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Friends whom been with me knows I’m an avid fan of Dell laptops and their warranty service. But, not today.

I’ve been using my Dell XPS for nearly 2 years and I have hardly any complaints although there are a few shortcomings with the laptop. Wear and tear stuff. Can’t really blame Dell if there are wear and tear problems, right?

Batteries tend to lose it’s charge with every use and I’ve been using it,*bimbo* like everyday, the battery life is decreasing rapidly. From 7 hours to 2-3 hours. So, I requested for a change of battery before the battery warranty ended 10 months ago.

Thing is, laptop batteries have a different warranty period from your laptop’s warranty. Even the charger that comes with it follows your laptop’s warranty. The battery doesn’t. Most likely is for Dell’s interest, but I’m not too sure either. So if the new battery encounters any problems, I’d have to pay for it.

Last time I could use the battery was my usual toilet business. *don’t ask.* Usually I’d bring it back to the room and go bathe, but this time, I left it there, pump up the tunes, and bathe. *again, don’t ask.* I got dried up and changed. When I got back to the laptop, it started to enter hibernate mode.

Quickly, I took it back to the room and plugged the charger in. Left it there to charge and went out for lunch.

Then the horror started.

It failed with.. no drama at all. The laptop has a battery light on it that states whether it’s in A/C, charging or dying (orange). This time I seen something I never seen before, not on my laptop at least. The battery indicator light was blinking.

*blink* *blink* *blink* *blink* *blink*

Orange, orange, orange, orange, green. A quick google says Temporary Battery Failure. Yeah, temporary my ass. More like permanent.

I tried charging overnight, and it still couldn’t charge and the flashing lights are pretty annoying. I took it out and gave it a rest. Hoping it would actually be a temporary problem. But it didn’t.

So I called Dell support. Twice. First one had me waiting 5 minutes with no one answering. 2nd time was better, but had quite a wait as well. The supporter *yes i know it’s wrong.* gave me tips on how to prolong the life of  your battery, etc. I pretty much had the same ‘lecture’ since my last replacement.

Then she told me my warranty for the battery is already expired because it follows the first battery’s warranty period, which was 12 months from the date of purchase. And I have to pay for the next replacement.

Dell XPS M1210 9-cell battery: RM390

Anyone willing to pay for me?

EDIT: My laptop’s warranty is expiring as well. April to be exact. They also sent me a quotation on extending my warranty but it costs RM700 for one year. Burning a very very very big hole here.

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