Yesterday, after several weeks of research and data gathering, I ordered a new Mits 65" Platinum Plus (Model 65611) RP HDTV from my local retail store. It is due in in about a week. My sales guy is very knowledgeable about HDTV's since he has been selling and using top line equipment of this type for over ten years that I am aware of (he sold me my current Toshiba 55" analogue TV when he worked for a different local company ten years ago).
When I asked my guy about purchasing an extended warranty contract, he said that they don't offer one because the newer digital TV's are so reliable and trouble free they feel extended warranty's are just an unnecessary additional cost for their customers. He said a few years ago when you had to have a service person in just to calibrate your TV, the extended warranty was needed. Now days, with calibration available on your remote and with the better reliability of the overall TV's, it's normally a waste of money. He says putting a good surge protector on the TV and other devices is the best insurance.
I certainly intend to put a good surge protector on my system. Do you feel he is correct on the warranty issue and an extended warranty is probably not justified?
If you feel he is "out in left field" on this and an extended warranty is highly recommended, do you have any suggestion where I can purchase an extended warranty on a Mits TV purchased from my local retailer?
Basically, in most places the warranty is a way to make a few extra bucks. Most sales associates make 10% of the warrranty, so if he's pushing a $300 warranty, its because he'll make a quick $30. The only time I've ever bought a warranty was when A. The item had a rep for having hardware issues B. The warranty went at least 5 years. C. The repair (any) would cost perhaps double what I paid for the warranty. D. If an issue does occur, I get the entire item replaced (regardless if its made anymore) with a new part, no reconditioned parts thank you.
For example, I bought an extended warranty from Radio Shack for a 700 watt RCA receiver for $59 that covered 5 years. Very cheap, and it covers my speakers included. If the receiver fails in 4.5 years, I get a new one because I'm quite sure that DTS receiver will be considered ancient by then. Once it goes disco (discontinued) Radio Shack will just instruct the store mgr to give you a replacement model. I've seen this many times where a customer has come in with a 486 cpu and 450mb hard drive. The motherboard burned out, radio shack can't get it replaced, and she walks out with a free upgrade - p4 1.5 with 10gig hard drive.
I turned down Circuit City's warranty for my tv. They wanted $350 for 3 years. Unless my whole tv blows, I'll never get even with that amount. Now I've seen a lot of postings here where somebody has had 3 or 4 problems. I say after 2 repairs to ask for the item to be replaced. If you scream loud enough, threaten to go to the BBB or your local congressman, speak to the district mgr, etc. you'll get a new one.
Check your credit card's extended warranty program. Most credit card companies will automatically double your warranty (up to an additional year) if you buy the product with their credit card. I bought my TV and they extended my warranty from one year to two, no cost.
You may want to check it out at the websites for AMEX, MC and Visa.
Check your credit card website, the details are published. With MC Platinum it works very well, basically the same conditions as your original warranty.
If you feel good buying a warranty, please yourself.
HISTORY
Extended warranties have become all the rage over the last 20 years. Initially it was sold primarily as a service to the customer with a nice profit for the retailer. Much has changed in this industry. Over the last ten years there has been significant price erosion and profit margins have become quite small. For many companies extended warranties make the difference between being profitable and barley making it so now they are heavily pushed. Due to companies going under and leaving many customers with useless contracts the laws in many states have been changed to protect the consumer. It is recommended that your extended warranty be with an insurance company rather than the retailer.
PRICING
I have had many customers very happy they had an extended warranty and also many who were upset that it was never used and therefore a waste of money. First lets talk about those products that come with a full one year warranty for parts and labor. If you are going to purchase an extended warranty on such a product than get the longest one available which is typically 4 or 5 years. Choosing this option increases the chance that you will be able to actually make a claim. Most are setup that they are charging you one
When I bought my KP-43HT2 at Best Buy in July, I was pressured by 3 saleman to buy an extended warranty.
They swore they were telling me the truth and they weren't on commission so they had nothing to gain (they didn't say anything about a bonus program for selling extended warranties which they probably have). They told me "every RPTV needs annual service" and that the extended warranty more than paid for itself by including these service visits. They claimed the Sony model I was buying specifically listed scheduled maintenance intervals and that I was making a huge mistake and taking a huge risk...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I refused the extended warranty and guess what, my tv has no recommended service schedule to clean and align the guns. I guess that's why they didn't pull out a manual and show me the supposed service schedule. The owners manual only says that if the picture ever darkens substantially, the interior of the cabinet, the screen and guns may need to be cleaned by a qualified technician. That's far different than quarterly or annual service.
I understand that other RPTV do require regular maintenance, so it may have been an honest mistake. Then, again I think it was just so much hard pressure selling and scare tactics.
I don't buy extended warranties. Not on cars. Not on appliances. Not on electronics. It's just a way to pad a store's profit margin.
The owners manual only says that if the picture ever darkens substantially, the interior of the cabinet, the screen and guns may need to be cleaned by a qualified technician.
Picture darkening? no way!
What happens is the picture becomes dull and washed out. Blacks become a dingy gray.
Just got off the phone with an extended warranty provider. CHECK YOUR CONTRACT!!!
Most of their warranties have a limitation on repairs. Here is how it works. If your product is replaced at any time under this contract the warranty is terminated. Yes, you read that right. So if you buy a 4 year warranty and 1.5 years later they are forced to replace the product you just lost the rest of your warranty. I suppose you could exercise the manufacturers warranty but those are still 90 days to a year depending on the model.
This is the first time I have ever heard of such a policy.
Over the years, I have made it a personal policy to NEVER buy an extended service plan. I always figured that the odds were in the favor of the insurance company. Plus, most electronics that survived past the manufacturer's warranty period were usually good for many more years of use without any service.
Flash forward to the purchase of an HDTV. This is not a $200-$300 dollar investment. The set I got was $2200 bucks and the in-home extended warranty was $500 for 5 years. Now, to my thinking, that was less than 5% per year for a lot of piece of mind, whether I ever used it or not.
Exactly 13 months after I got the set (one month after the manufacturer's warranty expired), my power supply went out. It was a service call to troubleshoot the problem and remove the power supply. Then another service call, plus the new part, to put it in. I don't know what service costs in your area, but I feel very happy about that $500 purchase right now.
As far as I'm concerned, I've just about broken even and now I still get 4 more years of coverage for free. Plus, I didn't have to lug that 220 pound monster to a service center (we had enough fun just getting it up on the stand).
The way Best Buy service works is they decline any repair that is still under manufacturers warranty and will send you to a local authorized service center because of the low rates our industry pays most self servicing dealers. In other words they do not get paid enough to provide the service themselves and decline manufacturers warranty service even though you are their customer. On the other hand they are more than happy to take on any service that is out of warranty or covered by extended warranty because they get paid more. How nice for them.
You purchase a Best Buy extended warranty. This warranty is exclusive to Best Buy and they are the direct insurance provider. You experience a failure in the first year and call them for service in which case they send you to a factory authorized service center.
If the warranty is for one year parts and labor then when you call your local factory authorized service center you are set to go, no fuss no muss.
The mistake they constantly make though is with those products that carry only a 90 day warranty for labor and one year on parts they remain on auto pilot and tell the customer to take it to the local factory authorized service center because it is less than one year old. Provided your product is less than 90 days old no fuss no muss but what if it is past 90 days? The service center will not be paid for labor and Best Buy does not pay service centers outside of their own service department. The response from the factory authorized service center will be that they cannot repair it at no charge to the customer.
This creates a huge misunderstanding unnecessarily creating an angry customer for the service center because of two things:
1. The customer assumes the extended warranty is covered by the manufacturer
2. They already called Best Buy and were told to call the factory authorized service center
The only solution is to call Best Buy and inform them that the product is outside of the manufacturers warranty for labor and it is under extended warranty for labor requiring them to repair the product.
Your best bet is to NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER buy extended warranties. The money you save overall will be much more than you'll ever have to pay out for repairs that would have otherwise been covered.
You can always come out ahead on one item or even a few, but in the end the law of averages will catch up with you.
The only time it makes sense is if you cannot afford a costly repair (on a vehicle e.g.) and you finance the warranty so you're only paying a few dollars a month.
Extended warranties are just insurance policies and you should only buy insurance on things you cannot afford to replace - like houses and cars.
Generally, I would have to agree with akrby. The problem is that generalizations rarely hold up in every situation. Extended warranties should be shopped carefully like any other product. You have to understand who the underwriter will be, who will be performng the service, and exactly what will and will not be covered. The times that they make sense are on newer technologies that have extremely expensive repair potential and where the warranty is low in cost relative to the repair cost. PDPs are a good example. A bad panel or a problem in the electronics integrated with the panel will be a catastrophic failure. Likewise, many of the LCD, DLP, and LCOS products have expensive light engines that are not serviceable at a component level.
The bottom line is, compare the risk and the cost and understand who provides what. Do the homework and make an informed decision. Use akirby's good advice as an underlying assumption and check it out.
Hi I found this thread in google because I just bought and extended warranty for a really good price, I am looking for any thoughts about this program do you thing it worth it? I just paid $120 for 2 years.
