Poll: Extended warranties, necessity or shakedown?

As former tech retail geeks in another life, we know better than anyone the kind of pressure salespeople at the big box retailers put on adding extended (often 3rd party) warranties on gadget purchases. Oh sure, it preys on uninformed customers' fears that their expensive new toys will break down a exactly 91 days after purchase and they'll be left in the lurch -- but sometimes those warranties can actually come in handy. That is, if you can convince the warranty people to pony up, which is just a step below the frustration of dealing with most HMOs. So, what's your take on extended warranties?

Poll: Extended warranties, necessity or shakedown?

Yep, I'll continue buying 'em even though I've never really had any out of warranty problems.	378 (1.8%)
It's worth it -- I've had problems in the past, and they've helped out.	1570 (7.5%)
Honestly, it really depends on the kind of device and the kind of warranty. Caveat emptor.	8893 (42.5%)
No way, I've gotten a warranty in the past and wound up burned.	764 (3.6%)
Hell no dude, they're all scams!	5268 (25.2%)
Does it really matter? I just want these fools to stop pushing them at the store!	1825 (8.7%)
Why bother? I'm buying the new version every six weeks anyway.	1191 (5.7%)
You know what? I'm sick of gadgets failing out of warranty. Maybe it's time to look into this thing.	1053 (5.0%)

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 7th 2007 11:48AM]

simply put i work at best buy there a fucking scam!

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 7th 2007 11:45PM]

I believe it was circuit city but, if you buy a projector the warenty covers it and the bulb.

[homestar1217 Posted Dec 8th 2007 12:54AM]

As someone who has a job selling these things, I can say that some are definitely worth the extra 8-10 bucks. If you buy a $50 router, they break all the time, pretty often within the year. If it doesn't break, most companies that sell the warranties don't check up on it if you call them and say that it's broken, unless it's a high dollar item like a GPS. so call them up, tell them it's broken, and get them to send a new one or the store credit and get a new one just in case right before the extension runs out. tada! worth the 10 bucks now huh? by the way i recommend getting these warranties on GPS units because you never know what can happen to those things if you take them everywhere, and the warranties usually aren't that expensive.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 10th 2007 10:04PM]

I just got my PS3 replaced from Best Buy. If I'm not wrong, I paid 80 bucks for 2 years extended warranty. As I have a store about 2 minutes walking distance form my house, in 30 minutes I was back home installing my backup on the new device. In other hands, I purchase a Sony Bravia 52' form a store called BrandSmart, paid 200 bucks from 3 yeas extended warranty, and I had a problem within 3 months from the date of purchase. They came to my place, opened my BRAND NEW TV (replaced a huge board) and the TV started with the same problem after few days. Now they want to come back and open it again... Well, they were supposed to give me a new one... Now you know... Time to fight. 8(. Anyway, I am still purchasing the extended warranties, but next time, I will check carefully the warranty offered by the store BEFORE the purchase.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 12th 2007 1:10AM]

I'm not about to dig that far back, but this reminds me of a similar poll on /. - A poster there said that he always got the price of an extended warranty and didn't make the purchase. He then put the funds into a special reserve that he only touched when stuff broke for which an extended warranty was available. After a couple of years, he claimed to have hit the point where he never saw a deficit in this account.

Something worth trying, for those with a fair amount of discipline.