Community weekly poll: Are extended warranties worth it?
- 12/6/05 12:18 PM
Ocean front in Arizona
by mikes122053 - 12/7/05 8:48 AM In reply to: I love my extended warranties by mholzworth1If you think that a warranty company is going to open up your electronic device and change belts and such I have some property for sale you may be interested in. Mikes122053
You misunderstand
by mholzworth1 - 3/3/06 2:07 PM In reply to: Ocean front in Arizona by mikes122053Why the nastiness? Does it bother you that I have had good experiences with warranties?
I have bought warranties all of my life and I have taken advantage of the preventive maintenace check ups the entire time. I have never had an issue with having a tech come out to clean out my electronic device or replace parts that needed replacing for free.
Extended warranties are a bad bet.
by wllittlejohn - 12/6/05 9:57 PM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
Consider the extended warranty from the standpoint of the seller (the store). To make any money on the deal (and he is not offering the extended warranty because he's a good guy), he has to charge an amount which exceeds the expected value (in the probablistic sense) of repairs/replacements. So as far as the customer is concerned it is not an even bet. The expected value of the warranty to the customer is necessarily negative. Unless the purchase (individual item) is so large that the customer feels he can't afford to take on an even bet in that amount, perhaps he should insure, but I suspect that is seldom the case.
Now toss in a little additional information. 1) For electronic components, failure usually occurs in a matter of days or weeks (well within the manufacturer's warranty) or never. 2) Mechanical components (like disk drives) might fail at much later dates, but the cost of replacing just that component is small relative to the price of an entire computer.
Finally, buyers should be aware of the way salesmen in computer stores are paid. They are on salary (not a very good one) and margins on hardware are so thin that they do not get commissions on hardware sales. But they DO get a commission on extended warranty sales. That's the reason they try to tell you so many tales of woe about what might go wrong.
Tell them to cut the spiel. Buy the item and leave. Yeah, you might lose on an individual item. But if you ALWAYS turn down the warranty, in the long run you will come out the winner by a long shot - even if interest rates on your savings are low.
Profitable business
by keithcarlin - 12/6/05 10:42 PM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
The vendors of extended warranties are in that business to make a profit. I choose not to contribute to their bottom line. I spend less over the long run if I pay for all needed service. A bonus to this approach is that I can choose who performs the service on my equipment. I prefer to be my own insurance carrier.
KC
extended warranties are not worth the price
by hleusch - 12/6/05 11:36 PM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
The long term reliability of most products is quite good. The early failure rate which is higher will be covered by the standard warranty. With the advancement of technology the equipment will be soon obsolete after twice or three times the standard warranty
Buy the warranty .
by davies.af - 12/6/05 11:51 PM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
Buy the warranty if you shop in the UK and you can usually negotiate a bigger discount on the item.
Go back the next day and cancel the warranty - you have a cooling off period - they cannot go back on the extra discount!
Depends on the cost and the product
by tbcass - 12/7/05 3:04 AM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
When I purchased my 50" Sony LCD projection HD TV they wanted over $500 for the extended warrenty. I figured I could have it repaired a couple times for that price so I rejected it. So far it has performed flawlessly for a year.
I never by them
by clubdead - 12/7/05 4:07 AM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
I always tell the salesperson NO if you don't have confidence in the quality of your products how can I.
I recently bought a new fridge with a two year warranty included and was asked to by the extended 5 year warranty. replied if your product doesn't last past 5 years I don't want it any way.
extended warranties
by maggiedev - 12/7/05 4:27 AM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
the extended warranties i have purchased more than paid for themselves. my first dvd player went out after the warranty was up and the extended warranty paid to have it replaced.
my computer went out after warranty expired and the extended warranty paid to have it repaired. the cost of repair out of my pocket would have been more than i could afford at the time and the tech came to the house to do the repairs at no cost to me.
i love extended warranties and for the most part they go unused, but when needed, they have been worth their weight in gold. i would not consider buying anything over 500.00 without an extended warranty. anything under is replacable to me.
Not Really
by Professor Curt - 12/7/05 5:14 AM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
The only Extended Warrenty I buy is on my car. For most everything else it's just not worth it. Most items are electronic (read "solid state") and last well past any warrenty offered.
Almost right
by wresnick - 12/8/05 8:38 AM In reply to: Not Really by Professor CurtActually, they are likely to either last way past the extended warranty period or fail very quickly under the standard warranty. So you are correct that it's not likely to be worth it.
Not From HP It's Not - Manufacturer's warranty is dubious at
by Leggetb - 12/7/05 5:55 AM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
Not from HP it's Not - Manufacturer's warranties are dubious at best. Read on......
I purchased an HP Laptop at Office Max, and another Compaq(HP) Laptop and Office Depot, four months apart in January and April.
Register the warranty? Of course - Online in both cases. (Don't do this, if they can't find it, it's your fault!! I would recommend photocopying the completed Warranty Card and placing both the warranty and the receipt in a safe-deposit box - AND - be sure to have a friendly attorney)
The HP Laptop (a gift to my wife) incurred a cooling fan bearing failure after eight months. Best Buy (the authorized repair facility) refused warranty maintenance without a receipt as the machine wasn't listed by HP with a warranty date. I couldn't find the purchase receipt, went to Office Depot with the laptop in hand, they couldn't help either. Called Amex and for some reason they couldn't find a record of sale either. Repeated calls to HP were not pleasant, nor fruitful.
To make matters more gauling, I have a rebate check from the purchase of the HP (You would think that would convince them) that was not cashed within 90 days (I travel ALOT), and the would not issue a replacement as the incentive period had closed. Another exageration of "Customer Service"??
While the HP Laptop nightmare was going on, I followed up checking on the Compaq(HP) laptop. Same (HP) Customer Service, same web site, same result. I do have the receipt for that one and now will only need that good attorney if something smokes in it.
From my experience this is an HP Problem, probably still happening post-acquisition of Compaq.
I have used Dell Laptops for seven years, allways with Platinum Service - allways purchased at the time the laptop was purchsed. I have had faithful, excellent service from Dell both in the U.S. and Overseas AND FROM A WORK PERSPECTIVE IT'S BEEN A VALUABLE PROTECTION.
Now, if HP would get it's act together. Oh - I paid Best Buy to order and install the parts - it was after all my lovely, shy, brides laptop!!
Are extended warranties worth it?
by ginganutz24 - 12/7/05 5:56 AM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
Most of the time.. yes i do buy the extended warranty, but it hugely depends on the item.
For instance a few years ago i went into my local electrical retailer to buy a toaster and kettle and paid $20 for example. Got to the checkout and the woman asked me ''would you like the 5 year extended warranty for only $22.50?'' and i said to her.. for what i'm paying for the product in the first place its cheaper to buy a new one if it goes BANG.
Sorry to say but that's a true story.
On the other hand, 3 years ago I bought one of the first top of the range MP3 players from Creative which cost me $420, got to the checkout and the same thing.. ''<insert boring warranty speil here>''.
It was 5 yrs extended for $30. As I was spending so much money $30 seemed like a drop in the proverbial money ocean plus being a hard-drive MP3 player I darent take the risk. I know what is likely to go wrong with hard-drive players *eek*
Put it this way.. its a damn good job I did buy the warranty. 2 years later it started to play up, took it back had it repaird 5 times which would normally have cost me in excess of $42 for the inspection $9 for insured post and packing.. thats BEFORE labor and parts charges on top! So without parts and labor it would have cost me at least $255! so spending $30 on a 5yr warranty was a life saver!
Usually no, but I ALWAYS extend the warranty on my laptop.
by MitzMN - 12/7/05 5:59 AM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
There's so much that can go wrong with a laptop, I always extend the warranty. Besides, if it's not working, I'm not working. Very important to have fast, efficient service.
I just purchased an LCD TV with a built-in DVD player. I thought a bit about extending the warranty, but it was a small model for the kitchen, was only $30 for two additional years, and I felt that was a good purchase.
Appliances, regular TVs, cell phones, printers, etc., or cars, no. It's just not worth it, in my humble opinion.
Mitz, on her fifth notebook with an extended warranty, never once regretting it.
Extended warranties are both good and bad.
by jeffhbell - 12/7/05 6:04 AM In reply to: Are extended warranties worth it? by Marc Bennett
Extended warranties are both good and bad. Should you get one? The answer for this question depends on the answers to the following questions. For simplicity’s sake I’ll discuss extended warranties on Personal Computers only.
1) Is the computer a proprietary design or is it made of standard parts? HP, Compaq, Dell. ET AL use unique motherboards, They are very specific in what they can be replaced with. HP-Compaq computers have special information stored on the MB to allow a licensed “Disk Restore” (Reloading of an OS after disk failure or OS corruption). These MBs typically cost $225-$300 if you know where to go. Compare this to a generic PC with a generic MB costing $50-100. I am knowledgeable about this subject due to my contract work with various extended warranty companies. Thus I would get the extended warranty for a name brand PC unless I was comfortable building my own PCs. Keep in mind you can always buy a new PC at a discount store to replace what is broken. The monitor and printer are usually still good and do not need to be replaced if your PC dies. Your PC guru friend may be able to fix simple problems on your PC as well.
2) What is the cost of the PC? If the PC only costs $500, add the monitor $200, and a printer $100 ($800) is it worth spending $300 for the warranty?
3) Did the Sales staff practically promise everything short of coming over and helping you themselves? Many warranties are for the hardware only. Their limited phone support will primarily require you to use the PC’s System Recovery CDs to restore the OS settings to factory defaults. This usually causes data loss. (Goodbye picture of Grandma’s 95th birthday party. This is a standard method in troubleshooting problems on your PC that many warranty companies use.
4) Does the warranty include everything you are purchasing as a system? Many warranties cover the PC only. The monitor nor other peripherals are covered.
5) Are you likely to upgrade your PC anyway in a year or two? It may not make sense to purchase a warranty if you are going to replace it anyway. Children often ask for their own PCs. Spouses sometimes can not share PCs. Ask my wife. I’m not allowed on her PC unless she asks me to fix a problem.
Hope this helps in your decision process.
Jeff
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