Are Extended Warranties Worth It?

[mommalina]

Are Extended Warranties Worth It?

With standard warranties dwindling, you need to decide whether to pay for coverage you used to get for free. Our survey of 2000 readers reveals some surprising data about extended plans.

By Alan Stafford
From the May 2006 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Tuesday, March 21, 2006

In our October 2005 issue's "20 Things They Don't Want You to Know," we said that extended warranties are rarely a good deal, and we still think that's true for many products. Whether you should buy one depends on the product you're purchasing, who makes it, the store you're buying it from, and a raft of other factors. We examine these factors here and also boil them down to a cheat sheet of the top things you should think about when considering extra coverage (see "10 Extended Warranty Pointers").

For entire article, go here:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124856,tk,wbxnws,00.asp

[mylanta]

I have never ever done this. I have my own warranty program and it has to save me a fortune down the road. If it's crap I never buy it again. If it is defective crap and is replaced and does the same thing again I save the freight the second time by throwing it on the floor and making it irrepairable thus removing the temptation to "go back to the well" one more time.
I learned this a few years ago with Maxtor drives. RMA's on bad hard drives are great if you don't value your time. But to have Maxtor send me back someone else's non functioning drive, to which I was supposed to entrust my precious data again? Then reformat in 6 months when it left me hanging out to dry again? No way Jose. Throw the drive away and buy Western Digital. That's my warranty. It worked for IBM Deathstars too!!!! I saved a fortune in postage and untold hours reformatting. And once I learned that method, I never had a hard drive fail again.
I just practiced my warranty system yesterday. I was on my second Epson R300 photo printer in 6 months. The first one just stopped dead, nada! No lights nothing. I called and they told me I had to drive it to Allentown which is 45 miles, and of course I have to go back to pick it up and then that really involved 2 round trips. So I called back and kept passing through "dummies" until I found someone who told me he had one in the warehouse he would send me and I could send mine back in the same box, with freight on Epson. Well now that is customer service. I mean the original was 2 months new when this happened. Now 4 months later it is "scrambled" and "offline". After redrivering it, endeavoring to reset it, and several well placed "table bashes" I managed to change the error message, but it still wouldn't work. So I threw it across the floor (the dog scatterred of course immediately). Then I calmly walked over to it and kicked it as hard as I could making sure I blasted the cover off it (Oh I had safely removed the cartridges to sell on eBay first so I can get my money back)...and walked it to where it really belonged, the dumpster. Now this saved me countless hours of troubleshooting, annoying phone calls with people who knew less than I do, and the end result of having another worthless printer sent to me.
I added up the pieces in my head. I Originally had a marvelous Epson 400 printer, It was the best quality printer I have ever had. Then because of it I had a worthless C80, C82, C 84 and now the R300 Photo Printer. The implied warranty is in place therefore and I did what I should have done 4 printers ago, bought a Canon 4200 photo printer. I like my warranty program. It allows for "instant gratification" and taking out aggressive tendencies on inanimate objects which could save me jail time in the long run as well. I really felt like rather than being screwed, I had taken the upper hand!

[Dan18960]

Rich,

You may have tried to hook up the printer again - maybe it just needed an attitude adjustment :rolleyes:

That is strange because you know I have the EXACT same printer and have had no problems with it since new. (Although it does use a LOT of ink - but maybe that is from all the cd's I label print LOL).

I made up almost 30 cds this past weekend making copies of EVERY Windows Server version we got our hands on and I made multiple copies so I don't have a problem finding ONE when I need it. hahahaha

I must admit I was befuddled at the beginning with printing CDs. Seems no matter what I did, I could not get a label on two cds in a row without having the "paper jam" error come up. But I have since mastered that with knowing just how to insert the cd tray. And that was the MAIN purpose to purchase the printer. For most of my printing I use my HP 6540 to print to. Fast, great color, and nothing fancy.

[mylanta]

Ooh thanks for reminder, I have to throw away the cd print screen which I never figured out how to use anyway.
Attitude adjustments are impossible at this point as it is currently on it's way to it's final destination (the dumpster was emptied this AM and I also planned even that to prevent any possibilities of remorse).
I bought mine originally after my first trip to your "dungeon"...maybe my fault because it was already an older model and I made the "tragic" mistake of saving a few dollars on discontinued model. I always "take it in the shorts" when I do that.
I should get "RAK" to buy for me. He could probably go find my "dumpster remains", take the thing out and plug it into some B.C. abbacus and it would work for 20 years without adding a cartridge. I don't have this luck!

[dbarrow]

Murphy's Law
It breaks 3 days after the warantee expires!

[mommalina]

The article about which I posted, mentioned that if the item breaks down shortly after the warranty expires, you should check to see if your credit card company would cover the repairs under an extended warranty they may offer for having charged it to your credit card.

Have you or do you know of anyone who ever did this? I imagine it would be a hassle and not worth the time and effort.

Lina

[tonyd]

Case 1) Customer 2 weeks ago - she had a Sony desktop that wasn't working. Sony was out there twice and couldn't fix it. They didn't want to give her a new machine. They allotted her $100 to find someone to diagnose it. That turned out to be me and I found the problem.

Case 2) Neighbor had almost new Phillips DVD recorder that worked intermittently. Sent it back to Phillips under warantee. Came back with same problem. They bought another brand.
-td

[jcampi]

I almost never purchase extended warranties. The only thing I have purchased them for is our Ford Explorer and my son's ipod. The $50 I spent on the ipod was a very good purchase. My son is on his third ipod. The apple service is very, very good. You mail you problem ipod to apple and they replace it within about two days. They even deliver the DHL box to your door. You place the ipod in it and drop it in a DHL mail box. So far, this is the best warrenty service I have purchased.