Extended warranties are a waste of money too.
Actually, that isn't altogether true. We get our extended warranties through Best Buy themselves and theirs covers accidental damage also. My mother put James' cell phone in the washing machine and the extended cover we got on the phone covered it for a full replacement immediately. We didn't even have to wait for the phone to be inspected first or anything. Their extended warranties are valid for two years and we have found them to be money well spent. :)
That's insurance. And you can probably get it much much cheaper under a household contents insurance.
I never buy extended warrantees they always have some small print in them that * excludes * just buy the product on a credit card , thats all the protection you need . if you dont get a satisfactory response from the retailer ask your c/c to refund the cost .
It always works for me .
Consumer laws are similar here to the UK. Anything that you buy has to be fit for purpose, i.e. it must do what you expect it to for the amount of time that you expect it to.
A warranty isn't worth the paper its written on because the seller can't dictate to you how long the item will work properly for. If you get a 90 day warranty you can rip it up and throw it in the bin, if whatever you bought goes wrong in 9 months it has to be replaced. Extended warranties are a waste of money too. You expect a TV to work for at least a couple of years and therefore if it doesn't, the manufacturer is obliged to replace it. And it doesn't matter if the item was in a sale or sold as an ex-display model, your rights are exactly the same.
Putting it into practice is a little trickier, but if you keep on at them (going up the food chain as it was put earlier) you will eventually get results because you are in the right.
The site here might be helpful
http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/ObjectID...4/164/FAQ/
Copied from your site:
How long does an implied warranty last?
In most states, an implied warranty lasts forever. In a few states, however, the implied warranty lasts only as long as any express warranty that comes with a product.
Extended warranties are a waste of money too.
Bit of a sweeping statement there. :roll:
Our steam vac cost $260, the warranty $40. We used it heavily, it wore out after 2.5 years. We'd have been hard pushed to claim it was still under an implied warranty. Now we have a new one, with a new warranty for another $40. So $340 guarantees us a working steam vac for at least 5.5 years. Much better value that $260 for 2.5 years.
Of course if the warranty costs almost as much as half again, then that's a different matter. But they are not automatically rip offs, any more than the products you are buying whose cost also goes in part to the retailer.
Implied warranties last for around 4 years but you will have to go digging about in your state law to find out about your lemon laws.
We had trouble with something along these lines a while ago and a letter to the BBB, State Rep and the company involved ( after being a polite as could be and it getting us zip) all CC to each other got us our good results.
This site has a good write up, ot tells you about Express, the Magnassun law and especially implied warranties. Ths should be able to give you a start.
I guess like us, when we went this route, it was more the principle of the thing rarther than the money involved.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/busp...erstanding
Mandy
Extended warranties are a waste of money too.
Actually, that isn't altogether true. We get our extended warranties through Best Buy themselves and theirs covers accidental damage also. My mother put James' cell phone in the washing machine and the extended cover we got on the phone covered it for a full replacement immediately. We didn't even have to wait for the phone to be inspected first or anything. Their extended warranties are valid for two years and we have found them to be money well spent. :)
That's insurance. And you can probably get it much much cheaper under a household contents insurance.
It isn't called insurance, it is called an extended warranty. It doesn't cover for the product to be stolen which insurance would. And no, our household insurance wouldn't cover it. Household insurance doesn't cover flooding :lol:
As I stated before, and as monster has just stated, extended warranties can be worth it some of the time. You have to weigh up each product and its worth to you at the time. We have had both manufacturers extended warranties and the Best Buy ones and we have found both have been worth it - even if we don't use it, the peace of mind is there. :)
I usually don't buy extended warrantees, I figure that if they want to sell it to me, they must have calculated that, on average, they will make money by doing so; therefore, on average, I lose by buying it.
Celticana, if I were you, I would get a secured card, use it only for things for which, you would normally use cash, until you can get a normal card. I use mine at the drug store, the supermarket, the doctors office, the liquor store, and I pay it off every month. Once you have a normal card do the same thing, and you can earn various "rewards" such as flying miles or credit towards a car; I use one where I get a penny on the dollar as a "reward". It doesn't sound like much but it mounts up when a good chunk of monthly expenses go through the card. I make money on my card.
The bank should be a better bet if you want to buy on tick, but the card is better if you can pay off at the end of the month. The bank counts interest on the unpaid balance from when the money leaves the account, the credit card interest starts 25 days after the date of the monthly billing, provided there is no hanging debt in the account.
You know, for those who enjoy chasing their rights, then no, there probably is little purpose in buying an extended warranty, you should eventually find someone who will listen and agree and help you. For me, my time is more valuable than that. (Especially as some warranties even refund your money at the end of the term if you don't use them. But you usually have to read the small print to find that out ;) )
wink Just say yea take them to court and put them on local TV etc. Its the American way of doing things after all.lol
Lol, yes, Goose. That might also be a good idea. By the way, is the Londoner still open in Addison? I heard it had either closed down or moved. I'm thinking of doing a tour to see if I can find it for lunch one day this week.
How slow I am at times! roll Of course a secured card might work out cheaper than a bank loan against savings. I probably need to look carefully at setup fees though. Those I have seen so far seem to present reasonably in comparison charts, but when you get to the individual small print the actual charges are about double. Hopefully i can set wheels in motion this week on something.
Thanks again everyone. smile
Just thought I'd let you all know this saga has finally ended - 5 weeks down the line.
Best Buy would do nothing about the Tv for us, but eventually some very man fomr Philips called me and said they would agree to pay for the repair. He told me who to contact and those people came to pick up the TV. They had it in their workshop for two weeks and it was finally ready for us to pick up yesterday!
Guess what! The place was full of other TVs in for repairs, and yes, you guessed it - most of them were Philips!! (probably also bought at Best Buy! )
Glad you got it sorted out! )
I meant to put this one up because of the discussion on extended warranties. If you buy an electric water heater for your house, you are offered two prices, one for a five year warranty and one for a ten year. You get the same heater, the price difference is insurance on failure during the second five years.
I meant to put this one up because of the discussion on extended warranties. If you buy an electric water heater for your house, you are offered two prices, one for a five year warranty and one for a ten year. You get the same heater, the price difference is insurance on failure during the second five years.
Same thing on computers these days, at Dell you can pay $599 for a laptop PC with a year warranty, or cough up another $200 to add a couple of years of warranty. I guess each decides on the risk/reward.
I have had my laptop (inexpensive Toshiba) for just over two years and have had no problems at all, however I don't haul it around either, it pretty much acts like a desktop for me most of the time.
I just bought a laptop and decided against the extended warranty too -I think they're most valuable for basic items where the warranty is a much smaller percentage of the purchase price and items with large mechanical parts that will wear out if you use them more than average. Like steam vacs mrgreen
It's all a gamble!