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Extended Guarantee / Warranty - Do you take it?

Shaun.P

Shaun.P

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 14, 2003
1,601
24
Omicron Persei 8
I work for an electrical store in the UK, and as part of the service we offer the customer extended warranties or guarantees on their products. These are usually 3 or 5 years in duration.

Not everyone takes them, some people say they're too expensive, some people think there is always a catch, and some people will simply "buy a new one" if their product breaks down.

I was wondering, do any of you, here, in MacRumors take extended warranties. If yes, why? And if not, why not?

How important is a guarantee to you?

Say I was to offer you a brand new, unopened, sealed, MacBook Pro, straight from the Apple Store, that costs $1999.99 or £1299.99 (current Apple price). However, there is a catch - it comes with no guarantee, not even the 1 year standard, if you take it home and it was faulty, you can't send it for repair (without forking the bill yourself). How much would you offer me for it?

I am not trying to sell you a laptop here :D, but think about the question. How much is that free, one year peace of mind worth to you?
 
Depends on the product. I buy all of my electronic stuff from Future Shop here in Canada(our equivalent of Best Buy.) And the sales staff tries to sell me warranty on EVERYTHING. I say yes to all my big purchases because it has come in handy quite a few times now. I bought it on my Macbook and have had it fixed 2 times and replaced once(with a newer model)...I paid $369 for a 3 year warranty on the mid-level Macbook which seems expensive but it has more than paid for itself now. I also bought it on my new LCD HDTV, and receiver for the speakers. I didn't buy it on things like the speakers themselves, my PS3, iPod's, etc. as those are items that A)have a lower rate of failure/repair, and B)are something that's cheap enough for me not to bother with paying for an extra warranty.

Wow, I went on for awhile there...but I think it depends on who the warranty is bought from(Future Shop is fully Apple certified to do repairs, so I trust them), how much it is, and what it is being bought on. I just don't understand the people who want to buy a new computer, hope to keep it for 3-6 years and don't think there will be at least one major hiccup or problem with it. But to each their own...
 
I forgot to mention, I'm not really talking AppleCare here people, I'm talking warranties for accidental damage like you would get at Best Buy / Currys whatever. On any appliances - TVs, washing machines, laptops etc.

Blurredline, I agree with you - it depends on the product. That is why I never put a poll in this thread - because it depends on what you are buying.

I'd definitely take cover on a washing machine, or buy a 'premium' brand that would come with a 2 or 5 year guarantee as standard, i.e. Miele, Bosch or Siemens. Fair enough, they are more expensive - but the cover would be included!

I have Applecare on my MBP.

As for TVs, I am not too sure.
 
For me, it depends on the product, but 98% of the time, No.

My Jeep and My Toshiba I use to have and a couple of other things. But most of the time, nothing happens, except I spend a lot of money with no need to.
 
I never take them out, I'm one of the ones who sees them as a rip off.

Oh and to answer your example. I'd offer nothing, from the description I'd assume it was stolen.
 
It's is still the wrong question. Nobody is going to buy a £1300 computer without at least a one year warranty.

One of the reasons most people don't take out the extended warranty from the likes of PC World, Currys and Comet is the way it is sold. You don't want to think about something failing when you are just buying it. Maybe they would be better off using the customers details and give the customer a call near to the end of the standard 1 year warranty. Plus people don't want to pay another £200-300 when they are already spending a good chunk of cash on the purchase in the first place.
 
scotthayes said:
It's is still the wrong question. Nobody is going to buy a £1300 computer without at least a one year warranty.
Click to expand...

I would, I'd probably pay £599 - £699 what are the chances that a brand new sealed MacBook Pro would have problems as soon as you take it out of the box?

One of the reasons most people don't take out the extended warranty from the likes of PC World, Currys and Comet is the way it is sold. You don't want to think about something failing when you are just buying it. Maybe they would be better off using the customers details and give the customer a call near to the end of the standard 1 year warranty. Plus people don't want to pay another £200-300 when they are already spending a good chunk of cash on the purchase in the first place.
Click to expand...

True, you don't want to think about the worst possible things happening to your products. Near the end of the one year however, you usually do receive a letter from the insurance company asking you to extend the cover. Unfortunately it is often much more expensive than if you took it out in the store at point of purchase.

I agree again with you saying that people don't want to pay £200-300 pounds extra when already spending a "good chunk of money". Currys offers "Whatever Happens" and you can pay the guarantee is small monthly payments by direct debit and cancel it whenever you like.
Comet offers "Total Product Cover" and this allows the guarantee to be split into 4 payments and paid quaterely by direct debit.

Both are ways of taking out the insurance without having to pay it all upfront.

Having working in this field of sales, I come across a lot of arrogant people who have their own expectations of the extra insurance (through dealings of the past) and label every other type of insurance with the same brush - and refuse to listen at all.

Some customers point of views:

If it breaks after the year, I'll buy a new one.
Okay if you can afford to buy a new £1000 TV every couple of years!

I have house insurance.
Don't we all. House insurance policies typically have a £50 to £100 excess, a lot of forms to fill in and a lot of hassle. Premiums will also go up if you claim, and claims are usually depreciating value. If your £1299 MacBook Pro breaks 4 years down the line, you will get no where near £1299.

I had my old one 15 years.
Build quality (unless buying a premium brand) isn't what it used to be.
 
Pretty much anything I pay more that $200-$300 for I'll get a warranty for as my electronics break depressingly often. However when items are less than that the hassle/time/money spent on warranties rarely is worth it. Also for small items like that the store is much more likely to tell you that whatever is wrong with it isn't covered under the warranty. At least that's my experience.
 
I'm pretty sure that warrentys are most rip offs, but I have no idea where I got that idea. Does anyone have an explanation.
 
To the OP and the original question: very important. Actually, I always look for warranty, guarantee, even on a CD, and I have used sales receipts to verify purchase and request replacement even when something as minor as a CD was flawed.

Besides, I like the idea of legal comeback, and being able to oblige the vendor to replace/repair faulty goods. Also, to answer your original question, no vendor should be allowed to sell anything with that sort of condition attached, it is, in a sense, a blind gamble.

Answering your query makes me realise that it matters a lot to me; a sort of trust or implied contract, or moral - as well as commercial trade - exists here. The vendor sells something which is assumed to be capable of performing the function it is designed for; you should not have to take that on trust, not if it is a commercial transaction. Otherwise, you have no protection if it is flawed, and worse, they have no incentive not to sell you a flawed product, unless pride in their product is a motivation which equals the profit imperative. Anyway, trust is for friends, family, close colleagues, not for businesses.

One of the reasons I switched to Apple, was the fact that they honoured their guarantees, rather than seeking refuge in contractual small print; two iPods (both within warranty, died - battery issues) and were immediately replaced without fuss, which impressed me. My MBP has Applecare as well as the original warranty, so yes, it matters quite a lot.

Cheers
 
madfresh said:
I rarely do as hardly of the stuff I buy ever breaks. Plus, extended warranty just helps greedy companies like Best Buy make money.
Click to expand...

When you purchase a warranty, the amount usually goes to the insurance company and the insurance company provides Best Buy or whoever, which a 'cut' of the money. From what I've heard, we're talking no more than 20%.

Oh and to answer your example. I'd offer nothing, from the description I'd assume it was stolen.
Click to expand...

Also, to answer your original question, no vendor should be allowed to sell anything with that sort of condition attached, it is, in a sense, a blind gamble.
Click to expand...

I think everyone has missed the point on what I am trying to say with my original question:

I know no vendor is allowed to sell something with that condition attached, I asked this merely for thread readers to ponder how important it is knowing that they have that one year guarantee.

No one in their right mind would pay full price for something without a guarantee, even if it is brand new and sealed. What I'm trying to deduce from all of this is that you, in a small way, are paying for a one year guarantee when you buy something. It is factored into the price. If you offer £700 for a £1300 MBP, you are effectively saying that having that first year guarantee, which you always get for free is worth £600 to you. If you'd offer £1000 then you're saying the first year guarantee is worth £300. If you'd offer 'nothing' then you are missing the point. It was a hypothetical situation. Not stolen goods!

Answering your query makes me realise that it matters a lot to me; a sort of trust or implied contract, or moral - as well as commercial trade - exists here. The vendor sells something which is assumed to be capable of performing the function it is designed for; you should not have to take that on trust, not if it is a commercial transaction. Otherwise, you have no protection if it is flawed, and worse, they have no incentive not to sell you a flawed product, unless pride in their product is a motivation which equals the profit imperative. Anyway, trust is for friends, family, close colleagues, not for businesses.
Click to expand...

True.
 
That's why I buy big electronics on my Amex. Free extension on the warranty through them. A little bit more piece of mind. Plus it helps to be loyal to a brand and know how to write a complaint letter.
 
I never purchase them, I generally work by the assumption that things I own generally get damaged in some way or other that's not covered and I'm perfectly capable of repairing my own kit so there's really no point, a few parts down the line are cheaper than the cost of the plan.
 
7on said:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/extended_warranty.html
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About the last point in that article - extended warranties running concurrent with your manufacturers warranty - you tend to find that that extended warranty 're-enforces' your first year of cover so it covers things like accidental damage. Accidental damage is never covered in your first year standard manufacturers warranty.

Also some covers on small appliances are sometimes expensive. However on something like a washing machine, a 5 year cover can be something like £129.99 - £159.99. Considering an engineer callout charge is anywhere from £80-£90 (that is simply having the manufacturer engineer (i.e. Hotpoint engineer) come out to your house and diagnose the problem, you would have parts, labour and VAT on top of that price), this doesn't exactly seem a 'rip off'.
 
I'd give you UKP 300 (sorry, but I don't know how to find the pound sign on my US English keyboard) for the MacBook Pro. Not a penny more.

When I bought my current Powerbook, I didn't purchase Applecare (which is basically an extended warranty) as I thought it was too expensive. Just over a year later, I decided to purchase an Airport Extreme card for my Powerbook. Yeah, this was in those olden days when the Powerbook's didn't come with WiFi built in. But after buying an Airport Extreme card and slotting it into my Powerbook, and installing the software, still no go. I couldn't find any wireless networks. I took it into a store, and I was told that there was a fault with the logic board, and it would cost me 700 Euros to fix it (fixing it meant changing the logic board). If I had been a few days earlier, I could have gotten it fixed for free under warranty.

Anyway, I've learnt my lesson now; the next Mac notebook I buy will have AppleCare.
 
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