The Good, Bad, and Indifferent Appliance Warranties
Oct 12 '00
Are you considering buying an appliance warranty? Well here are a few tips from an appliance repair technician that might help in that decision.
#1. Remember the ultimate purpose in purchasing a warranty. That purpose is to assure that you will be able to replace or repair a faulty unit at little or no additional cost to you. I feel it is a good idea to get an extended warranty on any large appliance you buy, if the coverage is reasonable. Concerning small appliances, it is usually not cost effective. To spend an extra $25 to $50 for protection on an item that could be replaced for $100 to $150 new, is pure salesmanship on the dealer's part. I calculate the cost-effectiveness of such a warranty this way: Cost of appliance divided by the estimated years of useful life equals twice the cost of the warranty.
#2. Before buying, check out the fine print. Some warranties exclude things like: moving appliances between residences, having "special" repair businesses specified, or even allowing children to operate machine! Any of these (or other) determinations can be made, and thereby void the warranty, by merely telling the service company what caused the problem!
#3. Lastly, I encourage you to check out a local repair shop, and see if they offer an overall coverage for all your appliances. This is the most cost-effective way to cover ALL your repair/replacement needs. The logic is if they cannot fix it quickly and cheaply, they won't want to "warranty" any of the appliances, as it will cost them too much to repair.
All in all, shopping for an extended warranty is a numbers game, where you hold the cards. There is no obligation to purchase an extended warranty, and an awful lot of the time, it is just free money to the dealer. But when you are talking $1,000 to $1,500 to replace that 2 year old refrigerator, it would be a big help.
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