DELL NON-HELL: Reader Hazen Dempster emails:

I want to thank you for your various posts about Dell customer support and their in-home repair service. My wife’s Dell laptop died over the Memorial Day weekend — It’s several years old so I figured there was no way is still had any warranty left. I had it in the car to take it to a Geek Squad location when I remembered your posts and decided that I ought to at least check with Dell before paying someone to work on it. Well, I called Dell on Memorial Day night – they diagnosed the problem as a failed motherboard and told me that I was still eligible for in-home repair. The technician called me the next day (Tuesday) to let me know that he had the service order and would have the part on Wednesday. On Wednesday he called to say he had the part and to schedule a time to come out. He was willing to come out that afternoon, but that didn’t work for my wife so he came out Thursday morning, spent about 30 minutes working on it and it’s like new again. Total bill — $0. Will I buy another Dell? Uh, yeah!

As with the bad stories, your experience may differ. But my own experiences with Dell have been good.