your thoughts on extended guarantees...

C

Cheech

Global Moderator
Jan 13, 2000
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Montreal, Canada
I usually don't get fished into buying these useless guarantees, but this time, I thought it was a good idea.

I bought an ipod for my girlfriend about 2 years ago at Futureshop. When I bought it, the guy started telling me how much of a good idea it would be to get the guarantee. He told me that if the ipod or earphones ever break, it would get replaced right away, no questions asked. he also said that if they didn't carry that model, they would replace it with the newer model at the same price range. I ended up getting fished in, and paid the extra 80$ to get the extended 4 year guarantee.

Anyway, the ipod I purchased turned out to be a lemon. Screen is cracked, and keeps on spreading, becoming uglier, battery life lasts no longer than 3 hours. . .. Every now and then it freezes, and sometimes it just messes up, and we have no choice but to format it and put in the 15 gigs of music that was previously in it. . A big hassle.


Anyway, we brought it to futureshop, with it's original box, bill and extended warranty... the girl told me that she would take the ipod, send it to Apple, and they would fix it. Should take about 4-8 weeks!!!! 4 -8 WEEKS!!! I told her that the guy who sold it to me said it would get replaced same day, and she said that it doesn't work that way. . . She ended up telling me that it has happened in the passed that employees of the store gave customers the wrong info!!!! So I told her that if i knew they wouldn't replace the **** thing, I would have never gotten the guarantee. She told me that there's nothing she could do.


We decided not to leave the ipod with her, cause my gf's become so dependant on her ipod, (while studdiing n stuff) and 2 months is too much of a long time to be without it.


What do you guys think? Did I get screwed or what? is there anything I should try doing? Have any of you had similar experiences?


Such a pissoff!!!
 
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I haven't had a similar experience when trying to use an extended warranty, but I have purchased extended warranties in the past on appliances and electronics, and usually end up paying a wackload of extra money and never use the warranty. I friend that worked in a major department store once told me to never buy the extended warranties - they are just a cash grab for the store and a rip off for the customer!
 
I don't buy into them at point of sale. I have, on occasion, purchased them for expensive items but only when I've read the rules.

I'm not familiar with Futureshop but at places like Best Buy around here, cashiers and other employees are given incentives to move those extended warantees. Because they're often part time kids, they have almost no compulsion to be forthright and honest when explaining the policy. They rarely have a complete understanding of the policy's rules but will tell you what they think you want to hear to sell the policy.

Of course, not all employees are clueless or downright dishonest but the bottom line is, they rarely face serious reprecussions from stretching the truth so there's no good reason to trust them. Always read the policy before you buy in. Often times you have a grace period after the purchase to go back and buy the policy. It may only be a week but that's enough time to read into it fully.

In my mind, its almost always better to take my chances. In the case of an iPod for $300, an $80 policy represents better than 26% of the purchase price. So, you're spending 126% on the chance that AFTER the manufacturers waranty runs out, your iPod will fail all on its own. Even then you're only saving 74% of the original purchase price IF they replace it AND the price hasn't gone down in the 2 years since you bought it. IME if a piece of electronics fails after a year, its because I beat on it and not because it was faulty. So, I prefer to save the $80 and hope that if I do have to replace it in the future, it will be cheaper. Then I can write the difference off as being worth the use I got out of it.

FWIW, the only extended waranty I've found useful is Ritz Camera's ESP program because it covers not only defects but abuse. Everything but fire and theft is covered by repair or replacement.
 
As a technician working at an Apple certified repair center I know first hand the number of broken Ipods we see go through here. Apple is actually usually pretty good at repairing and returning items pretty fast. All the parts we order arrive the next day, and they are usually right on top of thier service. My best suggestion for repairing ipods under warranty would be to go to apple.com and then click on the support button. There you can select your ipod and fill out a repair form. They will overnight you a box to send the ipod in and usually don't take very long to do the repairs if all the parts are available. You are probably not looking at more than 2 weeks at the most for repairs, and it will save you having to deal with crappy customer service.
Just keep in mind the cost of the parts if it weren't under warranty.
Motherboard= $120 Screen $80 Hard drive= $80 Headphone jack w/attach board= $110 front case with click wheel=$70 and Battery $30
not to mention labor, those things are a ***** to take apart. $65/hour
 
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two words - RIP OFF

Dont EVEN get me started about Future shop...I dropped 4700 bucks there, bought their BS extended warranty and still had to fight with them for a YEAR to replace my faulty harddrive...A harddrive that was faulty from the get go..I took it back immediately and that was when the fun began. Yes a frigging 80 part...Would of taken 10 mins to replace it.

YES-Their sales people do make money on selling these extended warrantys...It is the bulk of their pay from what I understand...When you look at the price of the extended warranty and given the way that electronics prices drop like a rock in a year or two, by passing up the price of the new warranty, you could probably buy a new one with the money you save.

It wasnt until I staged a one woman campaign on the sidewalk infront of the store that they FINALLY did something about it... A photocopier and a big mouth go REAL far on a busy Saturday morning.;)

I will never buy anything in Future Shop again...I dont care if it is the last place on earth.
 
Personally, I don't like the extended warranty that's offered by the retailers. like the Best Buy extension warranty, and the Staples protection plan. If you want a warranty that goes past the orrigianal coverage get it directly from the MANUFACTURER. It may not be much less expensive, but you will be dealing with the people that MADE the product, and NOT some pimply faced little punk who hasen't even looked at the warranty pamphlet.
On a side note: You pretty much HAVE to get the warranty with all the new low-end Dell computers. They only have a 90day warranty. EVERY OTHER computer manufacturer has a 1year warranty. Try to tell me they don't suck? I have 2 on my desk right now that aren't even 6months old with bad logic boards.
 
I bought an mp3 player at future shop, and it busted about a week later. But because I had an extended warranty, I brought it back and gave me a new one on the spot! Maybe the guy screwed up or something, but I never had to wait for something.
 
I don't usally purchase the extended warrenties, but did when we got a laptop for my daughter from Bestbuy. I was pleased with it, they had it in 2 x to work on it and we didn't have to pay.
 
The extended warranty I like is the one from IBM, it's thier 3year accident coverage warranty. You can basically run over the laptop with your car, throw it in your fishtank, and let your dog use it as a chew-toy and all the parts would then be replaced with brand-new parts, no questions asked.
Once again though, this is a warranty through IBM the manufacturer, and not a 3rd party warranty company which re-enforces my argument that warranties are only good if they are directly from the manufacturer.
 
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