Have you ever bought extended warranty?

[Arika]

Since literally everyone gets asked this when buying any tech, would be interesting to see how many people get it

 

And if so, why and what was it?

[Jurrunio]

I do trust the U shaped failure rate over time graph

[minibois]

No I have not, I am always careful with my tech stuff

*proceeds to knock on all the wooden surfaces within a 2 mile radius of myself*

 

I understand the application of these warranty services, often having more lenient damage control things (e.g. accidental spills may be under this warranty), but you often find yourself double or triple insuring yourself.

On top of the manufacturer warranty, the store warranty (which is how it work where I live), personal insurance and possibly even Creditcard damage warranty, you don't often need to have a dedicated (extended) warranty on a product.

 

These separate warranty programs may be worth it to some, because insurance companies often just take the 2nd hand value of a laptop for example, instead of looking at the original value of the machine. The rates of these insurances may increase too.

Other than that, the manufacturer warranty doesn't cover everything too.

[tatte]

It's not that I wouldn't pay for one if I felt it provided real value, but since I don't buy particularly expensive products and everything already comes with 2+ year warranties, the math just hasn't added up yet. I guess if I ever end up buying another iPhone and there's a no-hassle-no-questions warranty for a reasonable price, it might make sense (due to what feels like ever more expensive baseline).

 

For many products a good home insurance is probably better investment.

[Levent]

During my whole time in tech, I only got 2 devices successfully repaired/replaced/refunded (out of 10 or so claims I made). I never get extended warranties, I just use my stuff carefully, if something breaks I use that as an excuse to learn how to repair it.

[Automobili3XF]

Literally once, and i accidentally killed the product before the warranty expired, it was just the worst thing...

[dizmo]

I've purchased extended warranty on 2 two things I can think of off the top of my head. 

 

1. Hyper X headset - It allowed it to be returned to the store, avoiding the manufacturer. Came in useful as it developed a faulty volume control knob.
2. My printer - It was $6 and the cashier was hella cute. 

[harryk]

I think its important to differentiate extended warranties and damage protection plans.

 

Extended warranties are almost never worth it. If the product is going to fail because a manufacturing defect it is most likely to do so sooner rather than later. 

 

When it comes to damage protection plans there are a few questions I ask myself:

- Would this product be covered under my home insurance if I had to replace it?

- Do I have the money to buy a replacement product if I had to?

- Would I be able to continue living/working without this product?

- Is the cost of protection a significant fraction of the value of the product?

 

The only items I have protection for are my car and my couches. Car insurance because I have to, but I have top notch comprehensive coverage because I rely on my car everyday and I couldn't afford to replace it. I purchased additional coverage for my couches because it was only $40 dollars for 5 years replacement no questions asked which is a great deal if anyone ever spilled something nasty on them. 

[seon123]

No. Because consumer rights here in Norway are awesome. 

For anything inexpensive, it doesn't really matter too much if it breaks. Those have to be replaced or refunded by the store up to 2 years after purchase. 

For stuff that's supposed to be used for significantly longer than 2 years, this goes up to 5 years. 

[LogicalDrm]

Yes, once. Since we do get 2 years for pretty much all electronics, I don't see point of extending it. The one time I've got it, it was +1 year on-site for business grade laptop. So 3 years of on-site warranty. I don't remember how much it was, might have been a package deal to get downgrade option too (for Vista to XP).

[Princess Luna]

Nope

[Video Beagle]

I do Applecare for most of my bigger Apple stuff, because it's way worth it. Macs tend to have fewer issues than PCs...but their issues tend to be bigger.

 

[jones177]

Yes.

 

I did when VCRs were a thing. They had lots of gears that could fail so it made sense. The CD drives that replaced them had less moving parts and were much cheaper to replace so I did not warranty them.

[Drak3]

No, and unless it has this

on the back of it, the extended warantee is a waste of money.

[Guest]

No, not even AppleCare. New Zealand law requires a free lifetime warranty for the product. So it’s free 3 year warranty. I was surprised when I took my 2016 MacBook in last month, it still had a few months of warranty left, till 2020 infact. Apple warranty too, not just reseller. 

[AngryBeaver]

The only things I might buy extended warranties for our my phones and my vehicles.

[kaiju_wars]

I've only done it a handful of times.  I did it on my HP IPS monitor when I first built my PC.  I did it on my XS Max (through AT&T).  I also did it on my Nintendo Switch, since I bought a used one.

[kelvinhall05]

No because the most expensive thing I've bought new (and therefore been able to buy a warranty with it) has only been around $50 and it was an HDD so even if it does fail, I just put a new one in and restore from a backup.

[SenKa]

Not extended warrrenty, but I will buy spill/drop protection for the duration of the general warranty if it doesn't come with it. Even this only on devices I could see myself accidentally getting wet when they shouldnt, which isn't much these days.

[ToneStar]

On 5/30/2019 at 9:01 AM, tatte said:

It's not that I wouldn't pay for one if I felt it provided real value, but since I don't buy particularly expensive products and everything already comes with 2+ year warranties, the math just hasn't added up yet. I guess if I ever end up buying another iPhone and there's a no-hassle-no-questions warranty for a reasonable price, it might make sense (due to what feels like ever more expensive baseline).

 

For many products a good home insurance is probably better investment.

Uh no you would not use your home insurance policy for that, that would be dumb.  First off if you have a home owners insurance policy with a deductible that low you are paying out the ass for nothing, 2nd you would increase your premiums with every claim.

[Trik'Stari]

If it's over $100, then yes.

[Kisai]

On 5/30/2019 at 5:51 AM, Arika S said:

Since literally everyone gets asked this when buying any tech, would be interesting to see how many people get it

 

And if so, why and what was it?

I did with the first laptop. It was also worth it, since the laptop's cooling fans died several times under warranty, also the hinge seized up and that was replaced.

 

Now with that said, aside from laptops, smartphones/tablets (which Extended Warranties are worth getting primarily because repair is difficult, and thus you usually end up with a newer/better device if it does fail) most desktop components or "Complete desktops" are not worth getting an extended warranty for, and this has more to do with how individual parts failing are cheaper to upgrade/replace than the warranty on the whole is.

 

Had I bought my original X3220 system as a whole system, I would have had the warranty replace it, but instead I replaced each part one at a time until I found the fault with the PSU and later the CPU. With my present system, no parts have failed, not even the mechanical and optical drives that came from the X3220.  No the only parts that "failed" were three and five GPU's ago, which was a Radeon 5770 and a HD 2600 IIRC (I'm sure I have it in a box somewhere.) In to be fair, I don't think it was the GPU chip in the 5770 that failed, I think it was the Video RAM, as it would gradually get more and more visual artifacts over time. Well after the factory warranty, but before the typical 3 year extended warranty would end

[Zodiark1593]

Once, wheni bought my used car, primarily due to bekng paranoid/obsessive about things breaking. It was a waste of money, lesson learned, I won't do it again, etc, etc, etc.

 

I won't usually bother with extended warranties on my electronics as I take care of my stuff, and things suddenly breaking is very rare.

[B16CXHatch]

I use to have to sell various plans at my old job (office store). One thing you have to keep in mind is the difference between extended warranties, service plans, and replacement plans. Basic extended warranties, to me, tend to not be worthwhile (except maybe on new cars but I've only ever had 10+ year old cars). Service plans are generally for items above a certain cost because they would lose money like nobody's business if they just replaced the item when something went wrong. They are basically an extended warranty with wider coverage. I'm also not a big fan of those cause the service can be real hit or miss. Replacement plans are what the name suggests and replace the item if something goes wrong and can be super worth it for certain items. These are the only kind of plan I really like. Before we were bought out, more items qualified for replacement making the plans more worthwhile but it got to were very few plans were worth getting after the buyout.

 

One of the major things service and replacement plans will cover is accidental damage. That's really the most worthwhile thing. Always get the replacement plan on a $150+ chair. The plans tended to be pretty cheap (like $10-15 for chairs around that price) and in 3 years, you break anything, they'd refund the price of the chair. It was pretty decent on desks too. Plans for tablets over $100 were pretty cheap. Totally worth it for the average person since they are prone to drops and broken charge ports. Computer service and replacement plans were stupid expensive though. The desktop plans were completely worthless. All-in-One plans were kinda worthwhile cause they seemed to be more failure prone after the manufacturer warranty expired than towers. Laptops, well, it depends. They were the most expensive plan but were really only worthwhile on more expensive laptops (which makes the plan more expensive) and for people who were accident prone. For someone like me, I'd rather risk it.

 

Other items again, it can be hit or miss. Paper shredders, yeah, worth it on more expensive models. People have a bad habit of putting sticky shit in them. Printers, nope. Don't do it EXCEPT on mobile printers. While yes, headphones are prone to being broken, the plan was too much in my opinion (we also didn't sell particularly high end headphones). Keyboards and mice, nope unless you are a total rager. Speakers, no. Hard drives, SSDs, and flash drives, no. At least not at that store. It covered replacement of hardware only. No data recovery. Zipper binders and backpacks. YES! Especially if it's for a kid. The plans were stupid cheap and kids break that shit all the time.

 

Now, it's been a few years since I worked there so take what I've said with a grain of salt. Ultimately though, I tend not buy any plans or extended warranties. I buy them on office chairs and that's about it. I haven't got a chair in over 3 years though. It was, however, a replacement that the plan for my previous chair paid for.

[tatte]

4 hours ago, ToneStar said:

Uh no you would not use your home insurance policy for that, that would be dumb.  First off if you have a home owners insurance policy with a deductible that low you are paying out the ass for nothing, 2nd you would increase your premiums with every claim.

No, first off my insurance company can't change the pricing mid term (a year), and can't change it for "an event" occurring even between terms. I don't actually have a 2nd since that pretty much covers it, but I figured you'd like the attitude back. You're welcome.