MamaHog
Expert Driver
Do you buy them? What products are worth buying them for?
After our stove locked up on us this week and then GD posted about his TV, I started thinking about this. Clark Howard says not to buy the extended waranties. From his website....
Another good example is the Gateway laptop that we had. We bought it from Best Buy and bought the 3 year plan for it. When it crapped out on us, they fixed it, but then it crapped out 2 more times. I was pissed and told them that this was getting old. Turns out that since it was the same problem each time, they were able to replace the product with something that cost the same as the one that we originally bought. This saved us a ton of money and we got a new computer. That was enough to get us to buy the extended waranties on all our major purchases.
So, what is your opinion on extended waranties? Do you have any good stories about when they really saved you? opcorn
After our stove locked up on us this week and then GD posted about his TV, I started thinking about this. Clark Howard says not to buy the extended waranties. From his website....
However, I completely disagree. We have had a few instances where the extended waranties have saved us. This week is a good example...last Friday our oven locked up on us while we were cooking some bacon. None of us were near the oven, so we knew that we hadn't accidentally locked it or turned the self cleaning cycle on. BBG unplugged it and was able to finally get it unlocked, just in time for the bacon to be done mind you, but as soon as he got the bacon out and closed to oven door, it locked again. We bought the stove in Nov. of 2008 and bought the $99.99 five year waranty, so I called the company to get a work order started. They weren't able to get here until this past Tues. and believe it or not, the dang oven was still locked when the repair guy got here. Long story short, he has to replace the locking mechanism and will be back next week after the part comes in. I looked at the reciept that he gave me and this would have cost us $265, but since we have the waranty it will cost us nothing. I am certainly happy that I bought that waranty now!When should you buy an extended warranty? Never, ever on appliances or electronics.
Another good example is the Gateway laptop that we had. We bought it from Best Buy and bought the 3 year plan for it. When it crapped out on us, they fixed it, but then it crapped out 2 more times. I was pissed and told them that this was getting old. Turns out that since it was the same problem each time, they were able to replace the product with something that cost the same as the one that we originally bought. This saved us a ton of money and we got a new computer. That was enough to get us to buy the extended waranties on all our major purchases.
So, what is your opinion on extended waranties? Do you have any good stories about when they really saved you? opcorn