Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Would you like a warranty with that?
I usually don't buy the extended warranty. My brother bought a lappy 3 or 4 years ago; he bought the 3 year extended warranty. The thing died-beyond-repair exactly two weeks after warranty expiration. When I bought a lappy in september of '04, I opted not to extend the standard warranty. My rule of thumb is to look at how much the warranty costs and compare that to the projected worth of the laptop at the end of warranty coverage. Because in three years a repair is not going to cut it. That is pretty much the useful life of a PC. Usually, PC hardware doesn't hold it's resale value very well (like a Ford Taurus -- what is the two-year depriciation on one of those bad boys?) which means that the extended warranty seems worthless to me.
But recently my digital camera fritzed. And when I bought the thing (a mothers day present for my wife) my brother was there. He and the salesman convinced me to buy the extended warranty package. The package came with a two year, no questions asked warranty, rechargable batteries which died immediately, a charger which fried, a case that didn't fit the camera and some lens cleaner that I never used. I felt pretty ripped off. Until we got the papers out the other day and realised it was a couple weeks before that no questions asked warranty ran out. So the camera is off getting fixed and we are happy as can be.
Thanks to Dale and the camera salesman. Mabye the extended warranties are not the ripoff I always believed they were. ¶ 10:20 PM
I usually don't buy the extended warranty. My brother bought a lappy 3 or 4 years ago; he bought the 3 year extended warranty. The thing died-beyond-repair exactly two weeks after warranty expiration. When I bought a lappy in september of '04, I opted not to extend the standard warranty. My rule of thumb is to look at how much the warranty costs and compare that to the projected worth of the laptop at the end of warranty coverage. Because in three years a repair is not going to cut it. That is pretty much the useful life of a PC. Usually, PC hardware doesn't hold it's resale value very well (like a Ford Taurus -- what is the two-year depriciation on one of those bad boys?) which means that the extended warranty seems worthless to me.
But recently my digital camera fritzed. And when I bought the thing (a mothers day present for my wife) my brother was there. He and the salesman convinced me to buy the extended warranty package. The package came with a two year, no questions asked warranty, rechargable batteries which died immediately, a charger which fried, a case that didn't fit the camera and some lens cleaner that I never used. I felt pretty ripped off. Until we got the papers out the other day and realised it was a couple weeks before that no questions asked warranty ran out. So the camera is off getting fixed and we are happy as can be.
Thanks to Dale and the camera salesman. Mabye the extended warranties are not the ripoff I always believed they were. ¶ 10:20 PM