http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/ Engadget Comments for Poll: Extended warranties, necessity or shakedown? http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
Some items are known to have a short life cycle, and with the 3rd party replacement plan, you're guaranteed a similar item years later. For example, the iPod nano's battery was known to go dead within 2 years. Pay a few extra bucks for the plan, 2-3 years later you can get a brand new iPod nano with more storage capacity, smaller size, newer software.

On the other hand, buying one for a laptop is just silly. You're probably going to buy a new laptop within 4 years, and it's very rare that a laptop's hardware will go bad. If it does, it's probably your fault, and you're responsible for damages. That's one of those big ticket items they make you feel the plan is appropriate for when it really isn't.]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 4:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 4:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
So for me, its a hell naw!]]>Dec 6th 2007 4:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Since it was still under the warranty after the 3rd repair, it got junked out for a comparable laptop. Admitedly, this one is only about $1100 or so now, but it's got a lot of bonus features that my old laptop didn't have, plus pretty much better storage memory and just about anything else I can think of. I didn't have to pay a thing, and on top of that, they even threw in a USB hardrive shell that I was able to put my old laptop hardrive on so that I didn't lose any data and still use as an 60GB external drive.
Some people might be boasting about their amazing $300GB external drives and such, but my laptop works just fine. Maybe you consider $1000 a year for a new laptop to be standard expenses, but not everyone feels that to be necessary.

For a second case, my sister got an MP3 player as a gift for christmas, it had an extended warranty. It has been replaced roughly 3 times under the same warranty. It started out as a 128M battery powered MP3 player. It now has been upgraded to a 2GB w/ rechargable battery, and I've even gotten money BACK each time through.]]>Dec 6th 2007 4:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 4:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
+10 for creativity and cleverness

and anyway, I'm probably going to buy AppleCare for my MacBook, because I have this feeling that something bad will happen to my computer and I'm going to wish I spent the money on it.

ominous feelings are not to be ignored.]]>Dec 6th 2007 4:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/And if the item doesn't you should not buy it IMHO.
]]>Dec 6th 2007 5:33PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
No more warranties for me on laptops. Replacement plan on stuff like headsets, iPods, and the like, yes. You get a replacement. Repair plan, not just no, but hell no. Total rip-off.

If an extended warranty kicked in when the manufacturer's was OVER, I'd buy. As it is, no just no but hell no.]]>Dec 6th 2007 6:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/2 years go I purchaed a nice Laptop for $1,100. 3 months ago the LAN card failed. 2 months ago the DVD Burner stopped burning. 1 month ago the hinge for the screen broke.
3 weeks ago I purchased a new gaming laptop for $2,000... If I had purchased the warranty 2 years ago, I would have only paid $900 for my new laptop.

If it is a cheap laptop, than it is not worth it... But if you are getting a higher end laptop, than it can be worth it.]]>Dec 6th 2007 8:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/I'm terribly sorry, but I absolutely babied my laptop. It rarely left my desk, but it did see regular use in being turned on.
Backlights have developed a flicker for over a year that may be related to the problem I just repaired.
Mysterious cracks show up around the screen-casing. For a laptop that moves perhaps five times a week, and is still inside the house the entire time, this is most puzzling.
Video cable developed some sort of line break and had to be completely replaced in order for certain shades of color (i.e. 255/255/255 white) to not show up as magenta.
Battery no longer charges reliably and has dropped from a 90 minute life-time to a 30-40 minute lifetime.

Laptops DO NOT, PERIOD, have a life expectancy on par with a desktop computer. They just do not survive as well, and the majority of the time the first piece of hardware to give you trouble is the screen ($200 in my case) or the battery ($90). Granted, this was a $650 laptop when new, it disappeared from anyone's notice within the store (we literally had 3 of the HP model and 2 of the Compaq sitting in the back for 5+ months) and ended up on slash-them-til-they're-gone clearance. Picked it up for just shy of $300, so it wasn't really financially reasonable to put a replacement plan on it. If you need the laptop to last, reliably, for three years then I'd suggest getting the plan and making sure that your screen is covered. At the very least, it will pay for your screen ahead of time so you don't have to.

In regards to the article, though, yes, the replacement plans can be deceptive and need to be put out in clear english. The once I was selling at an Office supply store with a Decent spread in the southern US were very... vague. They either replaced your product straight across or gave you a gift card for the value of the merchandise. Of course, the management there couldn't be bothered to look this up and explain it clearly, so we were misrepresenting the plans to all customers. I can see it on some failure prone equipment, such as low-tier printers in the butter zone, but we were required to offer it on calculators over $5 and on electric pencil sharpeners. That's... ridiculous.]]>Dec 6th 2007 10:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Hachi machi, what the heck are you doing to all your gadgets? :D]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
I tend to buy refurbished items (as they've been taken apart, put back together and checked instead of flying off of an assembly line) and if something breaks, replace the part. If the whole thing is possessed by an evil electronic demon, junk it and start anew. ]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
16 failed products, and you're still Apple stuff? One company doesn't get more than a couple of shots with me. If the products don't hold up under my use, I'll find better ones.]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/It says "often 3rd party" not ONLY 3rd party]]>Dec 6th 2007 4:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
As much as I hate Bose and Monster Cables...they charge a premium price, but they stand behind their products with a very good warranty... Why is Apple charging a premium yet having such a high failure rate?]]>Dec 13th 2007 12:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 4:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
When we had a widescreen projection tv we used the service to have it calibrated each year. Figured: Why not. Plus when we moved it was helpful as the 10 hrs in a big rig proved detrimental to the image. When we upgraded to an LCD it was worth it from day one as the damned thing came broke & Best Buy wanted us to first use the Samsung warranty. No thank you. They came & replaced/rehung it the same day.]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
If you are like me, you buy a high quality laptop with a good warranty. I like the ThinkPad myself (or an Apple). I get the 4 year warranty with accident protection from Lenovo for about $100. Worth every penny.

If you are like some intelligent family members of mine, you buy a refurb consumer model laptop, with the understanding that the money saved will be reinvested in 2-3 years on a new system. (Sometimes they are fortunate and get 5+ years.) Plan on a replacement with the latest bells and whistles in 2 years.

So, I could spend $1500 for a laptop that lasts 4-5 years and have a solid aging system, or I could buy a refurb every two years at $600 and pay about $1800 with a fairly new system by the fifth year.

It's all about risk tolerance and personal preference. I view it as a long term investment. Others see it as a commodity to be bought low and discarded. Neither choice is wrong. ]]>Dec 6th 2007 4:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/mmmmm.... good grammar....]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 5:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 10:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 10:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
Anything sub 300-400 dollars unless its something that i forsee myself potentially breaking...

But when i bought my DLP TV for 2500 you better be damn sure i dropped an extra 250 on an extended warranty. It covers the cost of a bulb which is gaurenteed to go out in the extended warranty period, and costs about as much as the extended warranty..so it seemed idiotic not to.]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 6:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 7th 2007 1:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
Personally, like most people, I consider the warranty available for any given purchase, and if the cost of the item is high enough or the plan is cheap enough then I might buy it for an little extra insurance.

And why would any body buy an extended plan on something sold at Walmart. Buy it wherever you like, and when it breaks go buy a new one at walmart and take the old one back there. Walmart will take ANYTHING back. I've known people who buy stuff and put bricks in the box and take it back, and the walmart staff is to inept to notice...]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
Not that YOU'VE ever done that, right? ;)]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
That's nothing to be proud of. Those people are called thieves.]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 4:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
On the other side, I bought a Creative Zen MicroPhoto for $200. Warranty was another $35, ok. 1.5 years later it crapped. I get a giftcard for the $200 plus tax to replace it.

It all depends on if you think it is worth it. I rarely buy warranties because I take care of my stuff. If they fail out of warranty then I can only blame myself.]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/I can honestly say that depending on the item you are purchasing and who owns the warranty they can go from a complete waste of money ie: some of the office supply companies who contract to warrantech and/or ge home services. Others who own the service plan themselves like Sears, who keeps everything in house, can be a great advantage to the consumer. Most of the warranties out there are just that, an extended warranty. Some offer yearly/biyearly service on the item, many times in-home. If you look at the cost of this service in home, example a tv, its almost $190 dollars for that service that the plan would cover for free. Consider that the average service call for a $1500-$2500 item is $440, $440 that could be out of pocket, warranty can look like a great deal. Also if the consumer reads the terms of the plan they almost always can get a full refund of the price of the plan with in the items original warranty period, with out any penalties. That means you might be out of pocket $350 for a 3 year plan for say a $1800-$2000 dollar tv, but with almost all retailers offering 0% financing for xxx months your not really spending anything out of pocket, taking the full advantage of that service and still getting a full refund or a pro-rated refund if your out side of the oem's warranty period. I spend 50% of my day with the 30% of the population that skips the warranty, just to tell them there outside of the manufactures warranty and out side of the stores return policy (in most consumer electronics stores that time is anywhere from 14 days (staples, office depot etc) to 30 days sears, lowes, home depot, costco (for electronics)).
]]>Dec 6th 2007 11:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/Dec 6th 2007 3:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/06/poll-extended-warranties-necessity-or-shakedown/
Case in point, I bought my daughter an xBox 360 for Christmas. It was $279, the warranty was $17.80 for two years, that makes sense to me.]]>Dec 6th 2007 3:42PM