Extended Warranties are bad for you

Submitted by George Walker on October 4, 2006 – 10:37 am10 Comments

Anyone who has purchased a game console at any electronics store has been accosted to purchase one of those “Extended Warranties.” Your initial reaction was probably to say “no way”.

Leading economists and consumer advocate groups think that your reaction would be correct. These extended warranty scams just don’t make sense, especially if you’ve ever gotten one and then actually tried to use it. Most retailers will give you quite the runaround when trying to exchange your products, so that it’s such a hassle that you won’t even bother.

You don’t have to listen to me, though, there’s a great article in the Washington Post that confirms that these warranties are just playing on our fears, and give very little benefit.

More – via | Cathode Tan |

http://www.consolecolors.com Kat

I respectfully disagree. Extended warranties have saved my butt no less than 6 times in the past 5 years, replacing at no cost my iRiver MP3 player, microwave, motherboard & power supply (known power supply flaw fried them, not a power surge), cordless phone, and 2 printer/scanner/copiers.
Subnet6

I’ll back Kat on this one. I got an extended warranty on a vacuum at Best Buy and it had a problem and I brought it in and walked out with a new one the same day. All I had was my receipt that showed that I purchased the extended warranty at the same time as the vacuum. I didn’t even have to sign anything.
http://bill2me.com Bill Toomey

I have to agree with Kat as well. When my XBox360 burned out I walked into Best Buy, without a paper receipt or copy of the extended warranty, and they handed me a brand new console based solely on my phone number.

Before it was done I had to ask if I could buy a new warranty for the new console. They didn’t try to sell me anything, just handed me a new console and sent me on my way.

Recently, they’ve started offering Extended Warranties on games, (I’ve been offered ones for between $1& $5 depending on the system) I’d agree that these are worthless – but not the warranties on more expensive electronics.
bob

Wow. You guys are paying money for something you already bought. You already paid for the manufacturer’s warranty, but you pay extra for a second warranty. I love how Kat paid extra so a known problem could be fixed. No wonder everyone is selling those warranties; there are plenty of suckers willing to buy them.
http://brianwoods.com Brian

but bob, the product warranty usually only lasts 90 days or at best a year. sometimes it’s worth it to extend the warranty out another year or two, not to mention many of them allow you to get free upgrades. i had a friend lust after ipods for a year, then he bought his, a 15gb 3g one, and two weeks later with great fanfare, the low end model turned into a 20gb. he took his old one back to best buy and walked out with a new one. if he went to the extra expense of mailing off the ipod to apple, i doubt they would have done the same thing.

what about ds lites with broken hinges? was it easier just to take it back to the store and swap it or wait for nintendo to admit that some units had a problem?

again that isnt to say that all extended warranties are super, but they aren’t foolish and paying for an extra year or two of coverage isn’t always a bad thing.
Coldglnce

I disagree with some of the previous comments made. The article is correct most companies will give you the run around when trying to use your extended warrenties. I had a Best Buy extended warrenty on my dryer and when that went out they would not help me. You have to keep in mind that most of the companies only want you to buy extended warrenties so that they make even more profit of of you. I don’t even bother with the extended warrenty, if something goes bad I just return it to the manufacture for a replacement. However you have to look for products that have better warrenties than 90 days or a year. If it not under warrenty anymore and something happened like a power surge blew up my computer, I just have my homeowner insurance cover it. No biggy…
J

Every heard of viral advertising or guerilla marketing? It’s where companies hire people to post comments that praise them or discredit their competitors. I find the first few comments suspiscious…

In any case, extended warranties are so earnestly offered by companies like Best Buy b/c most people don’t come back and return an item under warranty or maybe they lose their receipt. It’s a ripoff don’t buy into it!
John Moser

J, just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t make it a corporate conspiracy. It just means they’re smart. I’ve returned a dozen worn out trackballs to Best Buy, all for about $5. It was never a hassle(other than waiting in line).

BTW if the story comes from the WP, it’s probably BS.
John

I also will have to disagere (to a point.) Buying a $5 extended warrantee on a $20 cordless phone would probably be a bad idea. However, buying a 3 year warantee on big ticket items that are prone to failure has worked out great for me in the past. My 52″ samsung HDTV was replaced by Best Buy 2.5 years after I purchased it because of a bad tuner, additionally, the extended warrantee covered tune-ups to the system itself, which I used about every 6 months. I also replaced my PSP a year after it was purchased because of a bad UMD drive hinge and some scratches. Those two replacements alone were worth mor than double the value of the extended warrantee coses.

Be smart in your warrantee purchases and you’ll get your expenses back.
Best Buy SUCKS!

I used to work for Best Buy, I know for a fact that these warranties are useless scams. I personally couldn’t understand how the salespersons could in good conscience try and sell one to a customer. They would pretend that they were looking out for the customers best interest in order to sell them…jackasses. That’s where Best Buy gets a good amount of their money from, warranties…and accessories. So if you are ever in Best Buy don’t buy a warranty or any accessories because Best Buy suck-diddly-ucks!