Should I buy an extended warranty?

[mr. blu]

I'll be purchasing either a Samsung BD-P1500 or a PS3 (can't decide which, and it's driving me crazy) from Walmart, because of the gift card sale, but I'm not sure whether I should get an extended service contract.

Worth it?

[Edh63]

How could anyone give you an educated answer on this? That's a personal choice. If you think you need to, then buy one. I didn't because I rarely by them. I don't think anyone should coach you on that decision though. No one's had one long enough to even begin to give an educated response to your question.

Now, what you'll probably have behind my post are the myriads of posters who will give you their opinions based on no substantiated facts for this player. Some people just like buying them because it's peace of mind. That's what an extended warranty's design is intended to do before purchasing, bring peace of mind on the value perceived platform. If you happen to get to use it, then more power to you for having it. My experience though is that, more times than not, you will pay for something you don't use. Typically for something like this it will break within the manufacturers warranty time frame if it's going to break at all. Factory warranties over term diminish in coverage to some degree and don't give you everything you've paid for at the end of term. This is what's called diminished term coverage.

[Lucy Diamond]

Edh63 is right on the money.

Extended warranties are simply "add on" sales. you may use it....you may not.

It's just like buying a strap with a new guitar...no different.

Add on sales.

But yes....follow your heart and do what is right for you with EVERYTHING you do.

Do you like games??? The Ps3 does it all if you do.

[Entertainment72]

Well said Edh63.

[BStecke]

Personally I'd try to match the gift card offer at Best Buy and buy their replacement plan. That way if anything happens to you it just walk in and they give you a new one. I'm not sure how Wal Mart's stuff works, but if it's an extension of the factory warranty you'll probably end up sending it back to Sony for anything. Much easier to deal with Best Buy.

[court12345]

[QUOTE=Lucy Diamond;954308]Edh63 is right on the money.

Extended warranties are simply "add on" sales. you may use it....you may not.

***********
The only caveat is that if you don't buy an extended warranty and something goes wrong, you will probably have to buy a new TV since the repair costs are prohibitive.

But yeah, most warranties seem to cover the period when you DON"T need repairs...

what I did was get an extended warranty for some household appliances, a refrig and dishwasher, AFTER the 5 year period, ie for 5-10 years from Sears (didn't buy them there) ...and haggled them for the final price...I figure it was worth the peace of mind for older appliances, but you can't always get them for used appliances.

[SDG]

I've had my PS3 since week 3 after launch. No Problems. I paid for the extra warranty at gamestop. Was a waist of money. The PS3 will do so much more than the BF-P1500. I would get the PS3 and a remote. The controler sucks when used as a remote.

[Ranger-R]

Its per brand as well some companies make their product better, As I don't know that much about the Funia, Insignia player, i'll probably pay for the swap out program.

[jsteinhauer]

Consumer Reports says no almost universally!

The one exception is projection displays.

[cawgijoe]

Extended warranties are mainly extra profit for the stores. If you really feel more comfortable with one, that's your call, but I think you would be better off putting aside say, $25 a week in your savngs account and ear-mark it towards a possible future repair. If the player does not fail, you've got some extra spending money. Could be $1,200 saved or more based on a one year manufacturer's warranty.

[Hep]

Originally Posted by Edh63

How could anyone give you an educated answer on this? That's a personal choice.

I would have to respectfully disagree with this statement. There is such thing as an educated answer for this question. It's a simple matter weighing probability and cost.

To illustrate this point assume the cost of the coverage is equal to the price of purchasing a new unit. In this case it obviously makes no sense to purchase the extra coverage.

On the other extreme, if the coverage was free, it would be a no brainer. Everything in between is a matter of probability of failure, and cost of coverage. While I freely admit I don't have all the data to give you the answer, there is a logical thought process you may want to consider:

Just like gambling, the odds always favour the house. This means that manufacturers/retailers (who have access to the appropriate numbers) always set the cost for the coverage above the probability of failure costs.

Originally Posted by jsteinhauer

Consumer Reports says no almost universally!
The one exception is projection displays.

Consumer Reports does this independently, and has found this to be true as well (I would suggest the manufacturers underestimated the failure rates of projection displays, leading to the exception).

Using this logic, if you live your life with numerous products, and never take the coverage, you should be ahead. If you decide to take the coverage, over a lifetime, odds are you will pay more.

If this gives you no peace of mind, then by all means give them more money.

[CobraComander]

I usually buy one on all my high dollar electronic purchases...has paid off in the past.

[Edh63]

Originally Posted by Hep

I would have to respectfully disagree with this statement. There is such thing as an educated answer for this question. It's a simple matter weighing probability and cost.

To illustrate this point assume the cost of the coverage is equal to the price of purchasing a new unit. In this case it obviously makes no sense to purchase the extra coverage.

On the other extreme, if the coverage was free, it would be a no brainer. Everything in between is a matter of probability of failure, and cost of coverage. While I freely admit I don't have all the data to give you the answer, there is a logical thought process you may want to consider:

Just like gambling, the odds always favour the house. This means that manufacturers/retailers (who have access to the appropriate numbers) always set the cost for the coverage above the probability of failure costs.



Consumer Reports does this independently, and has found this to be true as well (I would suggest the manufacturers underestimated the failure rates of projection displays, leading to the exception).

Using this logic, if you live your life with numerous products, and never take the coverage, you should be ahead. If you decide to take the coverage, over a lifetime, odds are you will pay more.

If this gives you no peace of mind, then by all means give them more money.

Ok, Spock.

[mtl007]

Usually it is not worth it on electronics because the price drop has been so drastic even within a 12 month period.

Consider using a credit card that offers an extension of the manufacturer's warranty by a year. Even with the yearly fees, it is still cheaper than buying the shop's extended warranty. Over the years, I have used that a couple of times and that has worked out for me too.

For me, when I buy a car, I do buy the extended warranty and that usually pay off.

[SeahawxBlu]

I bought one for my PS3 (Best Buy) and have never needed it. Bought one for my LCD and have used it once. Some people buy them as added security, some people see them as ripoffs.

Having worked for Best Buy long ago selling computers, I used to recommend them to people who bought Packard Bell machines. The "No Lemon" clause in the warranties came into play more than a few times.

[aviman33]

Just buy the PS3 from Sonystyle.com. They still have the $100 Platinum credit card offer and free shipping. The 40g PS3 is $399 - $100 = $299. Also the Sony Platinum card doubles your factory warranty up to 1 additional year for free. The $100 card credit applies directly to you PS3 purchase, you don't have to spend the $100 on other crap in addition to the PS3.

The credit application is simple and they give you the 16 digit credit card number right online so you can immediately use it to purchase the PS3. The purchase must be any Sony product for a minimum of $299 to qualify. Lastly there is no interest on this 1st qualifying purchase for 12 months.

Your other option is to buy it from Wal-Mart with a Platinum Visa or Mastercard, which also provides a free double warranty extension.

BTW, I would never pay for a warranty extension form a retail store.

John

[DIY_HD]

I picked up an issue of Consumer Reports before I bought my Sony LCD. In that issue was a list of failure rates for various manufacturers and products. These ranged from 1% to 6%, depending on the product and company. Electronics, for the most part, are very reliable and trouble free. Disc players have moving parts and that may be a consideration.

On the other side, salespeople are incented to sell extended warranties. In fact, they often get corrective interviews or have at least part of their performance based on what percent of their sales have one added on. There is a good reason for this. Statistically, only 4% of those who buy an extended warranty ever use it. That means these result in huge profits for the retailers who sell them. On the plus side, if you do buy one and use it, they rarely give you a hard time about it since this is a minor expense compared to the revenue these generate. They also want you to buy one on your future purchases.

Statistics aside, this is the sort of decision that if the unit never fails, you'll feel like you are stupid for shopping all around for the best price and then voluntarily paying more for the product. But if it fails under the extended warranty period, and you didn't buy one, you will kick yourself for not buying it.

Me, I'm a gambling man when it comes to extended warranties. For electronics, I gamble on the equipment lasting. I just upgraded from a Sony TV that we bought when my son was born, 18 years ago! The only repair we ever had was when we moved (and bounced it around in a truck for 700 miles).

Ultimately, it's your call. You just might be one of the 4% that use it. Think of it as insurance, the only thing we ever buy that we never want to use!

[STARKILLER--1138]

Originally Posted by Hep

If this gives you no peace of mind, then by all means give them more money.

Couldn't agree more.

[jsteinhauer]

In summary, if you never buy an extended warranty, once in a long while you will have a failure resulting in an expensive repair/replacement. However, you probably save more money by not buying warranties to more than cover the cost of occasional repairs. I've never bought one, myself, and I've never needed one. If a product is a lemon, problems typically crop up earlier rather than later (within the standard warranty period).

[BStecke]

Another advantage of the Best Buy replacement plan is that if a new version of the system comes out and you have a "problem" with yours, you can upgrade for the difference, or get the new one for free. Case in point, if I had a "problem" with my 80gb, I could swap it for the Metal Gear bundle at no additional cost. So . . . I'm sure over two years you could get your money's worth somewhere