Extended Warranty

I have read several comments regarding extended warranties. It seems that the consensus is that they are not worth it. A couple of months ago I bought the retailer's extended 3-yr warranty for $250. eMachines extended warranty is $187. Is is worth keeping the retailer's warranty? or should I cancel it in favor of buying eMachines' warranty. Or should I just not go with any extended warranty?

Scott

 

Hi controller,
I'm one of the biggest opponents of extended warranties, I guess because I used to work for an organization that sold extended warranties as well as serviced computer equipment under warranty. I learned how more money was made buy selling the extended warranty than by selling the product itself as well as learning to read the fine print before buying into it (which I now never do) because there are more things that are excluded from coverage than included and I had to deal with some of those people who thought they were covered. To answer your question, if it is possible cancel all the extended warranties and get your money back, then do it. If your notebook or any electronic gear lasts the 1st few months(burn in period or what they call for components(infant mortality) it has over a 99% chance of lasting at least 3-5 years. As you can see if you buy an extended warraty for say $200 on a $2000 dollar item, given that the 1st year is covered by the basic warranty and the wholesale price of most electronic gear is 50% of retail, if the notebook were to just burst into flames and be totaled after the 1st year the comapny selling the warranty would be out $1000 at most and since they can replace it with a refurb at much less than $1000 or after 1 year the cost of even a brand new replacement may have dropped by 30%. So basically your betting $200 with a 99% chance of losing (or 1% chance of winning) and the payout would only be $1000 at most or $5 for every $1 bet. So your paying at 100:1 odds, but the payout is only 5:1. Not even vegas is this good. These number are only rough estimates, but it is in the ballpark.
Last thing is, you probably won't be able to cancel and get your money back.

Sorry for rambling on, but this is a pet peeve and I feel guilty for working for such an organization and am doing what I can to let everyone know how these work.

 

Hi bootleg2go

Your input was extremely helpful. I only have the extended warranty from the retailer which I purchased about 2 months ago. I called customer service a couple of weeks ago, and she said I can cancel the warranty anytime and I will get a pro-rated refund. This isn't too bad. Two months worth on a three year warranty of $250 is only about $15. So I still get almost all of it back.

However, the retailer did say that with the extended warranty they will replace the battery at any time when it doesn't perform to original spec. Is this on the level or not?

In sum, do you think I should cancel it in the next few days or so?

Thanks, again

 

well, considering an extra battery will only run you $80 I'd just take the $250 back off of the table and if the battery doesn't "perform to spec" (which is open to interpretation anyway) then use some of that $235 to buy a new one!

nice to have word straight from the horses mouth, thanks for the great info bootleg2go, certainly wasn't rambling but on the contrary it is informative what you say.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by bootleg2go

 

Hi eno45

How long have you had your warranty and what types of repairs have you had that were covered by the warranty?

Thanks

 

i agree with eno on the best buy service plan, it is worth it because u get free batteries, if u are going to be charing and recharging your laptop daily, the battery only has about 330-390 charge life and ur looking at 3 free batteries during the 3 years of extended coverage if nothing else, also my dvd burner recently stopped reading cds and dvds, i took advantage of the international coverage included in the BB extended plan and i am getting full compensation on the cost of the dvd replacement parts and labor at the local computer repair shop here in china. they told me to just send them the receipt for repairs and they will issue me a check for that amount as much as the cost of the original laptop. if u are trying to decide whether or not to buy the Best buy extended warranty, id say do it.