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Do You Buy Extended Warranties?
Stackdump asks: "I am a college student (senior seeking CS BS). I work partime at Best Buy selling computers (arg!). To be truthful I don't really sell computers; I sell what we call 'performance service plans' or PSP's for short. This is the somewhat gimmicky name given to Best Buy's extended warranties. To be fair they do actually provide some service in the store, swapping HDs, CDROMs, and so forth, but most of the hardcore repairs are done elsewhere or by the manufacturer. Prices range from $99 on the cheapest tower to $249 on laptops over $1000. Terms of service are pretty simple everything is covered against power surge, dust contamination, whatever... BUT abuse is not covered: so slam a pencil in your laptop and say byebye, but fry your computer because you don't have a surge protector and you can get a new one. As this is the central pre-occupation of my work day I ask the Slashdot community this: do you feel these warranties are really worth the money?"
You probably don't need one for your TV or stereo system (even though you get free speaker tweaking or whatever). These things are cheap enough and don't move around enough to face actual dangers. Also, if there's going to be a problem, it will be usually right away when those problems crop up, well under the normal 30-day guarantee most shops provide.
But for other things like laptops, cameras, and other things that move around all the time to environments that differ in humidity, pressure, electrical stability, etc. it is a good idea to pay an extra 20 bucks to make sure you can get these things serviced for cheap. You may never need to send it in, but in the odd chance you do, you will be saving hundreds of dollars.
I have been pwned because my
I worked at Best Buy for 1 year and we did not make commission on PSP's (this was in 1998-99). We were in fact pressured to sell them. It certainly was a way for Best Buy to increase revenues. Except for a few instances I remember, people were generally happy with the warranty service. Sometimes it might take longer to get the item fixed than the customer might like, but in general, I think they (PSP's) are okay. I'm not sure what they cost now, but I remember that a hard drive replacement would pay for the warranty. Of course this is when the largest drive out was about 10 GB and they cost about $250. I seem to remember that we did not have many people bring items back for repair, except for Packard Hell's. OH the HORROR!!
Co-founder and designer at Music Nearby: http://musicnearby.com
I buy Apple's AppleCare Warranty whenever I buy a new Mac. (I bought a new iBook and a PowerMac just two weeks ago, both with extended warranties.) Like many manufacturers, Apple only provides a one-year warranty with their systems -- you've got to pay extra for a two-year extension for a total of three years. ($169 for an iMac, $249 for an iBook or PowerMac, $349 for a PowerBook.) It always seems expensive at the time, but 30 months after the purchase date, when the AC plug gets all wigggly, the video card becomes mysteriously fried, or the hard drive up and dies, it looks like a pretty good deal.
-Waldo Jaquith