Extended Warranty

[Ste T.]

Do you ever take out the extended warranty when buying new goods? The reason I ask is that I am about to buy a new DSLR and have been offered three years of cover for less than 5% of the asking price of the camera.This seems like a pretty good deal on the face of it, but then I started to think....I cant remember the last time something we have bought broke down in the first three years. Consumer goods seem to be of a very high standard nowadays. Having said that, digital SLRs are quite complicated things with a lot of moving parts and electronics to go wrong.... Have you had the need to use an extended warranty?

 

[Arch]

Might depend what it covers. When I bought my digital camera (just a point and shoot Nikon), I was offered the cover, which included accidental damage. I don't normally buy cover, (I don't buy many cunsumer durables anyway), but for some reason I took it out - it was something like £20.

It came in very handy a few months later when I dropped the camera onto a concrete patio and bits popped out...

Fixed for free.

 

[Ste T.]

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Accidental cover included eh, now I didn't know that. I'll have to look into it.

 

[PatrickPending]

Reliability seems to follow a bucket curve -ie initially something is more likely to go wrong - its covered by the standard warranty here, then there is a period with minimal faliure - the period 'extended warranties insure you for - and towards the end of the items life the unreliability climbs up again. Hope this makes some sense - basically the odds are in favour of the insurer not you.

 

[byegad]

We work on not taking the cover. With the all of the white goods in the kitchen plus TV, DTR, DVD player, etc, cameras and three Laptops, the costs saved will replace any two in a 12 month period. So far we replace at less than 1 a year, more like 2 to 3 years between breakdowns.

 

[Arch]

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Accidental cover included eh, now I didn't know that. I'll have to look into it.

Well, check out whether it's included. I was shopping at Jessops.

If I had household insurance, it would have been covered yes, but I don't.

 

[Night Train]

I generally don't take out the warrenty on the basis I can fix most things myself or would have replaced it before it breaks.

I did debate this with the pushy sales chap in Currys when I was replacing my parents tumble dryer last year. Some dryers had extended warrenty offers and other didn't. I bought the one with the warrenty offer but didn't take the warrenty.

My thinking was that the ones without warrenty were likely to fail and the insurer knows it. The ones with warrenty were unlikely to fail as the insurer knows it is unlikely to have to pay out.

I have been right so far on all my appliance purchases over the last 10 years.

The only thing I have insured at he moment is my phone on the basis I have had to make at least one claim in each 18 month upgrade period due to phones failing or me dropping them.

 

[Smokin Joe]

I find that electrical goods either pack up straight away (when they're under warranty) or they go on for ever. I never bother with extended warranties.

 

[dellzeqq]

washing machines have little clocks inside. 13 months and that's it. Soyanara. But......look carefully at the warranty. Does it say it will fix your camera for free? Or that it will do certain things for free?

 

[Norm]

Do you ever take out the extended warranty when buying new goods?

Never.

Ever.

I've walked out of purchases because the salespratt kept saying that I should take out an extended warranty.

Friends don't let friends get extended warranties.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

It depends on the item. I got three years free with the washer dryer and it needed repairing four times in that period. I bought an extendd warranty at the end of that period and it's needer another two repair jobs.

We bought an Acer laptop specifically because they offered a three year collect and return policy for £50. It developed a hardware fault three weeks before the warranty expired. The first repair saw it returned to us with more problems than it went away with. It went back again and was deemed unrepairable and we were given a brand new laptop which arrived Christmas week. If the old one had broken four weeks later we would have had nothing.

For a DSLR specialist photography insrers offer accidental damage and theft away from home insurance but at a cost and with specific terms applied. As always read the small print and make your choice if you fancy any of the policies :-)

 

[Ghost Donkey]

Never.

Ever.

I've walked out of purchases because the salespratt kept saying that I should take out an extended warranty.

Friends don't let friends get extended warranties.

I've nearly done that. When video recorders still cost money there was a sale on at currys/dixons similar. They were offering the warranty for almost the retail price of the VTR. I had an audio video type job at the time and repairs made up part of my day to day work. The sales prat wouldn't have it. In the end I had to ask him if he wanted to sell me the video or not. I only hung around for the sales price which was much cheaper than anywhere else.

 

[meenaghman]

Nope don't bother. Generally find that stuff is more reliable now. Also many vids on utube showing one how to fix common problems. Often the problem may be software related as much as hw related so its a case of waiting for that. Finally accidental damage on household insurance can help.

On the household insurance though I was listening to something on Radio5.. If you underinsure (and people often do as they don't realise replacement costs) so eg you insure contents for 20K and they're worth 40K, and the assessor comes round and finds that you've got 40K worth, and although the claim is eg accidental damage for the new led tv worth 1K, they will often turn around and only give you 500 quid for it.. their argument being you're not paying the whole premium for the level of cover required.

 

[Klaus]

Do you ever take out the extended warranty when buying new goods? The reason I ask is that I am about to buy a new DSLR and have been offered three years of cover for less than 5% of the asking price of the camera.This seems like a pretty good deal on the face of it, but then I started to think....I cant remember the last time something we have bought broke down in the first three years. Consumer goods seem to be of a very high standard nowadays. Having said that, digital SLRs are quite complicated things with a lot of moving parts and electronics to go wrong.... Have you had the need to use an extended warranty?

Many many years ago I stopped buying these warranties, because the premiums charged were outrageous, sales staff sometimes lying about the cover offered and technology having become so much more reliable these days. I have never claimed on the policies I bought.

As for DSLRs, I bought a Nikon D50 in 2005, price £500, I am still using it takes great pictures. A year ago I bought a D300S and got 2 years Nikon warranty with it, on registering.

 

[Smokin Joe]

I've probably saved enough on not buying warranties over the years to replace all the electrical items in my house twice over.