Extended Waranties

MamaHog

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....
When should you buy an extended warranty? Never, ever on appliances or electronics.
Click to expand...
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!

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? :popcorn
 
I always get an extended warranty on whatever car I'm driving. I drive a lot of miles so when I buy a new car, it can get 100,000 on it in about 4 years. I got the extended warranty on my Lexus - it saved us a fortune when the transmission started slipping and had to be replaced.
 
I view it like this. If you pay a lot of money for something, like an appliance or a TV, it is an investment you hope to get a lot of time and use out of. Pay a little more up front for an extended warranty or whatever they call it. I only do it for items over $500 though. Anything less that $500 I can usually replace if it breaks without killing me too much. The only exception we ever make is on a vacuum cleaner. We always get a replacement plan on those because we have had such bad luck with them and it has saved us a lot of money being able to get a replacement if they cannot fix it.

I never buy one on a desktop computer or laptop because a new computer is so inexpensive these days. Then again, I am a nerd and I like to fix computer stuff!
 
As a rule, we do not buy extended warranties on anything, except vehicles. The price of a major repair would be covered so you're basically paying for it up front. A roll of the dice, so to speak.

If we do buy an extended warranty, it is from the manufacturers only. It may be more expensive, but I don't think Nissan is going anywhere. If you buy from an "independent" outfit, they may not be in business in a year. Your warranty is worthless and your money for it just disappears.
 
As a rule, I don't buy them.

They are not actually warranties, they are insurance policies. Deciding whether or not to use them is a calculated risk. If you have a device that breaks and you bought a warranty that fixes it, then it paid off. But it's been my experience that it's better to save the money and self-insure. The TV not withstanding, I rarely have a device break during what would be the warranty period or under circumstances where it would be covered.
 
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