Extended Warranties for ThinkPad W510

Forgive me if there is already a dedicated thread for this question. I did a quick search and did not find one, so if there is one out there, please feel free to direct me there and delete this thread.
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Just got my new W510 a few days ago. I did not purchase any extended warranties for this machine, but I am considering it, and I know there is still a window for me to do this. I bought this machine with my Visa in order to take advantage of Visa's warranty extending benefit, thereby stretching out the manf. warranty to a second year. Does anyone have experience with the Lenovo-offered extended warranties or have any advice?

FYI I don't plan to move around/travel much with this laptop- I plan to park it either on my desk at home or around the living room. If I go on a long trip, I'll consider taking it, but by no means am I regularly commuting or traveling anywhere with it.

Thanks for the feedback, in advance!

 

You may extend the warranty coverage of your ThinkPad up to five years any time your ThinkPad is under warranty. You don't have to do it right away, but accidental coverage if you were considering it must be added within 30 days and accidental is limited to four years. There's a link to the part numbers for the warranty service upgrades in the sticky.

 

It is my understanding that you must buy the warranty extension say from 1yr to 3 yrs within 30 days of your purchase. By the way how is your Visa account going to get service from Lenovo Depot repair etc.?

Lenovo extented warranties can be bought from online retailers for less than Lenovo. Try CostCentral and Vecmar. I have done it through Vecmar. You save maybe $25 on a $125 extension but it takes a little time. You can look up the part numbers for the various warranties (there are many varients) at the Lenovo site or from the W510 spec data sheets.

 

I know that Visa extends warranty, but the sales rep said that on Special Visa cards allow that and American Express cards offer that too. I bought it with an American Express Business card. I hope I didn't mess up .

 

If you've got two years of warranty, I'd say you're good unless you are clumsy, in which case accidental might not be a bad idea. By the third year you'd be looking at a new laptop anyway.

 

That's sort of what I was planning on doing- though ideally I'd be able to use this computer for longer than three years. Four or five years a stretch for expectations?

I'm not the most graceful person, but I've only ever incapacitated one of five laptops I've owned for the past 8 years, so perhaps I'm less clumsy than I give myself credit for.

 

There certainly are people using T4x machines as daily drivers and they're at least five years old. The Pentium M is still good for most typical usage except for flash playback, where it'll chug a bit. As always luck will play a large role.

You might want to consider a rider on your homeowners/renters insurance. Some of the warranties can be expensive. In additions to covering accidents and the like, it would cover things like theft, which a warranty from Lenovo would not. Plus I believe you can start or stop coverage as you please.