I'm writing an article/paper on Extended Warranties... need input!

[A Guy]

OK, gonna drop it

A Guy

 

[profdlp]

I wasn't criticizing your statement, just making a commentary about business practices in general.

 

[Zepher]

I did have decent service from Circuit City on an extended warranty I bought on a high end JVC HR-S6700U SVHS VCR.
It was $800 or so and they only had the display unit left and the replacement model that was coming out was very inferior.
I paid $700 and bought the 2 year warranty for $60 or so and renewed it 2 times for $60/year.
I used this VCR over 5 hours a day, nearly every day recording TV shows and movies and then watching them later so I could fast forward through the commercials.

I had it repaired at Circuit City 3 times, Power Supply went bad, rollers and some arm went bad, power switch failed, and capacitors leaked.
The repair invoices totaled over $600.
First repair was when it was over 2 years old with over 3000 running hours on it.
I got my moneys worth.

Oh, and I still have the VCR but it's not functioning anymore. Has an issue with the tape transport, but since it was my favorite VCR, I can't get myself to throw it out..

 

[unifex]

Now, as far as warranty is concerned, I believe that your homeowner (or renter) insurance is a much better friend than a warranty. Most warranties I've seen have clauses like "we repair or replace the damaged product at our discretion" and so on, which makes the process rather complicated at best. For insurance you just need to keep your proof of purchase.

Isn't there normally a deductible? And the amount of claims you make can cause your insurance premiums to increase, which means you are paying more in the long run.

No, it's not car insurance. The premium does not go up because you make a claim. Of course, I had to do it once or twice in my life, so I'm not sure what happens if you make a habit of it.

What's more important, it does not matter how the item got damaged. The warranty only covers manufacturer's defects, not something that happens because of you. In other words, if your kid smashes the TV with a baseball, the warranty will not do anything, but the insurance will.

 

[smarteyeball]

Selling the warranty is their goal.

I suspect that getting the $800 out of you is their goal, no matter how the terms of the deal are written.

You're both right

Extended warranty is never free. The price is fixed, not negotiable and is always factored into the sale. It's their real milk and honey. The spiel is to make it sound like the extended warranty is thrown in for free.

If waving the delivery fee, or sacrificing the profit margin on the actual product is what takes to make the sale, they'll do it.

If you opt not go for the extended warranty, the price of the product will always stay much closer to the sticker price unless it's EOL and they really need to clear stock.

At the end of a sale, they're still making a buck regardless.

 

[seavixen32]

Here in the UK I use a well-known store known as John Lewis for nearly all my electrical/technology gear.

The reasons? They are renowned for the way they look after their customers and in the case of computer hardware will nearly always give a free two-year warranty, for TVs it's even better at five years.

I'm able to do my own computer repairs/upgrades and the cost of parts is always preferable to expensive warranties that half of the time have some sort of get-out clause.

My advice would be to shop at a reputable retailer, refuse a paid-for warranty and use the money saved to buy better equipment in the first place.

 

[Carolyn]

Office of the Maine AG: Consumer Protection: Consumer Law Guide: 04: Consumer Goods And Maine Express And Implied Warranty Laws

A little known law in Maine. Almost everything is required by law to be warrantied for 4 years. Most extended warranties are a total waste of money in Maine.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Now, as far as warranty is concerned, I believe that your homeowner (or renter) insurance is a much better friend than a warranty. Most warranties I've seen have clauses like "we repair or replace the damaged product at our discretion" and so on, which makes the process rather complicated at best. For insurance you just need to keep your proof of purchase.

Isn't there normally a deductible? And the amount of claims you make can cause your insurance premiums to increase, which means you are paying more in the long run.

No, it's not car insurance. The premium does not go up because you make a claim. Of course, I had to do it once or twice in my life, so I'm not sure what happens if you make a habit of it.

What's more important, it does not matter how the item got damaged. The warranty only covers manufacturer's defects, not something that happens because of you. In other words, if your kid smashes the TV with a baseball, the warranty will not do anything, but the insurance will.

You also need to make sure it's even covered in your policy. I know that my homeowner's policy, only things that were damaged by something belonging to the house (either directly or indirectly, say a tree hitting the house and the beams in the ceiling landed on my big screen TV). If I accidentially dropped my laptop in the kitchen and it hit the floor, I was the one to do the damage, even though it hit the floor inside the house, and it would not be covered.

 

[gregrocker]

Buying insurance is a gamble that they will even cover it. Best Buy is pretty good. A friend has taken an eMachine back three time for mobo replacement so he's sold on extended warranties. His building has power fluctuations so I would have dealt with that.

I go with what comes with the PC which is the one-year warranty with tech support. You're better off posting here to fix issues, with the tech support offered nowadays. However if you have hardware failure you want them to help you test it so they will move right to an RMA. I haven't seen OEM's try to wiggle out of this - often they are quicker to RMA than I want to be.

Be aware that manufacturers are under such pressure by bloatware sponsors to enforce bloatware that you may get flak for clean reinstalling. It will not void your warranty but they may require you to restore to factory condition before getting warranty service. The solution to this if seeking tech support is to not tell them you have clean reinstalled. Just act as if you've run Factory Recover if it comes up or you let slip you've reinstalled. If you RMA, run factory recovery just before sending it in.

Always keep a set of Recovery Disks and store their ISO's extracted by ImgBurn in case you need to RMA or sell your rig. Store also a Win7 (or other) backup image to use for your preferred Recovery.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

Awesome feedback! Keep it coming!