Extended Warranties

R

roberta

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 17, 2005
Messages
172
Looking to buy an extended warranty for my new HP LP 3065c (rebadged) to Globe
Will probably have to use 3rd party
Will post mini review on 3065c later after testing, just got it today
Only comes with 90 days
Your thoughts
Thanks
 
I can't recommend strongly enough for you to get an extended warranty on your 3065. 90 days is nothing, especially for an expensive LCD. You'd hate yourself if something went wrong with it 6-9 months or later.

I returned my Gateway XHD3000 because its PSU fried out after just 3 weeks. Fortunately, I was within the 30 day return policy. Even so, the Gateway only had a 1 year warranty. The Dell 3008 I now have came with a 3 year warranty and I upped it to 5. The peace of mind is well worth the added expense.

SmartTrade offers great 3rd party warranties. I've used them in the past with great results. They reimbursed me for the full price of a refurb Thinkpad I bought on eBay in 2007 when the screen failed about 5 months after I bought it.
 
I googled for the mentioned company and couldn't find a link (got some assets management firm - nothing about warranties)

point me there please
 
Look into the financials of the third party insurance before buying. On my SUV the warranty company filed bankrupcy, and I have $1800 of repairs to pay out of pocket (add that to the $4000 for the worthless warranty).
 
OMFG, buy the extra warranty... now.

I've owned my LCD for 20 or 21 months now, and I just had to RMA it due to a recent fatal failure... I'm not gonna hijack the thread, but anyone who remembers me or my previous adventures with the first batch of NEC 2690s may understand how totally spooked I am about swapping this unit out, but it's well and truly borked this time (and I can't sit and wait for an RMA repair cycle).

Anyway, enough about me. Except for the essential point, which is my monitor deciding to self-lobotomize after just a bit shy of 2 years of ownership...

...Haven't you bought that extended warranty yet? What's the holdup??!?
 
Mr. Wolf said:
I returned my Gateway XHD3000 because its PSU fried out after just 3 weeks. Fortunately, I was within the 30 day return policy. Even so, the Gateway only had a 1 year warranty. The Dell 3008 I now have came with a 3 year warranty and I upped it to 5. The peace of mind is well worth the added expense.
Click to expand...

Same thing happened to the display model of the Gateway XHD3000 at the store I work at.
 
Mr. Wolf said:
Oh crap, my bad. It's SquareTrade, not smart. I need to hit the sack.

www.squaretrade.com
Click to expand...

I've been doing some research on squaretrade and they seem like a solid company. The majority of complaints against them seem to be from 2007 and earlier. Now they have much better PR. The have a high reseller rating, and good ratings on e-opinions as well. Though some of these recent reviews on these sites are by newly registered members.

There is one interesting review on reseller ratings. If you send it in once and they repair it, they don't tell you how much they spent to repair it. Then when you send it in a second time and they can't repair it, and offer you a refund, you will get the cost of the product back minus the amount of the first repair! So the warranty will only cover up to the cost of the product. But how much money you will get back after sending it in two times is suspicious.

I also read that some people got deeply discounted laptops ($1000 down to $400) and square trade made those people make payment as if the laptop cost them $1000.

Here's some more info you might want to look at though. (source)

Getting warranties through SquareTrade is an excellent deal as long as you understand exactly what you're getting.

First Off: Yes, they are the legitimate company. Yes, they have friendly people (that speak English!) and Yes, the process will probably be very smooth.

Here's what you need to know:

Coverage:
- NEW Items: 3 Year Warranty
- REFURBISHED: 1 Year Warranty (2nd Year available usually for an extra 50% of the 1 Year Cost)
- USED: Same as Refurbished BUT (*VERY IMPORTANT*) the warranty does not start till 60 days after you receive it. Most complaints about SquareTrade have to deal with this. Sorry, but that's the way it is - if you're used iPod breaks in under 2 months, that's really not SquareTrade's fault.

Reimbursement:
You need to realize that SquareTrade has the option (and they'll do it frequently) of giving you your money back (after you ship them the broken item) minus a small shipping fee for smaller items.

Generally, this is exactly what you want. You item is broken and you want to buy a new one. But, there are exceptions. If you're amazing-deal $400 laptop dies which 2 years worth of your personal data, you may not want your money back - you want your laptop fixed. You'll want to backup all of your personal data before sending it to them because you might not get it back.

In addition realize that if they reimburse you for the item, the remainder of the warranty ends at that time which means you'll need to purchase a new warranty if you purchase a new item. They also don't reimburse tax.

If you purchase accidental insurance (extra cost) and file an accidental claim, there is a $50 deductible.

So, if you buy an iPhone at your AT&T dealer for $400 and pay $20 in tax and $100 for the 3 year warranty with accidental coverage (typically it costs 25% for the warranty + accidental), you've spent $520. If you drop the iPhone a month later, you'll get back $350 ($400 - $50 deductible) and it'll cost you another $520 to buy a new one, so it'll really cost you $170 ($520 - $350).

Keeping things in perspective, though, SquareTrade is amazing. I've had 2 claims filed successfully already (including getting $550 back for my $600 iPhone when we dropped it [we had accidental insurance on it]) and both claims were processed quickly with minimal issues
Click to expand...





But overall it looks like a good warranty if you know what you're getting into.


*edit i forgot to mention they have coupons (google for them) and they have a discount if you're a second time customer
 
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