Home audio & video forum: Third Party TV Warranty Experineces

Have you had experience with them?

I read some horror stories about them online after posting this yesterday.

Jim

My giant Panasonic TV died after just over a year with the dreaded "Red light blinking 7 times" indicator.
I contacted Mack and everything seemed fine. And still, I wait. It has been over a month and I have yet to see a repairman. Mack simply states "we have no control over availability of parts. We are coming up on 6 weeks since I filed my claim. This is what I get for my $348 "White Glove Service?"

from Mack Camera in 2006. I had a problem with the optical block in 2009 after the Sony warranty expired (2007). I called Mack. They handled the entire problem. They gave me a ticket number, gave me a phone number to call Sony (certified repair), I called Sony, they verified the ticket number, and sent a tech out to fix the problem. No hassle, problem solved. And I got a lifetime warranty on the optical block from Sony.

Heh.

I bought an extended warranty from Circuit City ... and guess where that's gone now that CC went under.

I'd save my money and forget about it.

Television prices are going south anyhow, and between the probability of needing a repair after the original manufacturer's warranty expires and the end of an extended warranty (5yr-1yr?), I'd just ride it out and hope for the best. Most repairs need to be done inside the first year anyhow, and extended warranties have traditionally been a cash cow for the TV seller.

You have no idea as to the financial stabilty of extended warranty companies, let alone big box distributors, and what may seem like a good idea now could very well end up being an expensive boondoggle.

When CC first sold me the TV, there was an intermittant problem with the TV freezing and hanging - modern digital TVs are just computers with manufacturer supplied software and enormous monitors, after all.

CC *refused* to fix it unless the failure would occur in front of a technician ... and the tech wouldn't hang around while the TV played for four hours waiting for the intermittant failure.

Eventually the TV hard-failed and the motherboard was replaced, but not until my wife and I sacrified five workdays with service appointments in one heck of a frustrating month and a half trying to get the darn thing fixed - and this with a five year "no worries" extended warranty.

I recently bought my 3rd HDTV, which was my first online tv purchase. Amazon sold me on their LG 55LD650 and I am very happy with their delivery service.

I had purchased warranties from Best Buy for my other TVs and had to use one of them when the video board went out on our Panasonic 42. The warranty was very expensive and the service was terrible. So this time, I wanted to research on my own. Amazon offers something through a 3rd party, but I found something better with dtv express. Great pricing for a similar product. Highly recommend.