Service contracts ?

Robert11 · 29 May 2012

Hello,

I realize that most folks say that any service contract for a new pc,is wasted money, but thought I'd ask anyway as I will probably end up with a more expensive new pc,than I intended.

Has anyone had really good experience with any pc service contract outfit ?
Most of the reviews I've read are basically horror stories.

About ten years ago I remember that I did have a contract with an outfit I can't remember, and they actually sent someone to the house to replace a DVD unit that went bad.

Wish I could remember the name, but they areal ably long gone by now.

Do they still come to house, or are there so many caveats,written I to the contract these days that you always end up to have to send the unit to their repair station and cprobably wait weeks ?

Amy thoughts on, or experience with ?
Any really good ones out there now ?

Thanks,
Bob

Trucidation · 29 May 2012

My company has service contracts with a bunch of vendors - haven't heard of any problems, but the engineers do grumble about IBM being particularly picky about paperwork. I suppose you could say service contracts with businesses are different animals because we pay through the nose for their service, though.

For the home user? Dunno about "service contracts", usually I hear about "extended warranties". My experience with those is that they just cover some kinds of repair and labour costs, that's about it. They don't send people over; you either FedEx your machine to them (like you, I looked up some local forums and read horror stories, but mostly about shipping issues) or you bring your machine to their service centre. Fortunately for me I live in a suburb near the capital, and the Lenovo service centre was only an hour's drive away. Took 4 days - they called when it was done - replaced a bunch of stuff, no charge. Was pretty hassle-free, I'd say.

Edit:
Currently residing in southeast asia so my experience may not be much relevant to you.

windude99 · 29 May 2012

Robert11 said:

Hello,

I realize that most folks say that any service contract for a new pc,is wasted money, but thought I'd ask anyway as I will probably end up with a more expensive new pc,than I intended.

Has anyone had really good experience with any pc service contract outfit ?
Most of the reviews I've read are basically horror stories.

About ten years ago I remember that I did have a contract with an outfit I can't remember, and they actually sent someone to the house to replace a DVD unit that went bad.

Wish I could remember the name, but they areal ably long gone by now.

Do they still come to house, or are there so many caveats,written I to the contract these days that you always end up to have to send the unit to their repair station and cprobably wait weeks ?

Amy thoughts on, or experience with ?
Any really good ones out there now ?

Thanks,
Bob

You will be lucky to have customer support that good today. Customer service isn't what it used to be

I recommend that you take care of your pc and not invest in a service contract and if something goes wrong, you can talk to us at the forum because this place is free:)

ignatzatsonic · 29 May 2012

Robert:

The extended warranties and service contracts are moneymakers for the PC manufacturers and are particularly important to them because the dollar profit per PC sale is much lower than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Extended warranties and service contracts are an attempt to recoup some of these lost dollars.

On the one hand, you could say that IF you have a significant problem, some type of coverage is better than none.

On the other hand, you have to consider how you personally deal with frustration and jumping through hoops. Some people are very even-tempered and don't mind getting the runaround or dealing with incompetence.

That doesn't describe me. I had to make 11 phone calls to India to get Dell to replace an in-warranty monitor. Inexcusable. I will never buy Dell again. But I would not tell you to avoid Dell. If my monitor had not gone bad, I would be crowing about how good Dell was. I just had bad luck.

And ask yourself if you are able to hand-carry hardware to a local repair shop. Maybe you have no local resources or maybe they are known rip-offs.

If you have bad luck, all bets are off, but my general advice would be avoid extended warranties and service contracts. Instead, concentrate your research on buying the right parts in the right configuration from someone at least average in customer service.

Then hope for the best and come here for advice if something goes sour.