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The Extended Warranty

Published by babyme
05-24-2007

Default The Extended Warranty

In buying things, I always want it to work for a long period of time. But if it gets busted way before its life span, then I want the company to fix it for me or replace it. But it does not work that way.

There are several companies that offer conditional warranties instead of the standard ones for different products. These warranties have a shorter period of time guaranteed for the products to work. After that time, you are on your own. Or you can pay more for a longer warranty time and get the comfort and security it comes with it. Since products nowadays are made to withstand less stress, mostly portable and stand a higher risk of failure, a lot of people are now opting to get those increased warranties.

Another point they have when getting an increased warranty is that the parts and labor needed to fix them have sky high prices. According to statistics, consumers spent a total of $16 billion in 2005 only for warranties.

But you tend to wonder if these plans are really worth every cent you pay.

According to a survey done by PC World, they discovered that out of over 2000 people, only sixty three percent of them paid to extend their warranty; ninety percent of those who used their warranty were able to get excellent service and a replacement product. And eighty percent of those who were able to get help were satisfied with the service and replacement. Although about thirty seven percent of the people who responded to the survey said that the extended warranties cost too much, to the extent of being a rip off. Almost all of them did not regret that decision although twenty three percent of this group wished they had bought an extended warranty when a part of their computers broke down after the warranty period.

Some people have the thinking that if the product is defective, it will definitely malfunction right after purchasing it, removing the need to extend the warranty. For some products, this may be quite true. Although you would also think that these manufacturers must have programmed the product to self destruct after a certain period of time and pattern their warranty from it.

Extended warranties are often not a good deal to do for the reasons that it is expensive and it may be costly in the long run. You would think twice about the quality of an item that only has a warranty of three months as compared to one of a year warranty. Why the disparity in time? Does this mean that the former product is less superior that the latter? Or maybe the product can only go that far and will fail afterwards.

I would definitely be wary about having a limited warranty. If you are proud of your products, you would personally assure that consumer that this works and guarantee them with a warranty, without having them pay for it as long as the damage is due to a defect in the product.


  #1  
By Cobalt on 05-24-2007, 04:52 PM
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I've never purchased an extended warranty and nor do I ever plan to. Whilst they aren't necessarily a rip off, many, if not most, are expensive for what they offer. The only advice I give to people is to check the small print first - There are often get out clauses for the manufacturer and you may not be covered for things which you perhaps feel you should be.

Say you purchased a new PC from a store and you were offered a three year extended warranty for roughly a third of the cost of the machine new. Bear in mind that you should also have a standard 12 month manufacturers warranty which covers any faulty parts. By the time you've reached the end of your warranty, it is highly likely that your PC is worth very little these days. Additionally, barring a complete failure, replacing an individual component is almost certainly going to cost less than the warranty, even if you need to take it to a tech. Taking into account the fairly robust nature of components these days, and you are rapidly running out of reasons to take out an extended warranty.

Now, if you're not confident about using a computer and would like to be able to take your PC back from where you bought it if you have a problem, then extended warranty's are a good safety net. They cost a little, but you may feel it's worth it for the peace of mind. However, if you know even a little about PC's, you might just be able to save yourself a bit of cash in the long run which can go towards a brand new PC in two or three years time instead.
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