Should I buy an extended 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.

[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.

[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

[Driver_King]

You should get a warantee from these guys.

[bhampton]

Hi,

I bought the 2 year extended warranty at WalMart when I bought my PS3 in 06. Since it starts after the Sony warranty it covers you for 3 years from Purchase.

So... I've got another year and several months left. When I bought it since it was a launch system I had no idea if it was a good idea or not. There was lots of people claiming most PS3's would burst into flames if you plugged them in.

My Ps3 has behaved perfectly of course but since I use it for everything now (Upconverted CDs, Upconverted DVDs, Blu Ray, Mp3, MP4, Jpg, and Games) I'm glad to know that I have coverage for another year.

I think since the PS3 has come down in price you can get the 2 year plan (which winds up being 3 years for reasons I mentioned before) from wall mart for $30 and I would get it if I were you just because I'm enjoying the extended coverage on mine.

My PS3 may last for many more years but it's nice to know that if it died soon that I'm covered.

-Brian