I have owned over a dozen dell computers. Of those 12 three were junk. Their customer service was excellent and they replaced (and upgraded actually) them proptly. The last lemon I had, it was my own fault, I just kept putting off calling until the warranty had lapsed.

I have noticed a difference in customer service and warranty from purchasing a Dell computer from Dell itself and from Best Buy. There is no conflict with the ones from Dell directly. I will never buy from a middle man again.

Funny you should mention the McAfee thing. As I mentioned, this system is a replacement of an XPS that I bought three years ago. That five year warranty was the best purchase I ever made. I dropped the last one and smashed the screen. 100% my fault and they fixed it. Then the processor went and ta da, brand new replacement system. Warranty transfered. They sent me new extra batteries as with my original order. The only difference was I had a three year subscription to Trend for up to three computers in the original purchase package. This replacement system has a one year subscription to McAfee for a single computer. But then again, my three year script was almost up, so maybe that was the reason it differed.