Comments on: The Consumerist On Warranties

By: Pretty Girls :

Pretty Girls : — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:46:02 +0000

LCD monitors are the de factor standard these days because they do not consume too much electricity,:.

By: Chad

Chad — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:35:00 +0000

The Only Extended Warranty i’ve ever dealt with were “Service Contracts” that were “pushed” when i would buy a car. I have only ever purchased one, it did pay for itself, BUT at the same time, if i had known i was going to have as much trouble with that car (it was an old rental car) i would have never bought it to start with.

The biggest problem i had with the “warranty” was it mostly covered only things that seldom would fail.. most common repair items (even expensive ones) were not covered under the warranty. Often the contract terms would be very vague and i wouldnt find out it was NON covered until AFTER i authorized the repair.. (which lead to major debt)

The biggest thing that irks me most about car extended warranties, especially when financing the car, is the Lie Nance Manager tells you the warranty is REQUIRED to be approved for the loan… (found out AFTER the fact this is illegal)..

Never buy an extended warranty.. all it does is make the item COST more. and MANY times, a warranty’s cost is a significant percentage of the original items cost (ie a computer monitor my dad bought at Best Buy for 199 bucks.. for 125 bucks he could buy a 3 year warranty… what is the point.. for another 75 bucks he could just buy a new one and not have to jump thru the warranty companies “loops”

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:20:04 +0000

I was just going to post exactly what yu did. As a general rule I only insure what I can’t reasonably afford to replace myself. Insurance is a huge industry because a large chunk of the premium you pay goes to profit. This profit is fair if they are providing a valuable service such as insuring your house which would be destructive if it were lost. But if I can go out and replace a $99 item without any hardship there is no sense in me paying someone to cover that risk of loss. Jeremiah would be much better off taking the money he spends on extended warranties whenever he buys something and instead putting it in a savings account. He can then dip into the account when necessary. This would essentially be self-insurance and a lot cheaper than paying some insurance company to basically do the same thing for you.

By: JLP

JLP — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:02:03 +0000

Yu,

I actually thought about using your quote in my post.

By: yu now who

yu now who — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:58:06 +0000

Insurance is insurance. You never want to use it. On any item, Life, Hhealth, auto, home, consumer products – only insure what you can’t afford to replace yourself. Take as high a deductible as you can afford to pay, look for quality products. On a purely non-necessary item you can get along without, I would question the need for a service plan unless there was a propensity for early failure in the entire range of that particular product.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:24:43 +0000

My extended warranty stories all end with me spending money on something that I didn’t need. I purchased an extended warranty with a laptop once and it turned out I didn’t need it which is a good thing. That was the one and only time I felt it was a good idea to purchase it since I was buying a demo model that people had been using and abusing.

Now that I look back, even that situation it wasn’t needed. I’ve learned my lessons when it comes to extended warranties – they’re a cash grab.

By: jeremiah johnson

jeremiah johnson — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:36:29 +0000

I usually buy the warranties; they’ve saved me from shitty products in the past. When my ipod battery died after a couple of years, they said they couldn’t replace it because apple no longer produced that model, so they upgraded me from a 60g gen 4 to an 80gb ipod video free.

I bought a stove from best buy, and the control unit on the thing wouldn’t quit freaking out; they replaced it four times then they replaced the whole stove. again, i got an upgraded model for free (minus the cost of the warranty) and my stove issues are gone.

My hdtv projection tv also bought at best buy had something go out on it and the color went all wonky. there was one month left on the 4 year warranty. again, the tv was discontinued by the manufacturer so they upgraded me to a new DLP tv.

they upgrade you based on the specs and price of the item you warrantied, then, when if they replace it, they will give you a similar item with the same or better specs for the same or cheaper price.

i’m very happy i bought those warranties. most of the warranties i buy never get used, but those that do pay for those that don’t.

i do not work for best buy, circuit city, or any electronics store; i’m a joe blow consumer.

By: lorax

lorax — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 02:42:25 +0000

I used to sell those extended warranties (not at Best Buy though). At my store, commissioned salespeople 1) got a bonus based on extended warranty sales and 2) got penalized (generally lost hours, but sometimes fired) for not selling a minimum amount.

What you might not know is that the warrantee service is generally poor. There’s little financial incentive for the store to get it right, you’ve already paid.

(Also, nowadays many credit cards will extend manufacturers warrantees anyway.)

By: savvy

savvy — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:23:58 +0000

Just FYI – Best Buy doesn’t pay its sales people commissions. And when I started at BBY in 1997, they counted warranties as either 60 or 70% profit, but shortly after I started, and they continued this until I quit in 2001, they started counting the “true” profit… which was almost always 90%+.

By: Jordan

Jordan — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:52:15 +0000

I work in the Electronic Retail industry and am asked to sell these things (not for BestBuy but one of their competitors) Its true, the warranties are written off as about 60% margin, but in reality they are more than that. The only time I honestly suggest buying them is if it is a REPLACEMENT plan, not a repair plan, and the item is over $100. Repair Plans on TVs are good as long as they include bulb replacement, which many wont. Laptop repair plans that include screen repair is a toss up. If it covers software issues as well as physical/accidental damage (including the screen), then yes, otherwise I probably wouldn’t do it. for desktops, don’t bother. and if you get the replacement plan, use it, at the end of the plan go replace the product, make up a reason if nothing is wrong with it. get a new product and call it a day.