The executive editor of Consumer Reports spoke to Newsday about warranties and service plans for consumer electronics, and how it’s pretty much always an unnecessary add-on that you should avoid. The stories that make it to the Consumerist are usually the exception; in reality, it’s rare that consumer devices break before you replace them anyhow.
When asked whether or not it’s important to buy a warranty simply for “peace of mind,” he replies:
To the peace-of-mind argument, you can buy insurance on all sorts of things. We would urge people, for true peace of mind, to make sure they’re insured for big things in life. It’s better to have life insurance before they insure appliances.
Because the profit margins are so high, sales people will continue to push warranties and service plans aggressively. If you’re a sucker for the hard sell, read this post for ways to protect yourself on the sales floor, or buy online: “We know in particular that people who buy online are less likely to buy extended warranties because they don’t have a salesperson in their face.”
“Q&A: Shopping for high tech” [Newsday]
(Photo: natecull)
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@vaxman: a warranty for a $40 device?? I’ve had the same Dlink for 3 years. What brand is crapping out on you that much?
@discounteggroll:
At least, it would if Apple didn’t blame the consumer for everything that goes wrong with Apple products.
@eelmonger: Amen. As much as I hate Best Buy, my girlfriend’s son just replaced his 16-month-old XBox 360 with no hassles.
While generally never buy an extended warranty for anything, I have made exceptions for items which are hig dollar value (at least to me)and have a high potential to be damaged. I get ‘replacement’ plans for anything that happens to them. MY dog recently chewed up my ipod and I had purchased a replacement plan for it. Since my model was no longer availible(gen.iv 30GB), I ended up with a bigger ipod(the 80GB ipod classic), money back on the price difference and money back on prorating the warranty. I also ended up with $25 in credit and a new warranty. Ended up being quite the deal. If its just a repair plan or it is an item not likely to be damaged through regular use, I avoid them like the plague.
I have had the opportunity to research returns under my company’s service plans by model number. I looked up the Samsung LCD we sell the most of, as well as the LG washer we sell the most of. Naturally, popular items will have more recurring issues, but there were literally hundreds of return authorizations issued under service plan agreements. There were issued for various reasons, from items being not cost-efficient to repair, to lemons, etc. Many of these were long after the one-year manufacturer’s warranty.
My mother-in-law still has her Magic Chef harvest gold appliances and they work great. They don’t make things like that anymore. Instead, cheap-ass parts from China are assembled in Mexico and banged around in containers for weeks on a boat…
If you don’t insure high-dollar items, it’s the same as going without health insurance when you’re young because if you get sick it’s surely going to happen when you’re very old.
@RvLeshrac:
and where exactly do you bring your apple products in for service?
Honestly, I would like to know. Are they an Apple Store, an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or from somewhere else?
Input from anybody and/or anywhere would be greatly appreciated.
@discounteggroll: Definitely try & go local before you go to the regular stores.
Our family has bought bought 5 Macs (4 new, one used) at various points in the last decade from our local Apple Authorized Service Provider, and one of the Macs (a “Quicksilver” PowerMac) eventually had a couple of show-stopper hardware failures after lots of heavy use.
We got personal attention from the person who actually does the repairs, didn’t have any issues while dealing with getting the parts replaced, and got the computer in question back ASAP