About three years ago (November 06) I bought myself a little 13" MacBook. Normally, I never buy the extended warranty on anything, but I talked myself into it this time because, unlike my desktop, I can’t easily fix a laptop myself and the cost of replacement was high compared to the warranty. So I ponied up for the 3 year warranty. Well, last week, the inverter cable or inverter card went in my MacBook. I brought it in to the local Apple Store to get it replaced. While it was in there, they also replaced the top case and keyboard assembly. Now, the guy had mentioned that they would probably do that, but it was still a nice surprise since the only thing wrong with it was that it was old and kinda dirty. Not that horrible yellowing that used to happen with some MacBooks, just the normal dirt from three years of use. But what surprised me the most is that they also replaced the LCD display and I think they put the new LCD with the backlight in it. That’s $800 worth of parts and labor for $250. I don’t know why they did all that but I’m happy as a clam. It’s almost as good as a brand-new MacBook now.
You took a gamble and got lucky (okay, so perhaps lucky isn’t the best term 
I’m glad it worked out for you, particularly as you never otherwise purchase warranties. I never purchase them myself and haven’t really had a situation yet where I wish I had…I mean, $250 is already 1/4 the cost of a new Macbook, the amount one saves by not purchasing extended warranties in general should more than off-set the occasional repair cost.
Laptops are pretty much the only thing I buy the extended warranty on. And I’ve gotten use out of it will all three laptops I’ve owned. I don’t think I’m that hard on laptops (I don’t drop them or spill things on them), but apparently they break when I use them.
Laptops are one of the few things that it’s worth it to purchase extended warranties on. I’ve had 3 laptops replaced entirely near the very end of their tenure, since it’s unlikely my laptop will last for 4 years. Yeah, it may cost $150 but when you give me a brand new laptop after 3 years of beating up my old one, I consider it a good investment
We’ve had good luck with the extended warranty on game systems and cordless phones as well. Both the (early) XBox 360 and the Playstation II went back under extended warranty contracts. I’ve also used it for my washer, which had a gasket issue when some laundry got wrapped in the wrong place.
I spent 8 months doing tech support for Apple computers. Before that, I’d have considered the cost of the Applecare (technically not a “warranty”) to be prohibitive. After, I’d say that it’s a really good deal.
The computer on your desk doesn’t get moved around a lot. Your laptop does. Hard drives are ridiculously sensitive and trouble-prone pieces of hardware. A little piece of plastic and metal spinning around at 120 times a second. Can’t tell you how often I’ve seen laptop harddrives fail. Also can’t tell you how often I’ve had someone (usually a woman, but I’m not sure exactly why that is) screaming and crying on the other end of the phone because she has her entire life on that computer and NO BACKUPS of anything.
The case thing? Yeah, they sucked, and Apple spent a lot of money replacing them, sometimes repeatedly. So they’ve changed them now. The plastic just didn’t hold up to constant opening and closing of the computer, let alone the stress of hands resting on it all the time.
Then there’s simply bad parts from suppliers. For example, there’s a certain two week period of iPhone manufacture runs that is known for having bad batteries. You won’t find that in any documentation, internal or otherwise, but the Agents slowly catch on as they gain experience dealing with them. (DO NOT call in and quote me on that, because the chances are your agent doesn’t know and in any case cannot act from “I read it on a message board, so I want a replacement”. That shit doesn’t fly.)
I’m not an extended warranty fan, but cell phones, notebooks and maybe dishwashers are items to seriously consider extended warranties on based on my IRL experience with how often they come to grief. If the notebook is desk bound I would not bother, if it’s traveling it needs an extended warranty. Cell phones - (although it’s really replacement insurance vs warranty repair) ABSOLUTELY unless they are the super cheap disposable kind. Between myself and the kids I’ve already replaced three very expensive cell phones via insurance this year.
Am I the only one who thinks the warranty on cell-phones should match the life of the minimum contract? One couldn’t get an iPhone 3G without being tied to AT&T for 2 years; they should guarantee their product for that same length of time, free of charge.
The phones were done in by dropping and screen cracking (me) theft (daughter) toilet dunking (daughter). None of these are really build quality issues.
I was under the impression that most extended warranties, as provided by the manufacture, do not cover physical damage (such as the ones you mentioned). Instead, AFAIK, they merely lengthen the time that the product is covered by the same restrictions as a standard warranty, which almost never allows for physical damage (ie, anything inflicted by the consumer).
Regardless, my point was that cell phone providers should cover their phones with a standard warranty of a length that matches the minimum contract. It’s disgusting to me that a phone could potentially fail, while still being on contract, leaving the consumer with the repair charges.
Hence my clarification -
Apple makes the iPhone. AT&T is the Wireless Provider. Two different organizations. My cell phone is a Samsung, and my carrier is Sprint. Again, two different companies. The carriers do not make the hardware. Who should warranty the hardware for how long here?
Applecare on an iPhone is $69. That covers hardware for two years (an addition of one from the basic warranty) and apple tech support for two years (from the basic 90 days).
That would be for AT&T and Apple to figure out. I don’t give a damn how they do it, so long as they did. But this is just a pipe dream, as it won’t happen, but I think it should be a de facto standard.
And AppleCare costing $69 is irrelevant to my point, regardless of whether one thinks it’s a good price or not (I don’t, incidentally).
Back in college, my wife worked at a major retailer selling extended warranties so she knows what to get them on and what not to (basically, get the one on the vacuum, and forget the rest).
That being said, she found a portable dvd player several years ago on sale, got the warranty, and we’re now on the third free one.
They declined to sell us the warranty this time…
One of the things about extended warranties is that they are insurance - but the huge profit isn’t necessarily in “the stuff doesn’t break” - a lot of that profit is in "the stuff breaks, but the person who bought the warranty can’t get their hands on the paperwork.
So being an organized consumer of extended warranties isn’t a bad risk. You might not come out ahead, but you might save yourself at the right moment in time (i.e. my washer).
Being a disorganized consumer of extended warranties is stupid. If you aren’t going to bother with the warranty when it breaks, or won’t be able to find the warranty - don’t bother to buy it.