Save Some Dollars and Don’t Buy the Extended Warranty
Wait! Yes, it is that shopping-Friday-after-Thanksgiving again. Let’s hope you catch this suggestion before you go and buy that extended warranty. It is not worth it. You will be wasting your money:
“… “This holiday season, shoppers are expected to spend over a billion dollars on extended warranties for laptops, flat-screen TVs, other electronics, and appliances,” the Consumers Reports team wrote in its blog this week. “And almost all of it will be money down the drain.”
The magazine believes extended warranties are “notoriously bad deals” for consumers because repairs are often covered by the standard manufacturer warranty. Its research also found that products rarely break within the extended-warranty window, typically within two or three years after the purchase is made.”
link: Skip the extended warranty this season
additional link: Why you don’t need an extended warranty
For some items, the cost of the extended warranty will contribute significantly, in a few years, to buying a new replacement. And it will save on the time waiting for the item to be fixed or for the repair person to say that there is no stock available for the necessary repairs [yes, Logitech, I still remember that feeble excuse].
Catherine Forsythe
5 Comments
Steve
November 27th, 2009
at 9:47pm
Just Wed. i refused the extended warranty on two digital cable amplifiers, $5 for 1 year and $10 for 2 years!
James
November 28th, 2009
at 5:21am
Consumer Reports says the only thing worth buying a warranty for was a washer. For electronics though, it is a waste of money.
Susan
November 28th, 2009
at 6:22pm
I disagree. Buying a plan for a laptop or a smartphone is a good investment. I have done so for each one of mine, and they have more than paid for themselves. I believe there was a howstuffworks.com podcast that addressed this as well, and agreed with this. And you can do so through Squaretrade for a lot less than through the retailer.
Gary Bing
November 29th, 2009
at 3:29pm
As Susan says you can go to other vendors for these things and get a better deal. There is no way I would be buy a rear projection TV (going by way of the Dodo) with out one. In every case I have been ahead of the game, except one. It was a 1994 Mitsubishi 20′ TV. It was indestructible especially a remote that went through hell and back. All other things needed something usually a remote, that more than made up for the cost. All my cordless phones have been replaced by these plans, about a dozen over a decade. Dropped and/or wet cameras anyone?
Dan
December 2nd, 2009
at 9:01am
I never buy them but a customer had bought two Dell laptops, one for his teenage son and one for his office manager. Both are gorillas in sheep’s clothing and he must have known this. Two weeks before his extended warranty ended both laptops had problems. A display went south on one and keys were missing on the other. They both were fixed for free. I may have to rethink my position on extended warranties.