Waste of money warranties
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Holiday shopping is just around the corner, and so are the hard sells for extended warranties and service plans.
Consumer Reports says there's a real dollars-and-cents reason for that. Stores make a lot more profit on those than on the actual product you're buying! In fact, Consumer Reports says service plans are almost never worth it.
Consumer Reports' reader survey shows that products rarely break during the service contract period. And even if they do, it doesn't cost that much more to repair them than it does for the contract itself. Extended service plans are expensive. They can boost your costs by 30 percent or more and can run into hundreds of dollars.
And Consumer Reports' surveys find that If you pay for a repair yourself, there's a better chance that it's going to be done correctly and quicker than if you had it repaired under contract.
Consumer Reports says better than buying a service plan is paying with a credit card. Many cards automatically extend the manufacturer's warranty up to a year, so check your terms.
Calling the manufacturer can pay off, too. Just because the manufacturer's warranty has expired doesn't necessarily mean that you're out of luck. If you contact the manufacturer and make a good argument, there's a good chance the company will pay for part or all of the repair.
Consumer Reports says the one possible exception to the "No Extended Warranty Rule" is when buying a laptop. If you're going to travel with it a lot, Consumer Reports says you may want to consider an extended warranty that covers accidental damage.
Consumer Reports says there's a real dollars-and-cents reason for that. Stores make a lot more profit on those than on the actual product you're buying! In fact, Consumer Reports says service plans are almost never worth it.
Consumer Reports' reader survey shows that products rarely break during the service contract period. And even if they do, it doesn't cost that much more to repair them than it does for the contract itself. Extended service plans are expensive. They can boost your costs by 30 percent or more and can run into hundreds of dollars.
And Consumer Reports' surveys find that If you pay for a repair yourself, there's a better chance that it's going to be done correctly and quicker than if you had it repaired under contract.
Consumer Reports says better than buying a service plan is paying with a credit card. Many cards automatically extend the manufacturer's warranty up to a year, so check your terms.
Calling the manufacturer can pay off, too. Just because the manufacturer's warranty has expired doesn't necessarily mean that you're out of luck. If you contact the manufacturer and make a good argument, there's a good chance the company will pay for part or all of the repair.
Consumer Reports says the one possible exception to the "No Extended Warranty Rule" is when buying a laptop. If you're going to travel with it a lot, Consumer Reports says you may want to consider an extended warranty that covers accidental damage.
Just like all insurance companies...if something breaks they will fight you tooth and nail not to pay the full cost, or they will try to pass off a sub par repair on you. These warranties are never worth it.
I mostly shun extended/additional warranties. The few times I have gotten them, they have worked in my favor. One was on a used vehicle, the others have been on small electronic devices. I would recommend it for ipads (notoriously fragile screen glass) and expensive cell phones. Regular consumer products, probably not as within the regular warranty period they are either going to work, or not.
I do recommend getting the iPad extended warranty, even though it adds $99 to a $500 or $600 device - that one does cover accidental breakage. Â I didn't get one, and then my iPad slipped between my bed and the wall, and the glass over the screen hit the corner of the bed frame and got a huge set of cracks. Â This is just the glass, the device still functions perfectly, but Apple won't fix that, they'll just charge $450 to replace the entire device (I've learned to live with the cracks, I got an expensive screen-protector made of glass to go over the cracked screen).
Forget the so called extended warranty. Period. Even on a laptop. It's not worth it. They will lie to you about what it covers. Commonly they'll tell you it covers accidental breakage. Every time they've told me that, I've asked to see the terms first, and either they backpedal real fast from that claim, or they produce the document, and I prove to them they're liars. At which point I walk out of the store without buying the item.