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Home audio & video: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it????

by jraggie - 12/5/07 2:44 AM
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Post 46 of 505

What Best Buy salesman says and what Warranty says not same

by chukarhiker - 12/7/07 8:46 AM In reply to: Extended Warranties by kretlaw

I bought a camera several years ago from Best Buy and was convinced by the salesman to get the 4 year warranty mainly because THE SALESMAN SAID "IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG JUST BRING IT IN AND WE WILL EXCHANGE IT FOR A NEW ONE". THIS IS NOT TRUE!!! When the lens would not extend and I brought it in it was pointed out by the person in returns that BEST BUY HAS THE OPTION OF REPLACING THE UNIT OR REPARING IT (READ THE FINE PRINT). Anyway they sent it in for repair and when I got it back all they had done was clean it and THE LENS STILL DID NOT EXTEND. It was finally repaired but I was without a camera for 3 months.

Post 47 of 505

warrenties

by bernie 1 - 12/6/07 2:53 AM In reply to: 5 laptops for the price of 1 by jmvp00

We have been dealing with Dell for 10 years now. Our last purchase was a laptop for travel & a P/C. So far the at home extended warrenty has put in a new mother board,& a new screen when the LCD went. You can't buy worry free usage for that!!

Post 48 of 505

Dell

by GroverCleveland - 12/6/07 4:04 AM In reply to: warrenties by bernie 1

But, Dell should have done that without your purchase of a special warranty because they sold you the product to begin with. Why should the consumer have to play this sort of roulette after already shelling out over $1,000 for the product at all?

Post 49 of 505

Best Buy

by tireloop - 12/8/07 9:04 PM In reply to: 5 laptops for the price of 1 by jmvp00

Sounds as if you have had better service than I have had...Will never buty anything from them again!

Post 50 of 505

Good point

by sudhirseth0409 - 12/5/07 5:37 PM In reply to: Only thing I would ad is... by RustyDallas

Can you give specific example of 3rd party warranty providers for let's say a camcorder.
Thanks.

Post 51 of 505

staples

by ckeener88 - 12/5/07 10:17 PM In reply to: Good point by sudhirseth0409

i worked at staples for a time and from what i remember they covered pretty much everything of digital cameras and things like that. price wasnt too bad. i'd give them a try

Post 52 of 505

extended warrenties in New Zealand

by ppjamieson - 12/5/07 4:44 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggie

In this country we have a Fair Trading Act so say a fridge or TV is covered for 5 years anyway, shops will still do the sell thing, but Consumer Org point out this is profit to add to tighening margins.

However when the retailer then discounts the product so the warrenty costs $20 as they did recently it saves any hassle for 5 years.

Some shops will try and hassle when returning the product for repair but the main ones have learnt that is not a good idea as the Commerce commission is a problem for them. They also try and say it is up to the manufacturer when the law says it is the retailer who is liable.

Post 53 of 505

Personal Circumstances

by ronsutt - 12/5/07 4:46 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggie

Like any Insurance is it necessary? If your {Fill in} Fails and requires replacement or repair, would it be a minor annoyance or a complete financial disaster?

If it would be a disaster, the Extended Warranty might be worth investigation. If you would not be hurt, why bother?

Post 54 of 505

Extended Warranties

by rmcmanemon - 12/5/07 4:47 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggie

As most people have said already, yes and no. The majority of time an extended warranty is not worth it, but on high ticket new technologies, it may be worth the peace of mind to purchase one. Just remember, companies selling extended warranties are not going broke on all the "free" repairs that occur on warrantied purchases. If there were a lot of repairs occurring on covered equipment, companies would either stop selling the warranties or they would go up in price and neither seems to occur. Bottom line is companies make money selling warranties.

Post 55 of 505

Skip em

by EdSpider - 12/5/07 4:47 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggie

Let's say I said no to 20 extended warranty offers and a couple of those purchases would have benefitted. I figure the money spent to remedy the two failures will never be as much as what 20 extended warranties would have cost.

Of those 20 items, I figure I will take out of service for want of an upgrade before the extended warranty is up. I'll give the old stuff away or sell it on ebay in which case the extended warranty is worthless. Even it is transferrable, I doubt I'll go through the hassle.

Obviously, if a retailer is offering an extended warranty he knows on the average he'll make money.

The only exception I can see is if I know I will be hard on the item. For example, a small TV used in a sauna. Otherwise, I just say no and I say no right away.

Post 56 of 505

Extended warranties are worthless most of the time

by mgstan - 12/5/07 9:45 PM In reply to: Skip em by EdSpider

I bought an expensive color printer from Best Buy three years ago, and I purchased a 2 year extended warranty with the printer. The in-store warranty was 30 days. About 45 days after I purchased the color printer, it began to seriously malfunction. I took the printer back to Best Buy. First, they said it was my fault. Then, I had them run off a few copies. Sure enough, the printer was sick. They told me that it would take two weeks to repair it. Two weeks later, they contacted me, and said that they couldn't fix the printer and would have to replace it. Best Buy replaced it with a dusty, worn-out, used printer that was worse than the first printer I purchased. I thought they would replace it with a new one, unopened in the box. I made plenty of phone calls, and wrote many letters to Best Buy's corporate headquarters and the store where I bought the printer. I got jerked around. I couldn't afford to spend money on an attorney for something that cost about $250. I wouldn't recommend shopping at Best Buy to anybody. Be very careful about purchasing an extended warranty. Usually, I stick to name brands, and avoid extended warranties. If the product breaks-down, I just throw it in the trash. It's probably a good idea to purchase an extended warranty on an expensive item such as a car or a plasma TV, but I don't have much respect for the way big business sticks it to the consumer these days. Hope this was helpful.

Post 57 of 505

Extended Warranty

by Bertsvette - 12/6/07 7:31 AM In reply to: Skip em by EdSpider

I have bought Sony TV's for years never had one break.
I bought A Fujitsu Plasma and did not buy an entended Warranty I paid 11000 bucks for it just after the 1 year warrenty expired it went out and it cost more then a thousand bucks to fix it so in this case i wish I had bought one. Nothing but Sony's for me now.


Bert

Post 58 of 505

Extended Warranty

by cornhulio401 - 12/5/07 4:49 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty.........are they worth it???? by jraggie

I purchased a Dell computer and extended warranty for three years on the hardware. Eleven days before the warranty expired the hard disk crashed.

The extended warranty cost me $80, but a tech came out to my home and replaced the hard drive. I had a 160 or 180 HD, but Dell replaced it with a larger one at no cost to me as they no longer made the size I had.

I came out looking gooood.

Post 59 of 505

Maybe, maybe not...

by bliq - 12/5/07 4:54 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty by cornhulio401

$99 buys you a 500GB hard drive so I'd say you came out about even. Hard drives don't crash in consumer level computers too often within 3 years so I'd consider yourself lucky you were able to make use of your warranty.

These days the majority of computer problems are software related and can be fixed as opposed to being replaced since component reliability has been rising steadily.

Post 60 of 505

Extended Warranties

by KnowYourLimits - 12/5/07 4:59 PM In reply to: Extended Warranty by cornhulio401

I've had two pay off: one for our Maytag washing machine (I will never own another one) and another for a Creative Zen Vision:M. The rest have been unused.

The devil is in the details with warranties. Most are handled by third party companies like Asurion (sp?). They can be painful to execute, including time consuming. It took over three weeks to close out the PMP issue...not good on a device I count on for daily use.

I had a terrible experience with a camcorder warranty. The unit failed a year after the manufacturers warranty expired and the company who owned my ext warr went out of business. The store (name withheld) distanced themselves from my situation and refused to honor the warranty, as did the manufacturer. I haven't purchased from either company since.

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