I bought a new Laptop over the weekend for my brother. was a fairly easy purchase, i knew exactly what i wanted and just wanted to buy it.
but then this guy started to try and sell me the extended warrenty and went on and on about it for about half an hour, it got to the point were i was about to just walk out.
i'm sure those of you in the UK have bought from PC WORLD before and have experianced this hard sell.
the guy didn't stand much chance of selling it to me as i worked for PC WORLD for about 5 year awhile ago and know how much pressure those guy have to sell them.
Retailers like Best Buy make their largest profit margins on extended service warranties and replacement contracts...why do you think they push them so hard? This should be the chief indication that you should never, ever buy one. It's just like taking insurance while playing Blackjack.
Electronics tend to break in the first 30 days or at the end of their expected lifespan. The extended warranty covers the most useless part of your product's life.
That said, I did buy an aftermarket (squaretrade) warranty on my iphone, because I haul that thing around sans case. Today I found a chip on the edge, and I don't even remember dropping it.
I'd rather spend that money on insurance for a product rather than a warranty. That covers it against my own stupidity, not just technical faults. And while it doesn't technically cover it agains technical faults, I can always "accidentally" drop it and claim that caused the fault.
That might not be so important for a big box item like a TV, since it'll be always in your home and covered by your home insurance, but for a laptop or a phone or something, insuring the item seems to be the superior choice to getting an extended warranty.
My warranty is the one the manufacturer provides with any product you purchase. It'll cover the only thing that I've ever been bitten by - outright defect. The only time it's ever been a problem was when my previous laptop, a Thinkpad T61, died moments after the warranty had expired. Because it was due to an Nvidia graphics chip defect that affected pretty much every mobile card from that generation, I eventually got the motherboard replaced for free. It just took Lenovo awhile to acknowledge the problem and I'd already bought a new laptop in that time (also, the only way I knew about it was through an extensive Google search).
Basically, if something isn't outright defective enough to cause a class-action lawsuit, and I happen to break it, I'd be glad to eat the cost to get a new one knowing how infrequently it happens and how much money I "save" by not buying scam protection plans.
I virtually never buy them. Chances are, the manufacturer warranty is about all you would ever need anyway. The only extended warranties I've bought in the past decade were for things I knew would be used a lot and would likely take a beating, namely, my macbook when I started law school and my stationary exercise bike.
My laptop pretty much was my life in law school and was getting lugged around to class and the library for 3 years so I wanted to feel protected. I also wasn't as knowledgeable about computers back then and wouldn't have known where to start trying to fix any problems that arose (now I'm a lot better about this stuff after having built my own PC and discovering that the internet can help you solve virtually all computer problems, usually with a step by step walk through or even youtube tutorial).
I ride stationary bikes on a fairly regular basis so mine gets a lot more than normal wear and tear. Add to that the inevitable copious amounts of sweat that come along with a corpulent person engaging in strenuous physical activity for an hour several times per week and things get worn out pretty quickly. In the 3 years covered by my warranty, I probably had just about every part of the bike replaced at least once, many of them 2-3 times.
I also avoid ever buying things in stores - it's cheaper and more convenient to just order on Amazon or New Egg - so I don't have to deal with the warranty pushers.
Retailers like Best Buy make their largest profit margins on extended service warranties and replacement contracts...why do you think they push them so hard? This should be the chief indication that you should never, ever buy one. It's just like taking insurance while playing Blackjack.
On the money, MB. I work for GameStop and the one thing with the highest Profit margin is the insurance because 97 percent of the people that get the insurance are never going to need it. I take great care of my disks and gear, and trust me when I say that because I have seen the shit stained, cracked down the middles, punched in the gut xbox games that people bring to me and compared to those people I am a god of hardware preservation.
When I worked a t Office Depot, the manager there told us that warranties were a 100% profit. That something like 99% of the time, nobody is going to use it. Never bought a warranty again.
@aceofspudz said:
Electronics tend to break in the first 30 days or at the end of their expected lifespan. The extended warranty covers the most useless part of your product's life.
That said, I did buy an aftermarket (squaretrade) warranty on my iphone, because I haul that thing around sans case. Today I found a chip on the edge, and I don't even remember dropping it.
This is also the reason I don't get them. I actually tell that to the person trying to sell me a warranty too. I say, "Look if it's going to malfunction, it's going to do it within the 14/30 day return span. If it doesn't show itself as a lemon by then, then it'll more than likely work as long as I take care of it.
I got Applecare for my MacBook Pro because I intend to use it for a long time but that's it. I never get warranty for anything else. I'm usually quite careful with my electronics so they won't break unless something quits inside the device, but that has never happened. *Knock on wood* Even my Xbox 360 from 2006 hasn't given me any trouble.
I have found the easiest way to get out of the extended warranty is to act like them pushing the warranty is killing your interest. When it comes down to losing the sale or losing the extended warranty sale, most will forego the extended warranty.
Nope, it's a total scam. If something breaks after a year, I just suck it up. It almost never happens though, unless it's like REALLY old, then I'm totally fine buying a new thing.
Oh yeah I guess my exception is Apple Care since they almost always make good on it, they don't try to worm their way out of servicing your product like the big box stores. They just take it and fix it, really fucking quickly, and that's worth the money. Especially because Apple products instantly turn into flimsy shit after a year.
I know someone who's job was to turn away as many warranty request as possible. The less he let through the higher his bonus. The just want to sell the warranty but they don't want you to use it.
Call me a sucker if you must but I sometimes buy them. The more expensive an item is the more likely I am to get the extended warranty. It gives me a little extra peace of mind because I can't afford to buy a new expensive thing every other year. Not that stuff breaks that often but you never know. They've only come in handy twice: once when the ice maker on the refrigerator I bought for the house crapped out and when my previous tv died right after the manufactures warranty ended.
From being at college for a year and a half now, I've discovered that the only people that need extended warranties on devices are people that are careless. Don't take your laptop anywhere where there is a chance of it getting damaged. If you're going to buy a smartphone, put it in a durable case or take really good care of it. Obviously, there are exceptions to this (My roommate was carrying his laptop and somebody threw a nerf ball at him, knocked it out of his hands and cracked the screen on the ground.), but for the most part, only buy extended warranties if you're completely careless with expensive things.
I personally am really anal about all of my electronics, and therefore almost never get extended warranties. I think the last warranty I got was on my DS Phat in 2005. Granted, I was only 12 and didn't know any better.
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