Doh. Well, I hope you had an anomalous experience… From the reviews I’ve read online, HP Pavilion notebooks are supposed to be pretty good, but I guess you never know. Still, I know they make big margins off of the extended warranties, so it is a losing bet for a customer. If I avoid them all, it will end up costing me much less on average (I like the “cumulative repair fund replacing the ext warranties” idea I’ve seen tossed around on here).
I’m with you on that. My experience is more germane to the OP, tho; I bought an HP Pavilion laptop in 2002. Its screen failed intermittently for about a year, after which it failed permanently. In addition, without a box fan blowing on it constantly, it would overheat and die within an hour of normal use. When I went hunting on the Web for help, I found several messageboards with owners of Pavilions of all models all reporting more or less the exact same symptoms, and a company refusing to admit that something was wrong with their design.
The screen failed because of a 4-inch-long cable that burnt through due to chronic overheating. HP does not sell this cable separately, but you can order a new LCD unit for ~$700 (plus core – without sending back your own, it’s ~$1200) that includes the cable; this is likely to fail in the same way as the old one.
The overheating problem was due to the fact that the fan that cools the computer is far too small and that the rubber feet that hold the computer up to permit airflow are far too short. Mine spent the last of its life propped up on a book in front of the aforementioned box fan with a separately-purchased flatscreen monitor attached.
Windwalker, I strongly recommend that you seriously reconsider purchasing this extended warranty. I paid $2500 for my laptop, and it didn’t remain functional for even 18 months. I have purchased other HP products in the past, and will continue to do so in the future, but probably no more of their laptops.
Speaking as an employee of Radioshack who works with former Futureshop vets, let me explain the scam of the extended warranty:
At Radioshack, we offer EWPs (extended warranty plans) on virtually everything. Something meant to be consumable (alkaline batteries) or probably going to be abused (RC cars) aren’t covered for obvious reasons, but anything else, it’s there.
You know those $25 cordless phone batteries? That’s a lot of money for a replacement. You can almost get a new phone for that much, if you catch a sale. Those things cost about $1.50. Yep. $23.50 profit on every sale. Our extended warranty offer costs about 4 bucks, and that gets you an amazing two free replacements on it over the next three years. It’s actually a pretty good deal, since they’re rated for 1.5-2 years off the shelf, but even if you replaced it twice, the warranty itself still nets the company a profit, and the initial profit is untouched.
A $5 watch battery is about 98.5% profit too. Same deal, the warranty more than covers two replacements of it, should the buyer take full advantage of it.
On other small items (cheap headphones, cables, etc), it’s unlimited replacement, with few limitations or questions asked. Why? A pair of $14 headphones would have to be replaced something like 12 times before it started cutting into the initial profit.
A $250 warranty on a computer is a different beast. We’re strictly enforced on our limitations here. No abuse, whatsoever. Normal wear and tear (keys sticking, grinding harddrive, lens on the CD-ROM goes, whatever), sure. The cost of parts and labour on normal things like this will probably cut into about half of the EWP. A real lemon might mean an eventual loss for the company, but with ~80% average profit per EWP, they can afford it.
Why so pushy about it? It’s where the big bucks are, my friend.
As an employee, on an EWP sale 10 bucks or less, I get about 5% of it. 11-50 I think, and it’s 10%. Above that and it’s 15%. Right onto my paycheque. If I can get about a 30% EWP hit rate on stupid little things like batteries and cables, I can pull in probably 10-20 bucks more a day. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but added to my hourly wage, plus commission, plus “spiffs” (bonuses attached to certain items; instant 10 dollar bonus for a satellite system, 16 dollars for selling a family cell phone plan, up to 20 bucks for a decent computer), it really adds up. And if I manage to get a big EWP sale (15% of a $300 EWP), it’s like swimming in gold.
Radioshack is pretty laid back as far as this goes though. We’re not pushed on an ultra-aggressive selling platform, since our system works on a wage+commission scheme. Futureshop (and Best Buy I assume) are on a wage OR commission scheme. If you make more profit than the $9/hour, you get that. Less than that, you’ll at least make the $9/hour. They’re also on a minimum EWP system, whereby they MUST sell at least 15% (may vary) of their products with EWPs or they get canned. And they make a whole lot more than I do for similarly-priced EWPs on similar items because of this.
Not only that, but the management makes THEIR bonuses on the EWP rate at Futureshop/Best Buy. The more their sales reps sell, the more they take home. As you can imagine, the best, most aggressive sales reps are put in the high-profit, big-ticket areas, while everyone else has to claw their way up so they can get the 100 dollar spiffs on those 52" HDTVs, with an extra $75 on top for the warranty, not to mention the huge profit margin (and thus commission) on those Monster cables. The former Futureshop reps I work with joke that if they could sell JUST the EWPs, no product attached, they would. The EWPs is where they make the money and where the company makes a staggering profit margin.
The extreme competition between sales reps, the pressure from management, the pressure of their EWP hit rate requirements and the desire to just make a nice chunk of cash off your wallet is what led to your unfortunate experience. The best thing to do is just to tell them, “Hey, buddy, I don’t want the EWP. If you want this sale at all, please just ring it through.” They may not be happy, but you can bet they’ll shut up rather than risk the spiff.
Don’t you have to use the manufacturer’s warranty first?
At Radioshack, our EWP basically overwrites the manufacturer’s warranty. Depending on what our deal is with the different manufacturer’s, they might be the actually ones to service it, but we usually replace and they credit Radioshack for the loss. Basically eliminates steps and lets us deal with the customers in-store.
At Futureshop, I think it’s mainly the same deal, but it may vary from area to area and case to case.
Whenever I go to Best Buy, the employees make sure to remind me that they’re NOT working on commission. Not sure if I believe them though.
I bought the extended warranty on my $500 iPod, and I’ve had to call Best Buy on it 3 times already. Could I have sorted it all out with the manufacturer? Probably. But, it’s just easier to take a 5 minute drive over to Best Buy and walk out with a new one. Besides, when the battery wears out in a year, wear and tear due to normal use is (supposedly) covered.
The hard drive on my new computer died over the summer (out of manufacturer’s warranty, and as part of the warranty, Best Buy upgraded my 40GB hard drive to 80. Now it’s looking like my CD burner’s about to die from overuse. Although I admit, I’m probably in the minority when it comes to the warranty’s usefulness.
While I don’t condone their sales tactics, the damn things do come in handy.
It’s just like any other insurance, really. You’re betting on the fact that something is going to go wrong with your purchase within a 3 year time span (Generally 2 years of which would not be covered by a manufacturer’s warranty.
Honestly, with big-ticket electronics, in my experience, it’s one of the safer bets you can make. Electronics and computers can be incredibly fickle things, and the quality of some name-brand products isn’t always what you expect it to be, these days.
Out of all the Best Buy purchases I’ve made, I’ve bought the plan for a $2000 Compaq computer (back before I learned how impossible it is to upgrade them yourself and learned how to build the dang things myself) and my aforementioned printer. I’ve needed them in both cases, repeatedly with the printer.
I also find myself regretting not purchasing the Fry’s plan for my (at the time) $400 dollar ATI video card, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed…and I’m gonna order one of those video-card heatsink deals…and burn some incense in honor of the PC Gods. 
How about, the first time you get a EW spiel, you inform the guy that the next mentioning of an EW, by him or anyone else at Best Buy, you’re walking out of the door. No second chances, no “I goofed”, you’re just leaving.
You think that would work?
I tell them if it breaks I can fix it myself.
My husband’s family’s appliance business got out of “brown goods” (e.g. electronics such as t.v.'s and computers) years ago because the profit margin was incredibly small and you had to move inventory like crazy or the damn things would turn obsolete as time passed. Or the newer, better version would come out and it would be cheaper than the older, slower version.
Because of this, the only money to be really made on these things is on extended warranties. The salesmen made ~75% of the price of the warranty. So if it cost you $100, they’d personally pocket $75. That is why the salesmen push these things so much.
The only thing I’ve ever gotten an extended warranty on is my big screen t.v. I got it at Circuit City and negotiated the price down from $450 for 4 years to $150 for 3 years. Yes, folks, you can haggle about the price and if you make it clear to the salesman that you’re willing to pay $x for the warranty and not one, red cent more, it’s AMAZING how quickly they’re willing to deal.
Preaching to the choir…
I actually work at Best Buy{Register Monkey), and probably hate trying to push the Replacemnt/Service plans just as much as you hate to hear about them, but as racinchikki said, if we get caught not offering all the stuff we’re supposed to be selling they’ll likely write us up. With most cashiers, if you just let them finish the required schpiel and just say no thanks, they’ll let it go. Only those that have been truly brainwashed are really that bad.
WindWalker, your regular employees {cashiers, salespeople and the like} aren’t on commission. I wouldn’t work for a place that is. We do however get pushed to sell so much, because the managers do get bonuses based on how well we sell. Yes, they get the reward for the work that we do:confused:. Our sales levels also make an impact on what kind of hours we get. If someone wants more hours, they’ll likely only get them if they sell well.
Lately we’ve also had to start trying to get people to get one of those “free trial” magazine things. If we don’t offer it and they catch us, oh look another write up.
It’s not a bad place to work, if you can just get the Sup’s off your back about selling something to bloody everyone you ring up. And if you can get Customers to understand that you’re just doing your job, because you’d much rather not be fired and have to attempt to find another crappy retail job to work.
word up!
I hate the damn things too. No I dont want an EW for my $50 printer…
Only time I’ll even consider it – PDA’s and Laptops…because I cant fix it myself and they are a little too costly to replace every time they break.
Desktops, I can easily fix myself, for a lot less than what you want. TV’s? hell none of mine are that sweet…
I dont mind being asked, I know you’re required to, but dont pimp it on me like you’re selling candy coated crack…
My first PC in college was an HP. Utter piece of crap. The sound card burned (no, I’m not making this up. A good bit of it was actually charred). When I got a new sound card to replace it, I also had to replace the speakers, which didn’t work with the new card. There’s also the fact that unless I rebooted it every single day it would be slow as shit, though that’s possibly more an OS issue. When I took it apart to see how the fan was connected to the proc (or something … I was building my own PC at that time, and it was a few years ago), I found that the coolant gel (whatever it’s called) had also burnt away. We had to pry the fan off the device in question and it was, shall we say, not pristinely preserved underneath. There was brown charred stuff where the gel was supposed to be.
I’d recommend getting a non-HP computer/desktop. The Dell laptop fizzy and I have works decently well, and the Gateway desktop she’s had since the late 90s still works decently, though we’re going to have to do something about the CD drive before terribly long.
Man this happened to me about 8 months ago when I bought my new HD tv. I had 3 guys surrounding me all tag teaming the value of the EXT. Warr. While the one kid was ringing up my sale, the other two were spouting their side of the story. I kept nodding and agreeing with them. I even made several points to back up their points. All the while I’m telling the kid who is ringing up my sale that I most definitely DID NOT want to purchase the Warranty. What really pissed me off was the kid stopped at swiping my credit card, all that was left to complete the sale, giving his buddys more time. I looked at the kid, maybe 17years, and just “Swipe the F*cker through man” while pointing at my credit card.
You think it would end at that. They then went on about how I could still purchase the plan later under certain circumstances. After I got the recipt, I said to them, “Look fellas, the only way I’m walking out of here with an Ext Warranty is if you give it to me free”.
Btw, this is the Best Buy in Roseville, MN if any of you should ever have the misfortune to visit it.
It’s not just the computer stores. I was in a Toys-R-Us buying a $20 toy for my daughter. It’s got electronic components. The cashier wanted to know if I wanted to pay $2 for warranty to cover its first 6 months! I said, “Believe me, if this thing breaks within a year, it’ll be replaced without a warranty!”
I love 'em. Just bought a Gameboy and the extended warranty was $10 for two years. It’s my cheap insurance in case the rechargable battery fails. Warranteed repair through Nintendo isn’t free and takes time. Also, if Nintendo releases an upgraded version (or even a new color I like better) I can use the extended warranty to upgrade. And you better believe I will.
Former Best Buy slave here.
Best Buy employees absolutely do not work on commission.
That said, they are required to:
- Shake your hand.
- Ask your name.
- Tell you their name.
- Sell you an extended warranty.
- Give/sell you a digital subscription (Netflix, AOL, DSL and the like)
- Walk most items up to the register.
Low numbers on things like DSL subs or warrantees can get you written up or fired.
These things are drummed into your head at the 30-45 minute morning meeting EVERY morning. I was not a salesperson. I worked from 6 am until 9:30 when the meeting started. I rarely saw customers. Yet, I needed to learn these things.
As for not ringing you out, Computer departments don’t have registers.
I don’t like the extended warranty thing on most things… but on a printer or a scanner I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
My soundcard died, too, although not as dramatically. When I opened it up to replace it, I found out that the sound card was hardwired to the motherboard. Also, the RAM, arguably the single most frequently upgraded piece of hardware on a PC (at least, it was in the days before video cards), were located underneath the motherboard, making them completely inaccessible without totally disassembling the entire PC.
Bastards.