Extended warranty for HDTV?? Don't be stupid... (1 Viewer)

[MikeyWeitz]

as I was when I bought my Samsung 3295HF 3 years ago. Yesterday, the power board died on me and would cost around $500 to fix.
Def. not worth it.

Went out and bought a Sony KV32HS420 last night and bought the 3 year warranty for $150 and have every intention of renewing it in 2008.

I always hated extended warranties, never buy them, but in this case it bit me in the A$$.

If I had it, it would have been covered and I would not have had to spend $1000 last night.

Granted, I am getting a MUCH newer TV (and probably nicer), but I would rather have spent 200-300 over course of 5 years then have to pay 1000 last night.
If anyone is wondering or on the fence about the extended warranty on an $800 + TV set, BUY IT.
Unless you don't mind dropping 1k+ to replace it in 2 years.

Seeing that these expensive TV's are really built pretty crappy in general, I say those waranties are a MUST.

No longer are the days of "Electronics mostly fail within the 1st 90 days. If not by then, they will last a long time".

Just not so anymore!

 

[Thomas_A]

when I buy big ticket items..I always get the warranty. If I never have to use it..least I can sleep at night!.

 

[Dave H]

I got the extended warranty for my RPTV that I bought last December. I paid $400 for warranty (TV was $1600 plus tax). But, I get $200 back if I don't use the warranty over the next five years.

 

[Steve Berger]

It's not so much that TV's are built worse (although we won't know if the no-lead solders will hold up for a few years yet) it has a lot to do with the 3rd party digital technology used in them. This forces the Mfr to use components that aren't field serviceable and that they are forbidden to tell their servicers (like myself) how they work so we can't fix them economically.

This combined with the mistaken notion that real servicers want to change boards rather than fix boards turns a $150 repair into a $500 repair. This idea may have come from the powerfull "Big Box" service networks who only want to work on newer sets and who have no qualms about telling the customer that their 3 year old TV can't be fixed because there are no boards available (and they don't have the facilities or expertise to fix boards most of the time anyway - general non-specific statement of the industry ) The Manufacturers also don't care if a servicer has 20-30 thousand dollars tied up in warranty parts because they "know" that you will get your money back "eventually".

Some companies are venturing into product lines for the first time (RPTV , LCD , Plasma , MicroDisplay RPTV) and have no idea how to support them and have no relationship with the repair industry. While I personally hate the extended warranty concept (they take business away from me and other reasons) , they may be the only way to get that three year old set fixed or replaced for now.

 

[Ryan Peddle]

Well, I bought the five year warranty with my Tosh 51h84. Cost me 359.99. And look at it more like insurance for my tv.

If in three years the tv dies and there is noy way to replace or repair it, then I have 1500 bucks towards a new better model.

1 year mfr warranty is crap. Most items are going to last a year under normal conditions.

Extended warranties on big ticket itmes is the only way to protect yourself.


If you don't have the cash to cough up later for a replacement, couch up a little extra now, so you don't have to.

 

[Steve Berger]

Since I usually fix my own stuff , my next set will be a CRT RPTV , the most repairable of the current technologies. A picture tube only costs half of the lamp price on a MicroDisplay (LCD or DLP) RPTV or Projector. I could even replace a CRT for a customer for less than what many extended contracts cost.

I'll opt for an external HDTV tuner or PC based card since the internal digital tuners use licensed technology that we are forbidden to service and a complete external HDTV tuner costs half the price of the built-in tuner board assembly (because no individual parts are available , and that is at my cost as a servicer).

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, looks like I might need to use my BB EW on my 2-year-old Panny 53" RPTV. The set spazzed out sometime yesterday, and now, convergence is all out of whack. Tried adjusting basic convergence via the user accessible menu as a starter, but the blue CRT doesn't seem to respond much at all -- and it's the one that spazzed out the most by far. Haven't opened up the TV to check, but it looks almost like the blue gun must've collapsed somehow given how warped it looks while convergence settings don't seem to do much of anything for it.

When I bought the TV, I had heard enough reliability issues w/ Panny's (and other RPTVs) to feel the EW is probably justified (at ~15% of TV price) even though I never buy EW's otherwise -- I do tend to buy stuff w/ a credit card that offers a little EW itself though, eg. my Nikon D70 camera kit. And now, I'm especially glad I did. Still have to see how BB's service works out here in NYC though...

Hmmm... Took a quick look over in the Panny forum site over here and found this guy w/ what sounds like the same problem, except he has it w/ the red gun, not blue -- actually, my red gun is off too, but not nearly as badly as the blue:

http://panny.tv/pannyubb/ultimatebb....c;f=7;t=001361

Poor guy was mistakenly told that he was authorized for a new TV replacement by CC. That's gotta suck big time: :frowning:

http://panny.tv/pannyubb/ultimatebb....c;f=7;t=001366

Hope that doesn't happen to me. OTOH, I've also heard plenty of stories where people waited forever for service and got the run-around for weeks on end.

_Man_

 

[Brad E]

I don't believe in extended warranties. The #1 reason, businesses offer it, is to make money. #2 is to give the customer piece of mind and good service, which ties directly into #1.

Add up all the money paid in extended warranties (audio, video, vehicles, appliances etc.), and it will work out to be more than repairs made out of pocket.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule. There will be some unlucky people who have their car, tv, and receiver go all in the same week. But these are also the people who get struck by lightning.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

For most people, that seems to be so although I'm not so sure you're guaranteed good service though, except at the point of sale.

Anyway, I guess you don't buy any kind of insurance for anything then, if that's your logic. Not even medical insurance, auto insurance above what's required by law, life insurance, homeowner's insurance, etc. -- not that I would recommend them as a general rule myself.

_Man_

 

[BrianAe]

Looking at it like insurance, expensive insurance is the right thing to do. If you can afford to assume the risk of paying for the repair or replacment yourself then you should because the company is making big bucks on that extended warranty. Otherwise, buy the warranty.

One thing to note with the warranty though is they can "repair" the unit in any way they wish which can mean using inferior parts.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Nothing stops you from trying to negotiate a better price on the EW ... it can be done ...

Regards

 

[Chris Plante]

I didn't bother with the warranty on my Sony 50" LCD, as it was way too much money, especially when it did not cover the lamp, as that is the most common problem with this unit.

 

[DeanWG]

Where did you get it? You might want to look a little deeper. Best Buy, for instance, just changed their warranty policies to include lamp replacement for the duration of their service contracts. They had flyers up all over the home theater section about the change.

 

[Steven.W.T]

I got a 4 year warrenty with my Hitachi at CC. Cost like 350 I think. Usually I dont buy it but this time I did. I think I read that RPTVs have a 18% repair thingy.

Does anybody know if CC will give me some money back if I never use it?

 

[Kenneth Harden]

I think a (good) rule of thumb a lot of people use is the replacement cost issue.

If you pull in $50k a year, and bite the bullit and buy a $3,000 TV, you probably cannot 'just replace it' without serious hardship.

On the other hand, a $50 DVD player for the bedroom would not be a big deal to replace if it died.

Also, the lamp issue is the wild card, too. If you have the TV on for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, I bet you will go thru some lamps in 3, 4 years.

 

[brentl]

Rememberr to check with the manufacturer and see if you can buy an extended warranty through them!!!

Should be much cheaper.

Brent

 

[Adil M]

No way, that CC is giving you any money.
Make sure if you have any issues that you make a service call. Do not be shy to test out what you paid for. Ask for a qualified technician.
Long ago I got my parents a Mitsubishi and their service technician was certified by Mits (independant of Sears.)
He was great.

 

[John S]

People can go either way on it still. Really your choice and your money.

Being in the insurance industry, I can't do them. They are still considered the most bottom of feeders in the insurance industry.


I still read how hard people have to fight for such warranties to actually come through for them. While I will admit, most eventually do seem to get satisfaction, but usually only over a ton of fighting for it and a ton of frustration.

Still it is all our choices to buy or not to buy it for sure.

 

[TonyD]

i would get the ew, but be aware getting replacements or true fixes isn't laways an easy thing.
look at this thread i hijacked from about a year ago.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...43#post1852143

quick and short.
my 4 year old tosh started to have bad picture.
tech came in and couldnt fix it. so they take the tv.
they decide it cant be fixed.
offer replacenment under warranty terms.
according to their terms i have a 10% per year depreciation.
so the tv i paid $4000 is now worth $2400 in replacement costs.
i said not good enough.

they said too bad thats all they can offer.

write bbb then within days i get a new offer.

3500, or actual dealer cost of the broken tv.
so i used that $3500 to buy a mits 73713.

it took about 2 months and lots of complaining for the warrantyto be of any good.
without it the tv was cooked.
but since i only had 1 year remaining on the origional warranty it was up to me to renew before it expired.

you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RENEW IF THE WARRANTY EXPIRES.

well i forgot and now i cannot renew my warranty.
my fault.

moral, get the warranty, and renew before it expires.

 

[Neil McCaulley]

Hey Kenneth!


This is a great way of putting it. I think it is safe to say that all of us here on HTF could not do without our beloved sets for ANY length of time. For most of us, we had to finance our home theaters because we did not have the $2k or $3k cash to buy it outright. This means that every month, we are sending a payment to the company that is financing the set for us. Since we live in the real world of mortgage payments, car payments, insurance and the added fun of taking little Billy to the dentist to get him fitted with $5k worth of metal in his mouth, our budgets are pretty tight. If our set blew up, and we did not get the warranty, now we are stuck making those same payments towards a set that does not work. And, we can't just go out and drop another $2k or $3k on a replacement set. You are right, if a DVD player goes BOOM, so what. The technology is cheap enough now where dropping another $50 for a new one is not going to bankrupt us. But if our $3k set goes BOOM, well, this is where the warranty is a must and should be looked at as an inherit cost of owning such an item. We should put warranties in terms of a necessity. Much like we are paying for the heating bill to keep the room warm were we have the TV. We are paying for electricity to power the TV. We are paying for a mortgage so the TV has a roof over its head, and yes, we are paying for the warranty to protect us in case the set does go BOOM before it is paid off.