Extended Warranties

Serendipity

Just wondering...

Do any of you guys buy extended warranties for your equipment? If so, did
you have to use them? Do you think they are cost effective?

madmax

I would never ever buy an extended warranty, I'm self insured. By that I mean that by never buying the extended warranties (over 30 years) I could buy a plasma for $5K tomorrow and throw it away at no loss considering what I have saved.
madmax

beardog03

extended warranties, IMO, are a waist of money

I have bought them and never used them,
and I have a couple of times bought them, and it wasn`t covered for what they said it would be, sent it in to be repaired and they still got money outa me


save your money and have it repaired or buy another one

fatchowmein

+1 to Zero. Been there/worked there. Some additional thoughts.

1. Never trust the sales associate to explain the extended warranty to you. They either lie or the customer misunderstand what was promised. Can't tell you how many times I heard, "Sorry, that person doesn't work here anymore. Your damage is not covered as explained in your extended warranty package." Read the fine print before you buy and never expect the sales person to decipher it for you. They might be honest and correct but how will you be able to determine that?

2. I have 2 iPods. Bought extended warranty from Apple on both. They both broke and I took them into the Apple store and walked out with a replacement in 30 min. THIS IS NOT TRUE OF EVERY APPLE STORE AND EVEN IF YOU ASK YOU'LL GET CONFLICTING ANSWERS. This includes talking to tech support on the phone. If you're in the DFW area, the Apple store in Willow Bend will do exchanges (info is 6 months old). I think the North Park location will do it, too. You'll need the Apple ICare and the original receipt.

I do have to admit, CompUSA was very good to me but that was so long ago it feels like it happened in a past life.

krabby5

the only warranties I've ever had to use were for computers..

I bought one for my LCD, but I at least get half back if I don't use it during the 4 years..that should tell you something...

Serendipity

Thanks for the advice. Bought an extended warranty for my camcorder and never had to use it. Also same for my laptop, never had to use it.

I guess for me it was wasted $$$.

brettw22

On laptops, I have purchased them and they're VERY well worth it. To replace a screen alone is around $500ish, so the $179 I paid for 2 more years on top of the standard year was a no brainer...........

Serendipity

brettw22 wrote: »

On laptops, I have purchased them and they're VERY well worth it. To replace a screen alone is around $500ish, so the $179 I paid for 2 more years on top of the standard year was a no brainer...........

I know a few friends that broke their laptop screens. But they dropped the laptop, so it wasn't covered by warranty.

I guess if you're careful with your laptop you won't need to use the warranty. At least that's the case with my 3 year old laptop - never had to use the warranty.

jflail2

The only extended warranty that I was happy with purchasing was my xbox 360 at Bestbuy. I exchanged 2 of them in 3 weeks thanks to that warranty, and finally traded it in on a PS3.

bobman1235

Miscrosoft extended the factory warranty on 360's, so I don't think you had to worry about that one.

I'm definitely in the "no" camp. As madmax pointed out, if you saved every dime you would have spent on warranties (and to some extent insurance) you would most likely have enough money not to care if something broke.

blakeh

As with most people here, I don't usually purchase extended warranties. Oddly, the only time I've ever bought an extended warranty was two days ago when I purchased a new Canon EOS 40D camera. I picked it up at Best buy and the desk jockey asked me if I wanted the 4-year, full replacement warranty for $169.99 (it was $1,500 camera). I told him if he knocked $100 off the price of the camera, I would buy the extended warranty (essentially reducing the cost of the warranty to $69.99). He agreed immediately and I walked out happy.

If you really feel you need to buy an extended warranty, always remember that the price is negotiable. Always. In the case of my camera, BB would rather take $100 of the price of the camera and charge me the full $169.99 for the warranty because their profit margins are much, much higher on the warranty and it was a no-brainer for them to knock 6.5% off the selling price of the camera to make an extended warranty sale.

PhantomOG

blakeh wrote: »

I picked it up at Best buy and the desk jockey asked me if I wanted the 4-year, full replacement warranty for $169.99 (it was $1,500 camera). I told him if he knocked $100 off the price of the camera, I would buy the extended warranty (essentially reducing the cost of the warranty to $69.99). He agreed immediately and I walked out happy.

As a side note, this is an excellent bargaining chip when shopping at Best Buy. Even if you don't really want the warranty, bargain with it to lower the item price. The next day, go to the customer service counter and get a refund for the full amount of the warranty. Easy money off on your purchase.

jflail2

bobman1235 wrote: »

Miscrosoft extended the factory warranty on 360's, so I don't think you had to worry about that one.

I'm definitely in the "no" camp. As madmax pointed out, if you saved every dime you would have spent on warranties (and to some extent insurance) you would most likely have enough money not to care if something broke.

True, they did extend the warranty to 3 years, but you had to ship it to them, wait, get it back, etc. And I heard horror stories of people not getting the same system they sent in (instead they get some 2 packs a day smoker's box.)

I honestly paid for convenience. $60 to be able to exchange it on the spot, hassle free, twice in 3 weeks was worth it for me. Granted I wasn't expecting that when I bought it, but it still worked out on that one specific purchase.

That being said, I avoid them like the plague now.

One of my favorite Tommy Boy quotes:

Tommy: Let's think about this for a sec, Ted, why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.

Ted Nelson, Customer: Go on, I'm listening.

Tommy: Here's the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box 'cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside.

Ted Nelson, Customer: Yeah, makes a man feel good.

Tommy: 'Course it does. Why shouldn't it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter, am I right, Ted?
[chuckles until he sees that Ted is not laughing too]

Ted Nelson, Customer: [impatiently] What's your point?

Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy; well, we're not buying it. He sneaks into your house once, that's all it takes. The next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser, and your daughter's knocked up. I seen it a hundred times.

Ted Nelson, Customer: But why do they put a guarantee on the box?

Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of ****. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.

bobman1235

"I could get a hell of a good look at a t-bone stake by sticking my head up a bulls ****, but I rather take the butchers word for it."

Demiurge

Extended warranties are a joke, because if you have ANY resolve in dealing with a company when something breaks, 9/10 they will make things right to save their reputation. When you get the "I'm sorry sir, I can't help you," you ask for the next rung on the ladder.

Oh, and normally dealing with the manufacturer is a lot more beneficial.

On the flip side I know there's a world full of morons trying to cash in because of their own stupidity and breaking stuff. Businesses get screwed by that all the time, so I can't blame the barriers they put in place to weed out all of the dishonest jerks.

JimBRICK

beardog03 wrote: »

extended warranties, IMO, are a waist of money

I have bought them and never used them,
and I have a couple of times bought them, and it wasn`t covered for what they said it would be, sent it in to be repaired and they still got money outa me


save your money and have it repaired or buy another one

I sell electroinics for a living and I can tell you that people with this frame of mind are the same ones that call my store 16 months after buying a $5000 tv complaining because the power wont turn on and the tv is dead weight. Why wouldnt you invest 400 bucks in a warranty for 5 years on somthing you purchased for thousands of dollars. Our warranty covers 100% of all problems. your tv craps out we repair it free, if it in not repairable it is replaced. The only thing not covered under the warranty is bulbs in projos

Demiurge

JimBRICK wrote: »

I sell electroinics for a living and I can tell you that people with this frame of mind are the same ones that call my store 16 months after buying a $5000 tv complaining because the power wont turn on and the tv is dead weight. Why wouldnt you invest 400 bucks in a warranty for 5 years on somthing you purchased for thousands of dollars. Our warranty covers 100% of all problems. your tv craps out we repair it free, if it in not repairable it is replaced. The only thing not covered under the warranty is bulbs in projos

Uh, because when you spend 5K on something it shouldn't **** the bed for many, many years.

bobman1235

. Our warranty covers 100% of all problems. your tv craps out we repair it free, if it in not repairable it is replaced. The only thing not covered under the warranty is bulbs in projos

That's the biggest load of $h!t I've ever heard.

Maybe you work for some magical nice company up there in the great white north, but 99 times out of a hundred a retailer will fight you tooth and nail before they fix a problem under warranty, claiming it's the consumer's fault or that the warranty doesn't cover it (and considering some of the hundred-page warranty small print I've seen, the warranty probably DOESN'T cover it).

And what Demi said, when you drop five grand on something, you should have a reasonable expectation of the thing working. If the consumer is an idiot for not protecting themselves from failure, what is the manufacturer for making a shoddy product and **** the customer out of their money? And what are you for knowingly selling the consumer a product you know will break?

PhantomOG

bobman1235 wrote: »

Maybe you work for some magical nice company up there in the great white north, but 99 times out of a hundred a retailer will fight you tooth and nail before they fix a problem under warranty, claiming it's the consumer's fault or that the warranty doesn't cover it (and considering some of the hundred-page warranty small print I've seen, the warranty probably DOESN'T cover it).

Typically if the repair shop can find ANY sign of visible damage to the outside of the TV, most warranty companies can and will drop your claim saying the TV was dropped/abused. I know people who have been burned by this with older CRT TV's that were really heavy, with the casing on the bottom of the TV showing stress fractures/cracks on a TV that never moved since the day they were unboxed.

Demiurge

Retailers usually don't do jack for the consumer, it's almost always the manufacturer that has to save face, and they should, if it's a manufacturing issue.

That said, retailers tack on the extended warranty option because they know the vast majority of what they sell won't come back to them, because the products they sell aren't usually crap. There's a lot of research that goes into choosing whether or not you'll represent a product line as a retailer. Trust me, if they would lose money on all the warranties they wouldn't offer them and/or kick the manufacturers in question to the curb.

shack

This reminds me of when we were buying my wife's Honda Element. We finalized the deal on the purchase price and then had to deal with the sales manager regarding the financing and "extended warranty". Since both of us are bankers the financing was already in place (didn't tell them that cause they make some nice $ placing the financing and might have made a difference on neg. the price) so after we told them we could do better than their rate, he started pitching the extended warranty. After about 4 attempts and declines, he started laying it on real heavy about the "necessity" of the warranty. It only took a few seconds after my wife tuned to me with a straight face and said "I thought these Hondas were supposed to be real reliable. If they break down so much that we need one of these warranties, maybe we should look for something else." for him to shut up.

POLKOROLLA

if the stores / companies didn't come out on the good end of all those extended warranties they wouldn't sell them. the house always has the upper hand.

Demiurge

You've had good experiences with extended warranties and then you go on to say you don't buy them. Interesting.

markmarc

As a Colorado native, there were certain items that I always purchased an extended warranty on because of the preponderance of lightning strikes. Homeowners insurance won't cover fried electronics unless the stike can be proven to have hit on or near your property. About 80% of the time the extra spent on a warranty ended up saving me money.

It doesn't mean that I buy one for everything especially now that I live where thunderstorms are very rare, but it comes down to what is best for your own situation. I would never buy a laptop without one. But a DVD player, I'll save the money.

When it comes to autos, if you finance thru your credit union, their extended warranties go for about a third of what the dealer charges.

Jstas

The only extended warranties I've bought are the ones that can come with used cars bought from a dealer and usually backed by a manufacturer. Then again, most of my vehicles that I have bought with extended warranties have been more than just common transportation so things tend to go wrong more often and usually much more expensively. I had one car blow head gaskets twice (one time was one gasket another time was both) and a transmission all within the extended warranty. I paid $890 for that warranty and it paid for $2700 in repairs. Another vehicle popped a spark plug out of the cylinder head and the whole head had to be replaced. $2100 in labor and parts and I paid $1050 for that extended warranty. Another warranty cost me $660 and that car had a stupid little part go bad in a transmission. the part was $17 but the entire trans had to be removed and rebuilt to fix it. 22 hours of work at $75 an hour plus parts and other fees is about $1700.

Anything else, unless it's something like a super expensive wide-screen LCD TV or something else very high dollar, I'll pass on the warranty. Cars though, they've proven invaluable. Then again, I'm hard on vehicles and I do drive alot. I've probably logged well over 700,000 miles in driving in 13-14 years easily (probably closer to 1,000,000, alot of it was when I was younger and driving long distances to race tracks) so I wear out cars faster than most. Extended warranties benefit me. To some people they might not. I don't buy a used car without them anymore unless the car is a fun car and not to be relied on as transportation.

fatchowmein

shack wrote: »

This reminds me of when we were buying my wife's Honda Element. We finalized the deal on the purchase price and then had to deal with the sales manager regarding the financing and "extended warranty". Since both of us are bankers the financing was already in place (didn't tell them that cause they make some nice $ placing the financing and might have made a difference on neg. the price) so after we told them we could do better than their rate, he started pitching the extended warranty. After about 4 attempts and declines, he started laying it on real heavy about the "necessity" of the warranty. It only took a few seconds after my wife tuned to me with a straight face and said "I thought these Hondas were supposed to be real reliable. If they break down so much that we need one of these warranties, maybe we should look for something else." for him to shut up.

+1 to your wife. Sales people fear wives when it comes to cars and motorcycle purchases.

Serendipity

Thanks all for your advice.

Will keep these things in mind for my next electronics purchases.