DVD Best Buy Warranty (1 Viewer)

[Tim G]

I recently purchased a sony ns300 dvd player from Best Buy. They offered me an extended four year warranty that also covers cleanings (all cleanings would be free). Is this a good deal? How necessary are the cleanings and how much do they costs?

 

[Marty M]

I hardly ever go for the extended warranties on anything. They really push these at Best Buy because they are one of their best money makers. I have had a Sony DVD player for 3 years and have not had it cleaned once and is still working very well.
With the prices of DVD players going down all the time, I personally don't think it is worth the money for an extended warranty. Anyway, you will probably be ready for a new DVD player before the end of the warranty period, anyway. Just my $.02 worth.

 

[Jeremy Little]

Well, I got my DVD-A110 Panasonic replaced by a Best Buy 4-yr warranty because of the Firmware issues with it. It had to go to the shop 3 times so they gave me a new one. For what I spent on that player ($399), I recieved a Pioneer DVC-302 for the same amount a year and a half later. Not a bad free upgrade I might say! For a Sony, I would definitely HAVE to have a better guarantee on it, since I have first hand experience with their service centers ( I own a KV32HS20) and length of their warranty. For $12.50 per year, I could not pass it up. What is ridiculous is a new company to the OKC area called, Ultimate Electronics. Their 5 year STARTS at $119.99 and if you buy a player like the RP-91, it is $189.99! That is BS. If you think it is worth it, buy it. I saw the value in it, and have taken advantage of it.
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Heal a Million, Kill a Million

 

[Ted Lee]

from the business perspective: i worked at cc & gg for several years and i can tell you, without hesitation, that warranties are like crack for those people! i heard that as much as fifty percent of their gross profits come from those warranties.
that being said...
it's just like car or home insurace. you pay for it, hoping you'll never need it, but being really, really happy when you do.
i try to look at what type of component it is, how much the warranty is versus how much the thing cost, etc. most places have a no-lemon policy - if it breaks more than three times, then on the fourth you automatically get a new one. usually, by the time you've taken it in for it's third repair, hopefully enough time will have passed where the store will be forced to provide an upgrade. that's always kinda cool.
that being said...
i usually don't get them.
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But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Under normal operating conditions a DVD player should never need to be cleaned. Therefore, the only reason to purchase the extended warranty is if you cannot afford to replace the unit in the off chance that it fails post manufacturer's warranty and before you are ready for an upgrade.
Personally, I never purchase extended warranties on items in this price range. I figure that the money I save on the extended warranties more than covers the replacement costs on the rare occasion that a component fails before I am ready for an upgrade. In fact, I cannot think of a component that I have owned failing after the manufacturer warranty expired that I was not ready to replace.
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My DVD Collection
AFI 100 Films to watch: 40 -> 7

 

[Prentice Cotham]

Hey, I work at BB part-time. The DVD PSP isn't worth it.

 

[Nicholas A. Gallegos]

I work at a Best Buy store. The DVD PSP may or may not be worth it to you. It's $50 for ANY DVD player we sell (I can almost guarantee that nobody has a cheaper extended warranty on DVD players than we do). Now for the cheapie players like the $100 Apex or the $130 Samsung, not worth it. For a $200 Sony or Panasonic, maybe. The DVD player PSP does not only cover cleanings under its "preventive maintenance" coverage, but it also covers lens re-alignments. The majority of repair issues with DVD players seem to have been something to do with a misaligned lens assembly on the player.
Speakers.......$30 inclusive-to-warranty PSP on any of those. Example: you buy the $840 pair of JBL S312 speakers which normally come with a 5-year factory warranty, we tack on 4 years to that to give you 9 years total in-store coverage. 9 times out of 10, speakers end up being too costly to repair, so generally the customer will get brand new ones (or the most comparable model).
Yes, extended warranties are a big money-maker for stores, as are accessories like Monster Cable (the markup on most of these is like 100%; employees get them even CHEAPER than that their accommodations). Buying an extended warranty is like purchasing insurance. Good for you if you never need to use it, but if you do you'll be glad you had that coverage later on. Plus, extended warranties generally don't have nasty side-effects like auto and home insurance do, like deductables (you'd think that insurance companies drain enough out of you as it is).
If the truth has to be known, I HATE selling service plans. I just do. It's my job if I don't offer them consistently. In fact, my sales manager yelled at me the other day because I didn't bother offering the service plans to this teacher who had a purchase order from her school district with a SET amount of money, to the dollar. He tells me, "you could have just recommended cheaper equipment so she could buy the PSPs to cover them." I sold the customer what SHE wanted, and that doesn't always make you the most popular person at work, but at least I can sleep at night knowing that I didn't snake someone.
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[Kevin_Kr]

If you take a look at them on somethings thet are good, like with Ultimate electronics if you buy a camcorder they are 119.95 and this includes cleanings and a definite must for camcorders.

 

[Brian Glaeske]

Get yourself a warranty doubling credit card like a Mastercard. Use it to buy the player and give yourself a free 1 yr extention.
Extended warranties are like insurance as someone mentioned. However, the key difference is that you get insurance on your house because the repairs are very costly compared to the $200-300 that you'll pay for a new DVD player if it breaks.
Don't get the insurance. Don't feel too bad for BB, your DVD player is marked up 100%
Brian

 

[Andy W]

Ultimately, you should do what you think is best for your situation. But I want to relay a story to give you some thoughts to ponder. Some lessons in life a learned easy, and some are learned hard. Thankfully, I learned my lesson about extended warranties rather easily.
I have purchased one, count’ em, one extended warranty in my life. It was for an RPTV (Sony KP-61XBR48), as my last RPTV (Pioneer SD-P501) needed a few expensive repairs shortly after its warranty expired. (FYI - To Pioneer’s credit, they paid for one fix about three months after the warranty expired. But, the set needed another repair well into the second year, and another in the third year. By the fourth year, the TV was blooming badly no matter how low we set the contrast. The CRTs were shot).
Anyway, I calibrated the user adjustments on the Sony RPTV when it was new using the Video Essentials laserdisc as my guide. (We bought this TV in 1996, pre-DVD era). No matter what I did, I thought the picture was either too dark or washed out looking.
Well, stupid, stupid me - my wife and I were so busy at the time that we did nothing. We just lived with the picture as it was until the TV manufacturer’s warranty expired, and the extended warranty kicked in. When we got a moment to breath, my wife suggested getting the TV ISF calibrated, but first, we should call a tech out to see if they can adjust the gamma, which might be the cause of our excessively dark picture.
Here’s where the extended warranty lesson comes in. We were told by the extended warranty company (National Electronics Warranty, underwritten by Virginia Surety Company, Inc.) that we could not shop for our own repair technician. Instead, we would have to use one of their contractors for them to pay for the service.
Okay, so we let them send one of their contract technicians to our home. He was a pleasant fellow, but he proceeded to replace a part without doing any diagnostics. While he was doing the repair, I asked him if it was possible for him to check the gamma and adjust it if necessary (which was the original reason for my service request). He said, ‘What’s gamma?” I said, “I believe that gamma is the non-linear relationship between the input signal and light output, and if gamma is incorrect, then the picture will be excessively bright, or in our case, too dark, despite correctly setting black and white levels. It may also adversely effect gray scale tracking.” The service tech replied, “What’s gray scale tracking?” My heart dropped into my stomach. As he yanked on some screws that significantly changed the color intensity of each CRT, I asked, “Aren’t you changing the color temperature by doing that?” He replied, “What’s color temperature?” I’m not kidding; he said these things!!!!!
When the service tech was done, the TV still worked, but now the picture looked like everything was sepia toned. I called the warranty company to relay the story, and they replied, “Just readjust the color and tint controls.”
Easy lesson learned - if you ever need extended warranty repair work, know that you must use their contractors. In our case, the repair person was wholly unqualified, although he caused no costly or permanent damage (which is why I consider this an easy lesson learned). You may not shop for a qualified technician to prevent substandard work from being done, unless of course, you choose not to use the extended warranty.
Please forgive my negativity about this issue, but my wife and I will never buy an extended warranty again. We will hire a qualified technician on our own dime to assure quality work, or buy a new unit as needed.
As always, your mileage may vary.
P.S. - There is a happy ending to this story, no thanks to the extended warranty.
My wife and I contracted an ISF technician to do an ISF calibration, AFTER the alleged repair work was done. We told the ISF tech about the repairman who yanked around the color intensity screws inside the TV. He appreciated being told that, and went into the RPTV to do a coarse readjustment of what the repairman fouled up.
At the end of the ISF calibration, the technician said our TV was tracking nearly perfectly at 6500 degrees Kelvin throughout the gray scale, except the darkest end of the scale was at about 5000 degrees Kelvin. He gave us a graph where he plotted before and after points of the set’s gray scale tracking. He also said the gamma was just slightly high at about 2.6, which might make the picture look a little darker than it should, but can compensated by increasing the black level slightly. Not a perfect scenario, but still very good. He fine tuned convergence, focus and picture geometry. He said the light output was excellent and the TV has robust power supplies. The user contrast control was set to about 10% of maximum, which should help the CRTs last a long while.
Ever since ISF calibration, the Sony has looked great, and we have noticed no deterioration in the picture whatsoever since the calibration was done in 1997.
Finally, my wife said that if the TV died tomorrow (the extended warranty expires next month), that would be a perfect excuse to get a 16:9 HDTV.
Regards,
Andy
[Edited last by Andy W on August 16, 2001 at 10:00 PM]

 

[Nicholas A. Gallegos]

I believe that I've only actually gotten use out of extended warranties TWICE out of the several times I have purchased them.
The first around, I had a 17" Viewsonic PC monitor. The picture started getting excessively dark to the point where you would have to turn the contrast almost all the way up just to see a picture. To my luck, the monitor was a non-serviceable item, so I got a replacement for it right on the spot.
The second time I got use from an extended warranty was for a Samsung SCH-8500 PCS phone. The desktop charger stopped charging the battery properly and BB just ended replacing the whole phone.
Possibly the biggest advantage with extended warranty coverage is that in most cases, you don't actually need to ship the defective unit out to the manufacturer (well, this is the case for our PSPs......but not PRPs, which are offered primary on smaller items). You just take it to any store location from which you purchased it from and any shipping is taken care of for you.
Now the thing I absolutely HATE about extended warranties. Most stores' repair centers have ridiculous turnaround times on repairs (especially on computers). For example, you can be out of a receiver for almost a month in some cases. Sadly, Best Buy is no exception on this. That's why we always cross our fingers that a defective item is DEVO (non-serviceable) when something goes wrong.
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[Mike_Ped]

I work part-time at Best Buy right now and the profit Best Buy makes off the plan ain't that much (around 5 percent). On some stuff, the plan is worth it - its luck of the draw. I'd say, if you spend more than 250 on the DVD player, the extra money for the plan is worth it. Otherwise, forget it. It' true though, Best Buy pushes that crap A LOT!

 

[Prentice Cotham]

Mike,
The profit BB makes of the PSP is well over 100% on a DVD. Have you ever looked at the employee cost for the DVD PSP? BB used to be a terrible electronics retaile with barely any profit until they started pushing accessories and PSP which is where the money really is.
I would only buy the DVD PSP on a portable, but of course that one is $80.

 

[Brian Shannon]

Totally unnecessary!

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[David Ruiz]

I bought the world's most HIDEOUS DVD player. It was an ORITRON DVD100 (The very first model...now they are up to DVD900). I purchased the $60 dollar 5 year plan from Best Buy, and 2 years later, the DVD player died!!! I'm so glad that I had the service plan!!! The player originally cost me $150, but they said that I could choose a new one, so luckily, they didn't have any more Oritrons...I chose a Sony DVPNS 700 which was $320, and I only paid the difference!!! Thank GOD for the service plan, I got myself a brand new DVD player that beats the crap out of most of them on the market!!!!
Ever since then, I continue to buy service plans on all of my items!!!

 

[Todd Hochard]

I've noticed that for the most part, the people who do not buy service plans are:
1. Those willing to take a risk, and "self insure."
2. Those who tend to buy more reliable products in the first place.
Try to consider life cycle cost of the equipment, beyond initial cost. Generally, paying more up front for a higher quality item (note that price does necessarily indicate quality) that will last longer gives me more satisfaction, and peace of mind. Besides, I'm just not of the disposable, "I'll get another one next year" mindset, anyway.
I've been buying this way for 10+ years, and I've yet to be wrong.
Todd
P.S. That non-serviceable CRT story is depressing. Do you know how much lead is in one of those things??

[Edited last by Todd Hochard on August 18, 2001 at 06:23 AM]

 

[millercv]

Typically I don't buy them but have on occasions.
I bought one on my monitor because it was a replacement one (not repair) so if it dies I just take it in and they hand me a new one.
I bought one on my JVC digital camcorder. While filming a parade at Disney World the screen broke (the only thing I can think is that it was cold outside and after it broke I felt a few raindrops - maybe a cold raindrop on a hot lcd?) Well It took SEVERAL times to get them to fix it, but they ended up giving me a new unit.
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Chris Miller
"Nothing can kill the Grimace."

 

[Nicholas A. Gallegos]

I work part-time at Best Buy right now and the profit Best Buy makes off the plan ain't that much (around 5 percent).

Very untrue. Have you ever looked up your cost on a PSP before using EPPI? Look up the plan on receivers, for example. The same plan we sell for $34.99 to normal customers we get for something like $4.55. Okay, so since our discount is calculated using store cost + 5%, the cost involved with covering that receiver is $4.32 to the store. By simply doing the math, that's about an 810% markup. Where the heck did you get 5% from????
Even on DVD players, employees get that $49.99 plan for around $20. That's still like a 250% markup. As you can see, it's WELL over 100% profit, even after you add all the overhead involved.
This is why retail stores push extended warranties and accessories so fiercly. They'll make relatively little off of the DVD player itself after you figure in all of the overhead involved with getting that product to the customer.
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[Nicholas A. Gallegos]

Oh yeah......
Speaking of PSPs, I have another funny story.
Last night at work, this guy came in wanting to buy a Sony home theater in a box package that included a 5-disc DVD player. He couldn't afford to get the service plan nor the cables that same night and he more or less promised that he'd return for them the next day when he had more money transferred to his account.
Anyhow, I got the item down from topstock and as the guy was approaching the register, I was confronted by my sales manager. "Why doesn't he have a PSP or accessories with that?" I reply, "Well, he couldn't afford to get them tonight." At this point, I get that typical "that's nonsense" speech. Essentially, he would have preferred me to talk the customer down to the lower-priced model that included the single-disc DVD player so he could get the $100 PSP instead. I told him that I sold the customer the product that HE wanted to buy, not what the store did. He fights back with "What does he need a 5-disc DVD player for?" I still can't believe he'd even say that, but he did. The reasons why you'd possibly want a 5-disc player are obvious. Would a manufacturer market one if there wasn't a demand? Probably not.
I suppose that it doesn't even help much that I'm not the biggest fan of MSN, either. A $200 instant rebate on anything sounds great, but just how great is the ISP? Oooohh.....(1) It gives you up to 8 email accounts (hmmm, 7 of which come from Hotmail....a service available to ANYBODY, not just MSN subscribers). (2) It has RELIABLE connections and no busy signals. I seem to recall that a couple months after the old $400 3-year contract rebate had full reign, MSN's servers were incredibly overloaded to the point where users would frequently be kicked off. (3) It's ranked #2 (or something like that) by JD Powers and Associates. That figure is based on data that is 3 years old! How's all that for $21.95/mo.? Earthlink costs about the same, and it's 200x better in my experience.
My store managers try to play games by setting MSN quotas for departments. The last time I checked, selling MSNs wasn't even in my job description! They even question you because you didn't offer a $200 rebate to someone coming in to buy a $10 cable! I kid you not!
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[Mike_Ped]

I was talking PSP profit vs. total profit. It still aint that much. Most of the store profit in the end does not come from PSP's. It comes from those damn printer cables I'm telling you!!!! ($40 dollar cables that cost them $5!!!)lol