- for as little as $10 a month. It works this way: You transfer the information on your hard drive via an Internet connection to an offsite location where it is typically scanned for viruses, encrypted for security, and stored. You can then retrieve your material using any PC with an Internet connection. Toshiba, which launched the Toshiba Online Backup service a year ago, still is one of the few hardware makers to offer one -- for $24.50 a month. IBM, HP, Gateway, and Compaq all are currently developing or evaluating proposals for such programs. Meantime, plenty of non-PC companies offer the service (see table). Taken together, the warranties and other protection available mean that you don't have to fend for yourself on the road. All you have to do is pick the warranty services and other features that are right for you -- and let some of the biggest and richest computer companies in the world lend you a hand. And one more thing: Wherever your notebook goes, your warranty information should go,
too
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Updated Nov. 13, 1998 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1998, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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