extended warranties?

MandM

MandM

Member
Mar 20, 2006
1,848
3
#1
the thread on taking laptops out of the house got me thinking...

Do you all purchase the extended warranties from places like best buy and circuit city? Cicuitcity has one for laptops that covers them in case you spill on them or drop them. But it's $500 for four years :wtf: yikes, kind of expensive.

Anyway, do you think those warranties are worth the money? Have you either used them and been glad you did, or felt that they were a waste of money?
 
#2
We never really buy the warranties. Luck always has it that S happens to things right when the warranty ends anyways. Plus we are pretty lax about bringing things in. We always end up just buying a new one anyways. Usually not the same model but an upgrade of some sort.
 
#4
Personally, I think they're a waste of $. I know there was just recently a thread on extended warranties too, if you want to look for it, someone posted an article about how they're huge $ makers for the stores and not really beneficial to the customers. I"ve always tended to agree with that.
 
#5
mine is dell and yes, i bought the extra warrant but i do not remember how much it was. it's def worth it tho bc my baby pulled out a key on the keyboard and they sent me another brand new keyboard the next day! also, my power cord stopped working and they sent another one also, received it the next day! dell is awesome!
 
#6
it depends on what store you're looking at and what product you're buying. the quality of the warranties varies from store to store, and how much money we make on them varies as well. i work at best buy, and i know we don't really profit from them that much because ours actually cover a ton of stuff. the best part of ours is the no lemon policy, so if we fix it 3 times, or if it wouldn't be cost effective for us to repair it, we give you what you initially paid for it to buy whatever new one you want. that way, you can still upgrade like you would have if you didn't get the service plan, but we pay for the new product.

i also have personal experience with circuit city's laptop service plans, and i was pleased with the service i recieved from them. my mom bought me the 2-year when she bought me my laptop for college, and it crapped out about 6 months ago. i called them, they sent me a box, i shipped it off, and i had it back and working like new in about a week.

don't get me wrong, some places DO have service plans that are ripoffs (sears, home depot, and lowes are not particularly impressive), and i personally think that best buy's are more comprehensive than circuit city's, but don't just assume that they're pure profit for us, because it couldn't be further from the truth (we give away a lot of free product every year because of them).

if what you're buying is something you're investing a good amount of money in, you might want to think about getting it. if it's not, then i wouldn't bother with it. $500 seems a bit steep, though, i'd go with their 2-year plan and then just renew it after it runs out if you think you might need it. i'm not sure, but i don't think ours are that much.
 
#8
it depends on the product. i wish i'd gotten one on my last laptop. my brother did and it covered him having two screens changed (his own fault i might add), that would've cost insane amounts of money without the extended warranty. well he'd have been better off buying a new one. i had a few hd meltdowns that weren't really expensive as such but i would've had priority for having them fixed. i bought it for my current laptop so nothing should happen, yay! :roflmfao:
 
#9
for my laptop, i purchase extended warranties for the free batteries that they give me. i think you can ask for 1 battery every year or something. and right there, you almost get your money back. i think for laptop, you should buy warranty because laptop has a lot of moving parts that you personally cannot fix. also, if your lcd is broken, there is no way you can fix it yourself.

for other things, i only buy warranties for something that i cannot fix, ie: ipod, lcd monitor.
for a cpu, i usually dont buy warraty coz there is really nothing that can go wrong. even if it is, it is cheaper to buy new parts and fix it yourself.
 
#12
We never get an extended warrenty. A few weeks ago we bought a tv and of course we got asked if we want the extended warranty that was $500 for a few years and blah blah blah and after he was done we said no. The SA then goes up to his manager to "make sure he can sell us the tv at the price he told us" and when he comes back the manager comes along with him. Now we have the manager going on about how he never bought extended warranties either until he read something in one of the consumer mags about it and now he always buys it. His little scheme didn't work on us and we still said no. The only thing we got extended was a headache.
 
#13
Blue824 said:
Personally, I think they're a waste of $. I know there was just recently a thread on extended warranties too, if you want to look for it, someone posted an article about how they're huge $ makers for the stores and not really beneficial to the customers. I"ve always tended to agree with that.
Click to expand...

yea, esp since they never seem to cover battery life in the handheld video game systems, the things I would buy and have boughten.

I got one for my ipod and now wish I hadn't. No probs a year later and a waste of money for me thus far. I have another year b4 it runs out tho. I never really get it...DVD players and home phones...I'd rather buy a new one if mine breaks. I get the best home phones (I'm on it all the time, I want it to be the best hehe) and if it breaks, more of a reason for me to get a new one :graucho: As for DVD players, you can get um for under 50 bucks half the time. Why waste the $ for a warranty when I can put it towards a new one? :yes:
 
#14
Helpful Advice below:

1) Warranties from the place you bought your laptop are NOT worth it (not even a penny)

2) Get an extended warranty from the manufacturer of your laptop (i.e. gateway, dell, apple...) <-- these are WELL WORTH IT
 
#15
fr2nc1z said:
Helpful Advice below:

1) Warranties from the place you bought your laptop are NOT worth it (not even a penny)

2) Get an extended warranty from the manufacturer of your laptop (i.e. gateway, dell, apple...) <-- these are WELL WORTH IT
Click to expand...

actually, my experience is the opposite. i promise, i've seen the ins and outs of both at work many times, and normally the manufacturer charges basically the same price and covers far less than a store will. service plans get SUCH an undeservedly bad reputation - at my store, it is very rare for an employee to purchase anything without the service plan. sometimes i even feel bad for customers that don't get them, depending on the product, because they have no idea the problems we see with some things every day (particularly on things like computers, flat panel televisions, and high-end appliances). but people are set in their ways and sure that we get some sort of kickback for selling them (we definately, absolutely do not, but i can only speak for Best Buy), so they ignore us and screw themselves in the process.

that's the honest-to-god truth, i never bought one (or even considered it - i'm an extremely hard sell) before i started working there and saw the other side of things.
 
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