Extended Warranties

[ITGITC]

Extended Warranties. I don't buy them.

 

OK, If I purchased a laptop computer or a rear-projection HDTV with the bulb that burns out after a few months of service, then I would buy an extended warranty.

 

I'm in sales, and I HATE pushy sales people. I really do.

 

Earlier this week I spent some money (BluesKeys - I spent some money.) Not a LOT of money. A little money - $149.99 (That's $150 to you and me.) LINK

 

Yeah.

 

I needed a new chair for my studio, home office, storage room. It's one in the same.

 

Staples sold me the chair, but I got pressured to buy the extended warranty - big time. Upon checking out, I told the guy who showed me the chair that I didn't want it. But the cashier was a lovely young lady who had smiled at me when I first walked in...

 

Now usually I don't buckle to pressure from sales people. But this woman was persistent. And after her spiel, she batted her eyes and told me that if I bought the warranty, and decided that I didn't want it, I could come back the next day and get a refund.

 

OK. So call me a sucker. I bought it.

 

But the dogs in my head started howling and the anxiety enveloped me like a dense fog.

 

Upon returning home, I got out the warranty and read the fine print. The chair is covered for two years by the manufacturer. So the three-year extended warranty that I bought was really only effective only for the final year. If something went wrong with the chair in the first two years, the third party (NOT Staples) that honored the warranty would tell me to take it up with the manufacturer.

 

Plus, after thinking about it and reading a little more, I read that they come to your house to inspect the chair if it breaks and may give you a pro-rated coupon to use at Staples if they can't fix it. Pro-rated? Coupon? Come to my house? That means I have to take off work, stick around my house twiddling my thumbs until they show up - only to tell me that they are going to pro-rate any money that I may receive and issue a COUPON so I can buy more crap from Staples that will probably break after two years anyway.

 

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.

 

Needless to say, I got my money back for the extended warranty yesterday. Yeah, it was only $16.99. (That's $17 to you and me.) It wasn't the amount, it was the fact that I was suckered into it.

 

Best Buy, Staples, Circuit City (of course) and other retailers make a LOT of pure PROFIT selling these extended warranties. The clerks at the register get rich off the commission when they sell you one. I've heard that they also get TWIX bars from their managers plus a gold star beside their name on a dog-eared poster board in the war-room located in the back of the store.

 

So far, Guitar Center hasn't put the screws to me on recent purchases. But I'm sure they're thinking about it.

 

OK, end of rant.

 

Do YOU get suckered into buying extended warranties? And if you do, have they EVER paid off?

 

Be honest.

 

Is There Gas in the Car?

 

[NoLights]

I've always prided myself on saying no to the extended warranties. People wouldn't be so anxious to sell you one if there wasn't some benefit for them (and presumably, not for you). It's an angle - like buying undercoating for a new car.

 

But -- I did buckle last year when I bought my MO8 at Guitar Center. I could've bought the MO8 for $1500 ($99 less than their usual price), or spend the $1599 and get a "VIP" or "Pro" or whatever for three years. I guess I was just unsure enough of the MO's build quality (I had been using the tank-like S-90 on gis, which had withstood more than its share of trauma without a hiccup or a scratch (except on the faux wood end panels). The plan provided a free loaner if anything ever happened - so I muckled onto it like a trout onto a fly (hey, I'm in Maine). But y'know, the MO has been fine and I suspect I'd have to jump through hoops to get GC to honor the warranty. I also forgot that I have a Motif ES8 in my home studio that could be pressed into gig duty (assuming I can get it into the back of the Jetta wagon) if needed. I am, today, re-stating my pledge to just say no to extended warranties.

[Dave Bryce]

Best Buy, Staples, Circuit City (of course) and other retailers make a LOT of pure PROFIT selling these extended warranties. The clerks at the register get rich off the commission when they sell you one. I've heard that they also get TWIX bars from their managers plus a gold star beside their name on a dog-eared poster board in the war-room located in the back of the store.

That's actually not that far off base. I used to work at a music retailer many years ago who shall go unnamed (okay, it was Daddy's in Boston) where the manager heavily encouraged us to sell warranty extensions. Free cash, he called them. I've been extremely wary of them ever since.

 

There are definitely exceptions to that rule - Apple Care comes to mind - but by and large I'm inclined to agree that they are mostly a waste of money. If something is going to go wrong with a product due to QC issues, it's been my experience that it's probably going to show up sooner (while the product is still under factory warranty) than later.

 

dB

[mate stubb]

Wow, some of you guys must be wishy washy.

 

"Buy this warranty."

"No."

"Buy this warranty!"

"No."

"BUY THIS WARRANTY!!!!"

"OK."

 

The one thing I have learned to buy a warranty for is a laptop. Those are guaranteed to break after about 6 months. I have one with a dead backlight and another that is going back for fixing for the second time with charging problems.

[Corner Pocket]

I've bought the extended warranty on 2 of 3 car purchases where it was an option. Had I invested the money instead, I would have had to average 30% annual growth to come out ahead. I chose to not buy for the 3rd vehicle because the cost of the exteneded warranty is now getting to the point where 3% growth is enough to come out ahead.

 

I've never bought an extended warranty for anything other than those 2 cars.

[Ian Sharrock]

I always tell them that I'm an electronics service engineer & if it went wrong after the warranty I'll fix it meself. (& when the dreaded 1 year & 1 second timer chip tells the unit to self destruct, I will fix it for a fraction of their service price).

 

When I left school without a clue what I wanted to do , good ole Dad press-ganged me into learning electronics. Best thing I ever did!

[ProfD]

Most merchandise comes with a limited warranty of some kind. As a result of that and planned obsolescence, I do not feel compelled to buy extended warranties.

 

Warranties are a huge cash cow. They hawk them before you even buy the merchandise i.e. Don't Forget the Warranty. Aw, go to hell.

 

If a piece of merchandise lasts for at least (1) year, I can live with it. If anything happens to it within that time period, I pack it up and take it back for a replacement.

 

I'm not even interested in a refurb, we have to send it out, blah, blah, blah. Give me a new one and start the warranty clock again.

 

However, I did "buy" an extended warranty for my laptop. Recently, CompUSA has started closing stores locally. That means I have to drive at least 30 miles to use my "warranty". Those Fockers.

 

 

 

 

[Griffinator]

Up until recently, I bought warranties only on pieces that had a high likelihood of failure - small electronics (particularly cellphones) anything with an expensive-looking remote (as in the cost of replacing the remote likely exceeds the cost of the service plan) or anything I intended to put to heavy duty usage well beyond their design (printers)

 

So far, the printer warranties have consistently paid off. I do a great deal of print work for a friend of mine (CD packaging) and those all-in-one printers don't hold up very well under that kind of extreme duress. I've replaced my printer 5 times in the last 3.5 years, and each time it only cost me $40 for a new warranty on the replacement printer. Best Buy doesn't like me very much....

 

On another note, however, despite the high likelihood of failure on a cellphone, I strongly recommend avoiding the extended warranty, at least at Best Buy... I bought a cell from them, along with a 2-year extended warranty. The phone, an old Nokia stick (cheap POS) crapped out about 15 months into my plan. I took it back to them and they said "We don't service that cell company (US Cellular) anymore, you'll have to take it up with corporate. Corporate says they will only reimburse me if I can provide retail value at the time of purchase (15 months prior) - impossible, since the phone itself was no longer in production, and Nokia had no data on its website on retail price of discontinued phones.

 

In short, they screwed me out of my $40...

 

Another warranty they suck you in on that's BS is on CD players. The promise is, you can bring it in for periodic cleanings. What they don't tell you is the "cleaning" they do is the same as you can accomplish with one of those $5 lens cleaner discs - because that's exactly what they use. Now, if you spend any kind of decent money on a DVD player (as in, more than 3x the service plan cost) you'll get it back out on the plan, because any DVD player you buy in a big-box shop is flimsy, and the cheap plastic transport mechanisms will fail inside of 18 months if you use it regularly. Sometimes they'll fix them, most of the time they'll just give you a newer model.

 

I worked for BB for two years, and learned the ins and outs on the warranties. Most of them are crap.

[Ed Coury]

I generally do not buy extended warranties. But there have been a couple of instances in which extended coverage has proved to be worth every penny.

 

1. Major appliance retailer: Bought an in-wall gas oven....about $500. A year later, it's not heating properly. Price to replace circuit board - $350! I continue to extend the warranty on this item,.

 

2. Big-screen projection TV purchased from a big-box retail chain for $1200. Purchased the extended warranty (because it was supposedly a demo, but they ended up shippping a new one).

 

Had 3 service calls for the same problem, and under the lemon provision of the warranty I was refunded ALL of my 1200 bucks, nearly 3 years after buying the set! Money was applied to a new HDTV

 

What have I learned? Extended warranties are not really needed 90% of the time. But I will consider buying them for items that get REALLY hot, or have complex, sensitive moving parts.

[BluesKeys]

No Extended Warranty for me.... I too worked at a music store and for every ext. War. we sold it was $20 in my pocket.... It could add as much a 20% to my commissions. What a terrible thing to do to a customer.

 

"Oh by the this unit I told you was SO great and convinced you to purchase, well you need to buy this ext. warranty because it is really a POS and will break on you within two months." That instills confidence in your truth factor.

[MikeT156]

The ONE extended warranty I bought was for a CD player and speakers from a friend of mine that worked at Radio Shack. I went in to buy a setup (back in the eighties) and he was honest enough to tell me to "wait until next week" because the system I was going to buy was going to be on sale. So I waited 'til the next week to save the $$. So I bought the extended warranty from him to show my gratitude for saving me money on the system. I knew that was were he could make some money on the sale.

 

I never bought musical gear from Guitar Center or any MI reseller that even offered an extended warranty, so I never bought one.

 

I would really like to see better manufacturer warranties on electronic devices such as televisions. The last two televisions I bought (one for my sister for Christmas) and one for me to watch football games on, had power supply failures shortly after the manufacture warranty expired. As luck would have it.

 

Mike T.

 

 

 

[Jazzwee]

I never buy extended warranties. But now it bit me in the tail. I've never had an LCD fail (on computers). So I'm not expecting a $1200 LCD TV to fail either.

 

Last week, my TV failed and it is two months past the 1 year warranty. Options? None. It can't be fixed. It has to be trashed now.

 

The good news is that the same TV is only $599 now. But that's little consolation. Do I get another TV again without an extended warranty? Do I assume that probabilities are on my side that it won't fail next time? Tough choice.

 

On music equipment, the only thing that has a warranty is my Senheiser headphones. I thought maybe I'd beat the crap out of it but actually it is still fine.

 

 

 

 

[Ed Coury]

TV's: my opinion --

 

CRT projection: GET an extended warranty

CRT direct view: don't bother

Plasma: Good idea to buy Warranty

LCD panel: Good idea to buy Warranty

LCD Projection: GET an extended warranty

DLP units: GET an extended warranty

[Jazzwee]

Understood Ed. But what's the underlying logic? Failure rate?

[MidLifeCrisis]

"Oh by the this unit I told you was SO great and convinced you to purchase, well you need to buy this ext. warranty because it is really a POS and will break on you within two months." That instills confidence in your truth factor.

 

This is almost exactly what I tell the sales people. "You want me to buy this extended warranty becuase the item you are selling me is POS?. Should I consider another brand or go to another store which stands behinds thier products and the manufacturers warrany?".

 

Of course it can bite you in the ass. I bought my son a Toshiba laptop and didnt get the warranty. After 6 months the screen dies. I had to pack it up, ship it to Toshiba and wait almost 3 months for it to be repaired. Meanwhile my son is in school with no laptop. Had I sprung for the $160 warranty it would have been repaired in the store in less than a week.

 

Is this a conspiracy? Didn't most major electronic firms do in house warranty work before? Are they punishing us now because we don't fork over the extra $$ for the extended warranty?

 

[iLaw]

Our office buys extended warranties on only one thing; laptop computers. Sadly and frustratingly (for our work production), we've never lost money on those extended warranties.

 

Larry.

[Jazzwee]

Warranties on Laptops are a must IMO. They're just likely to break.

[burningbusch]

I never buy extended warranties on chairs. Tables are another story.

 

Busch.

[Griffinator]

Is this a conspiracy? Didn't most major electronic firms do in house warranty work before? Are they punishing us now because we don't fork over the extra $$ for the extended warranty?

 

No, most major electronics stores don't employ an on-site electronics repairman. They have regional repair houses that they employ specifically for extended warranty work. It's a lot cheaper and more efficient for them.

 

And as to the quality issues, the simple reality is that we, the consumer, demand cheaper and cheaper versions of high tech gear, because the computer revolution taught us to believe that yesterday's high tech will be cheaper today.

 

How do you make complex electronic equipment less expensive?

 

1) Cheaper components

2) Cheaper (outsourced, semi-skilled) labor

 

Both these realities contribute to higher failure rates, particularly on tech like LCD/DLP/Plasma TV's, which are not nearly as robust as the venerable old tube television.

 

Simple fact:

 

Any new technology that hits the market, typically features a far, far more well-built first model, and those who buy it pay the premium for this workmanship. As multiple manufacturers jump into the fray and start making the same technology, competition becomes a factor, components get cheaper in the race to the bottom of the price scale, and BLAMMO, you've got disposable garbage.

 

DVD players are a great example of this. There are still a number of manufacturers selling multi-thousand-dollar DVD players. What are you getting for those tall price tags? The best available video and audio DAC's, internal mag-shielding to prevent power supplies and other moving parts from disrupting the DAC's performance, robustly built transports that can take 10 years of daily use without a hiccup.

 

Or, you can just buy the throwaway version for $30 and lose all that, and if you're the average American, you do so and don't care, until it breaks 13 months later and you complain bitterly about shoddy workmanship...

 

Except quality workmanship costs money - more expensive parts, much more expensive labor...

 

So, are we building junk? For the most part, yes. You want a piece of electronic equipment that doesn't need an "extended warranty", stop buying the cheapest version of whatever it is you want!

[SilverDragonSoun]

I almost always never buy extended warranties. I will only consider them for things I either think will have issues or sometimes for high end purchases where the original warranty is very limited in its time of coverage. What I will pay a bit more for is service that is guaranteed. I had my computer repaired and had the motherboard, processor and hard drive replaced. The place guaranteed all for three years. Since I knew this about them, I paid a bit more for them to repair my computer but it was still much cheaper than an extended warranty would be.

[DanS]

I've taken an extended warranty on my Canon digital, only because I had so many problems with my first Kodak ShiteFocus.

On anything else, never.

 

Tom, you should have asked the clerk if a lap dance on your new chair was included with the warranty.

You never know.....

[ITGITC]

Is this a conspiracy? Didn't most major electronic firms do in house warranty work before? Are they punishing us now because we don't fork over the extra $$ for the extended warranty?

 

It depends on your outlook on life.

 

Do you think the "GREED FACTOR" has gone up or down in recent years? (Hint: Think Enron, Adelphia, Global Crossing.)

 

Are there more commercials on TV than ever before telling you to buy stuff you don't need?

 

How can wireless phone companies throw in a free phone when they rope you in for another 2-year contract? ...Because the phones are relatively cheap and won't last much past 24 months?

 

With the speed of technology advances in 2007 coupled with marketing and pricing practices (introduce the product at a high price and let the early adopters pay for R&D, then move the price down to make room for newly developed products that will command another round of high prices (and profit potential)....

 

Plus something we've lived with all our lives - planned obsolescence.

 

Plus the hassle factor of having to deal with repairs (will it be as good as new?), spare parts (are they still available), bankruptcies, and getting the item fixed under the terms of a warranty agreement that ALWAYS favors the vendor.

 

Not to mention the fine print of the warranty agreement. - The salesman at Staples told me that if I get a hole in the leather of the seat cushion of my new chair, they couldn't replace it, so I would get my $149.99 back. Not true. As I stated, the extended warranty actually doesn't kick in until the 3rd year since the first two years are covered under the manufacturer's warranty. And even then, they have to schedule a guy to come to my house, inspect the chair, and perhaps offer a pro-rated settlement in the form of a COUPON from Staples - not cash or a check.

 

So is an extended warranty worth it?

 

On a laptop computer - yes. Anything could happen. They can slip out of your hands and drop on the cement sidewalk, you can spill your beer in the keyboard, (with my daughter in college it was apple juice & the IBM computer was less than a month old), etc. In another case, my youngest daughter put her DELL laptop on her bed covers when she used it. Of course it couldn't get fresh air. The motherboard died a horrible death. BUT, it was under warranty. I sent it back to Dell and within just a FEW DAYS (not weeks, not months) they had replaced the mobo and it was as good as new.

 

But as was mentioned earlier, anything that gets hot, anything that has a lot of moving parts, anything that's subjected to fairly rough treatment day in and day out... could be a candidate for an extended warranty. But only if you know exactly who will honor that warranty and what steps you will need to take to get satisfaction.

 

Tire warranties - trash. Bogus. These are on a pro-rated scale. You'll never get your money out of the warranty. I bought an air pump and a digital pressure gauge. Yes - call me crazy, but I check the tires all the time and fill them to EXACTLY what is recommended on the door jamb.

 

Momma said that if it looks to be too good to be true... it probably is.

 

Thank you Mr. Retailer Man, I'll decline your extended warranty and take my chances. By the time this item craps out, my wife will have forgotten that I bought it. I can go back to Guitar Center and buy something newer with more features and more blinky lights - and it will probably have a cheaper price. :grin:

 

It's all in how you play the game.

 

Things I like (just to balance out the conversation and end on a high note - say, high C...)

 

QSC - FREE 6 year warranty on their amplifiers. LINK

 

Seagate hard disk drives - 5 year warranty on desktop drives used in the home and home office as well as enterprise drives. LINK

 

Cross Pens - guaranteed for life LINK

 

Michael Jackson's plastic surgeries - CLICK HERE if you haven't seen this.

 

 

Screw this worry and angst about warranties. Let's play music. Rock on.

 

 

 

[RABid]

The only thing I will consider one for is my 17" MacBookPro because it is expensive and laptops are hard to fix. I have not bought it because a few years ago I bought the AppleCare plan for an iPod and they basically treated me like a criminal. I was not even making a claim at the time.

[Mr. Nightime]

I've bought only 2 extended warranties in the past couple years. One was for my Palm T/X. Full replacement if it fails. Considering I've had 3 other Palms that failed, I thought it was a good bet.

 

The other was for my truck. Original warranty was for 3 years 36,000 miles. Well, it already had 34,000 on it when I bought it. So I got the 7-year 85,000 mile warranty, $100 deductible. Bumper to bumper. If the transmission blows up, $100.

 

If I buy any gear, however, I never get the extended warranty. I only buy gear that has a proven track record for reliability, so I don't see any reason for it.

[Griffinator]

QSC - FREE 6 year warranty on their amplifiers. LINK

 

Seagate hard disk drives - 5 year warranty on desktop drives used in the home and home office as well as enterprise drives. LINK

 

Cross Pens - guaranteed for life LINK

 

All these things speak exactly to what I was talking about.

 

High quality manufacturers back their gear a lot longer, because they know it's built better. You pay the premium for their better build quality.

 

A cheap amplifier manufacturer, like B***inger, "backs" their products with a 1 year warranty, filled to the brim with caveats on what applies as "manufacturer defect" versus "operator error" or "abuse".

 

When I ran a home theater installation business for a few years, my posted policy on my website stated explicitly:

 

We here at Total Home Entertainment believe in backing our products. Therefore, we will never, ever try and "sell" you an "extended warranty" for a product. Most of our products are backed by a manufacturer's warranty of at least 3 years, and in most cases 5 or more. If we feel a given type of product has a propensity for failure, we will buy your extended warranty for you, at no extra cost to you. We feel the profit lost by doing this is far outweighed by the customer confidence we gain with honest, truthful salesmanship.

 

It was a simple, straightforward way of dealing with the problem of fragile technology. The folks I dealt with really appreciated it, too.

[kanker.]

Warranties on Laptops are a must IMO. They're just likely to break.

Yeah, ALWAYS get the warranty on a laptop - chances are good it will pay off.

 

My wife bought a $20 extended warranty from Best Buy on a $150 stereo for our daugther. I told her that she should never buy those things, that they're just wasted money. Of course, the stereo quit working 1 year later. We got an equal value replacement for free. If I hadn't got on her about buying the warranty, it never would have broke.

[Garrafon]

Dude.....an extended warranty on a chair?????

[dementedchord]

buying extendeds are useless if ya buy good stuff... and useless on the bad too since by the time it's trashed you can get as good or better for less... and if it makes you feel better from the service side of things... it's almost impossible to collect on some of these policies...

[JohnH]

Damn, a warranty for a chair???? What could break on that??? No I normally don't give in to pressure, but I do understand how easily it can happen.

[Finale]

Dude.....an extended warranty on a chair?????

 

Well, the salesgirl was cute, remember?