Extended Warranties over 1 year - worth the money? (1 Viewer)

One question that i didn't ask was about extended warranty on the Sony KDL-32V2000. Five year warranty is $350+. Value for money?

In my opinion, TVs are one of the few things that are worth paying for the extended warranty on. I bought a TV back in 1996 and got the warranty. I had to return it within the first 30 days because of a loud, electrical buzzing noise. That would have been covered by the store's policy, but after a couple of years, the TV started randomly turning itself on and off. That could be very annoying if you were watching something - when it turned itself off, you couldn't turn it back on - you had to wait for it to turn itself back on. I had people come out three separate times to look at it and finally the last guy found a loose solder on a board which was causing the problem. Those three service calls probably paid for the cost of the warranty.

Then, I bought a 52" DLP TV last February. This TV developed a problem through the HDMI input - the colors were WAY off! Black became green, etc. After again having three service calls and not being able to fix the problem, they let me get a new TV. Since prices have come way down since then, I got a bigger, better TV essentially for free (I did decide to buy a new extended warranty on it, so it wasn't 100% free).

If the TV cost at least doouble that, than yes. Sony makes a great TV but I've had one that crapped out on me after two years. I had the extended warranty. Because the service people could never fix it right, I ended up getting a brand new current model.

As the above poster said, TVs definitely need an extended warranty, especially if you paid a pretty penny for it.

There is a reason salesmen push extra warranties so much. Because they make money on them. These electronic warranty companies are not going out of business, so they are on the winning end of the deal. Half or more of your money spent on an extended "other than manufacturer" warranty stays with the store and the salesman. If you can't afford not to have it, maybe your spending too much on your TV in the first place.
Maybe its because I used to sell them, and maybe its because I've had relatively good luck with my electronics purchases, but I have never bought an extended warranty and don't plan to start anytime soon.
It boils down to a roll of the dice, and thats what the warranty companies are doing too. Except the dice are loaded in their favor.

I have never bought an extended warranty on any piece of electronics I've owned. Main reason..if a piece of electronics is going to fail, it's going to fail very shortly after you plug it in. Usually the first 24 hours..and surely within the first 30 days. Most places that sell offer a "no questions asked" return policy on electronics for the first 30 days. Most manufacturers provide a 1 year parts and labor warranty on their equipment..sometimes longer depending on the manufacturer. If you have a VISA card and pay for your purchase with the credit card..that usually doubles length of the warranty...as Visa extends the warranty for 100% of the manufacturers warranty (for far less money).

http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/b....html#anchor_2

For me..extended warranties are a waste of good money...consider putting that $350 you'd spend on the extended warrant in a savings account for three years and go to if you need repair work on your item. My guess is that after three years you'll still have that $350 in the bank + interest.

Just a suggestion for a fiscally conservative guy

I agree that buying an extended waranty is really not the way to go. $350 is a lot of money for something you probably will not use. As mentioned before.....most TV's will die in the first year anyway and many manufactors waranties cover from 90 days to a year.

As for people saying that stores make a lot of money off of them....that is not true believe it or not. I used to be a branch manager for a major big box store. If a person uses an extended waranty once......often the store breaks even or even "loses money". Now of course the store is not losing money...because they are the ones fixing the problem. The reason why they are pushed is because it is in the data that people who buy extended waranties wind up being repeat customers. That is where they make the money. If you saw the amount of money a store actually make off of an extended waranty you would be quite suprised. It is very little. Yes they do make some money....but it is negligable. Yes the salesperson does make some money off of them too.....but it too is very little. If I sold a $300 extended waranty I would make $20-30..Where the money is made is if I gave the customer good service and backed up the merchandice with the waranty....that customer would come back to me for future purchases. I know a lot of this is not believable so you will have to just take my word.

Do you have to purchase an extended warranty at the time you buy the equipment & only at the store you purchased it from?

I would say, no. When I purchased my Hitachi RPTV, I opted not to purchase the extended warranty. When my manufacturers' warranty was about to expire, I received a letter in the mail reminding me about the upcoming expiration and if I would like to purchase the extended warranty.

IIRC, the extended warranty was offered by Hitachi.