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Extended Warranties
by civilwarmini - 12/5/07 5:30 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieWith appliances and electronics getting cheaper each year, extended warranties are hardly worth the price. If you buy an expensive item, say a four wheel drive vehicle, now the extended warranty begins to make sense. Ever replaced four wheel drive?
Depends on what I'm buying...
by flyingaggie - 12/5/07 5:30 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieI have actually had good luck with my extended warranties paying off, but my dad has different stories. A lot depends on who's backing it up. My good stories all come from Best Buy's plans. My dad has had problems with Fry's and CompUSA coming through on theirs.
My best example is when I bought a new laptop in 2000. I spent the extra and got the extended warranty ($2500 laptop, $250 warranty...10%). Since 2000, I have had at least 11 laptops that I can recall and I haven't paid for any of them outside of the original. As a general rule for me, if the price of the warranty is more than about 15%, maybe 20%, I won't pay for it. I always get it on laptops, due to my travel habits and the fact that even though laptops are portable, they don't like travelling that well.
I haven't personally had any experience with these, but my friends tell me Wal-Mart/Sam's Club warranties are extremely easy. They claimed that they walked in with a dead computer, and Sam's didn't even look at it. Just gave them a gift card for their original purchase price and said get another one.
All in all, I think it depends on the item you're buying, who is backing up the warranty and if you can afford to repair/replace it if it dies.
Wish I would have bought it (sadder but wiser)
by mrskelly - 12/5/07 6:57 PM In reply to: Depends on what I'm buying... by flyingaggieWhen I purchased a laptop for my daughter I opted not to get the extended warranty because of financial issues. Six weeks later she spilled water on it. The store service guy told me that if I had purchased the warranty they would have simply replaced it.
In General... NO!
by pthiringer - 12/5/07 5:31 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieWarranties are like insurance, in the sense that they exist not as a service to you, but to make money for the insurer. My logic goes like this. The harder the salesmen push them, the more pressure or incentives they must be getting from management to sell them. The more pressure/incentive, the more profitable they must be for the store. The more profitable they are, the less likely I am to save any money by buying one. Seriously, I'd be much more inclined to buy one if nobody actually offered me one until I asked.
Get Your Money Back
by lamajama - 12/5/07 5:39 PM In reply to: In General... NO! by pthiringerIn Canada, Vision Electronics (like a Best-Buy) pushes extra warrenties - but with a difference. If it's not used, you get the
warrenty cost back as a store credit after the warrenty time period is over. If you are unsure, this adds at least a little security. They have your money for the warrenty time period - but you will get it back at the end. It also makes no difference who uses the store credit. My brother-in-law used my last one.
thanx
by pharelfajera - 4/24/09 8:37 PM In reply to: In General... NO! by pthiringerThis is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone.
pharel
Car Insurance
Not if you want a decent repair done
by lekogm - 12/5/07 5:33 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieSo I purchased a laptop from Circuit City in February of 2006. In July of 2007 it stopped wanting to charge, I'd plug it in and then it would charge for one to five minutes and suddenly lose power. I tried to troubleshoot it myself and all I could come up with was that it had a bad connection between the power supply and the actual machine. So I called Circuit City and tried to explain this problem to them and after 40 minutes of arguing with the guy about how the hardware was failing and not the operating system he finally agreed to let me send it in. So I send it in and specifically state that it's a hardware problem, for them to call me before doing any repairs, and for them not to reformat the machine. Sure enough 4 days later I get a package in the mail and it's my laptop, reformatted, and listed as having a clean bill of health. So I go, whatever I backed all the important stuff up so this shouldn't be too bad. 5 minutes after I plug in and turn the computer on the same problem I have occurs again. I immediately called Circuit City and read them the riot act, as I was going out of town on business and needed my laptop. After what felt like an eternity of arguing with them they said they would take the machine back and get it back to me before I went out of town. So I ship it back to them with the same instructions, minus the no reformatting, and they never call me, and they misplaced it for a few days, so it never got back to me before I left and I was forced to purchase a replacement so that I could work. When it finally gets shipped to my apartment, I got my roommate to ship it to me where I was working and upon opening the box, there are giant labels on the power supply and the battery that say, "Bad - DO NOT USE! Not covered under warranty!" I don't know why but somehow between when I first sent it in and when I got it back the second time, both the power supply and the battery went bad. If they had only told me this or checked this the first time I had sent it out, I could have bought a new power supply and still had my original laptop and all my old files and settings.
Bottom line, the service plan is great if you want something to fall back on if there's a problem, but not all problems are covered and/or diagnosed correctly.
Reconsider
by hugel - 12/5/07 5:34 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieIf and when they start talking extended warranties it raises a Red flag. I have turned and walked out and not bought on more than one occasion - pondering, at my liesure, if the price of the item and it's warranty justify the purchase, without extensions. This has helped stop impulse buying and made me `shop' for a better price or from a different manufacturer - even to looking for a `used' item and a warranty purchase from an independant company.
I have never in my 83 years had an extended warranty pay off - so far.
Hobart Hill, PhD
The Behavioral Sciences
think of extended warrantis like purchasing car insurance..
by nvjusme - 12/5/07 5:34 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieThink of an extended warranty like car insurance for car or health insurance for you. You have to have it just in case of any emergency or problem but then it can sometimes cost a lot and you pay and pay and never get sick or get in a car accident or anything like that. You don't ever want to use your health insurance but you gotta have. You don't ever really want to use your car insurance for your damaged totaled car but you gotta have it.
extended warranty
by tismeinaz - 12/5/07 5:36 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieConsumer reports said to definitely get them for those big plasma tv's. My tv actually came with 1 yr in home service as part of the price. I would say for a laptop also - too many things can go wrong. Applecare for iPods has saved my wallet the cost of a new iPod when mine died. Basically on anything you can drop or ding - especially if you are a klutz.
However, never ever get HP's extended NO service contract. You get bopped all over the world and no one will give you the magic # so that you can send your computer in to be fixed. They will jack you around until the warranty expires and say tough luck. It didn't used to be that way but they are no longer a customer service oriented company.
Simple Answer, NO!
by gilligan888 - 12/5/07 5:37 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieI have NEVER purchased a extended warrenty and I have had only a couple times where I would have regreted it. But the thing is, the money I saved by NOT purchasing ANY extended warrenties easily paid for a replacement and I still have money left over. I think it makes more sense to save the money you would have paid for a rainy day.
Extended Warranties
by jimbmw - 12/5/07 5:37 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieIn most instances, they ARE a definite profit center for the retailers. Handheld's however seem to be in a realm of their own. I have used Palm hanhelds since they came out (starting with the Vx). Got the ext'd warranty from Staples, had it fixed once, then just before the 2 yr wtty expired, asked for a replacement screen (some scratches)....they couldn't fix it, so they gave me a FULL REFUND of original purchase price! Bought a Sony Clie SJ-30U FROM THEM, also with warranty, but IT NEVER DIED! (Still use the old Vx and Sony)as backups. I got interested in bells/whistles of the Palm Tx and got one from Circuit City (also with THEIR 2 YR Warranty). Unfortunately, the Palm Tx, is notorious for going dead (possible conflict in memory with non Palm S/W???). It's now back for the 4th time, in just under 2 years. Getting money's worth on warranty, but NOT Palm satisfaction! Circuit City may have to give in and replace it under LEMON pledge???? IMHO, for warranty work, Staples is easier to deal with than CC.
Extended Warranties Worth the cost?
by Bahama Sand - 12/5/07 5:37 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieAny extended warranty decision should be based on: Do you want to assume the risk? can you assume the risk? what is the peace of mind worth. A reasonable cost would be between 8-12% of the sales price. Most of the large retailers charge close to 25-35% of the price. You should shop warranties through athorized repair facilities for the product you are buying. They will stand behind the warranty and they are generally priced in line with the 8-12% rule of thumb.
Extended Warranty.........are they worth it????
by Ksinger - 12/5/07 5:38 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieI'll share a couple of memories with you. 12 years ago, I bought a top of the line flatbed scanner. The cost was $300. The salesperson tried to sell me a $75 warranty telling me that the bulbs were only good for about 1000 hours of use. When I did the math, I replied that if I left it on constantly, within 6 weeks, the bulb would die and they would repair/replace the scanner repeatedly every 6 weeks. I then asked why after four returns, they would start to lose money, how it would be profitable for the store. I received no answer. Twelve years have passed, and the scanner still works, just not with XP. Second memory is of a 53K modem. Cost was $30 and salesman offered a $15 warranty. It just didn't make any sense.
The way it works in Japan is...
by Nikuman - 12/5/07 5:39 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggieThe way it works in Japan is that most items normally have a one year warranty and you pay 5% of the purchase price to extend the warranty to 3 years. I don't claim to be an authority on every type of product and there is of course some variation depending on particular retailers, but my policy has always been that on the bigger ticket items, once I go past a certain amount of money I'm shelling out, I figure throwing on a few more bucks for the extended warranty isn't all that more painful. I bought a sub-notebook computer from a small local discount computer parts shop that sells laptops manufactured in Taiwan under their own brand name. I bought the laptop for about $1000 which was at the time a good deal considering the specs. So I threw on the extra $50 for the extended warranty. After a year and a half the hard drive failed and they supplied me with a new one. So right there I came out about even and figured it was worth it. Then 3 months ago, just 3 months before the warranty was to expire the unit starts overheating and acting weird so I took it in to have it looked at figuring they'd replace a fan for me or something. After a few days they called me and asked me if I'd mind taking a similar unit instead as it was too much hassle for them to find the parts to repair the old one! Would I mind!? Same small size but now a wide screen, with a much faster processor, 1G of RAM instead of the 512 I had in the old one, 80G HDD instead of 30G and with built in Wifi where I had been using a card! Plus it's all shiny and new! So I got a brand new unit much better than the one I originally purchased! The exact same unit was selling in their shop for the equivalent of $1300 with Vista installed but the one they gave me "only" had XP Pro on it, the same as what I had on the old one and exactly what I would have chosen anyway instead of Vista! So now I always buy stuff from them and recommend them to my friends. I admit, there are several other items I've purchased with the 3 year warranty and nothing went wrong --so was I throwing money away? It's just like car insurance. So far it seems like I'm throwing money away on that, but all it takes is one accident and it more than pays for itself. So with bigger ticket items, I walk out of the store with the peace of mind that the extended warranty buys me.
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