Extended Computer Warranties Not the Best Buy
Apr 21 '00
I work as a computer consultant, and my company is warranty authorized by several major hardware vendors, including Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Compaq. As such, I have dealt with quite a few warranty issues. It's hard enough to deal with direct factory warranties, and extended warranties from third party companies tend to be even worse.
As consultants, we work primarily with business customers who purchase directly from us. However, since we have warranty authorization, vendors will refer customers with warranty issues to us. Many of these individuals have purchased "home" PC's from larger outlet vendors (i.e., Staples, Office Max, or Best Buy). Often, these individuals purchased the extended warranty plan for $99 in the belief that they would have that much more security if something happened after a year or after 3 years, depending on the warranty length. Here are a few of the problems they've run into:
HP OfficeJet Printer
Let me begin by saying this: the retailer that sells you your extended warranty has nothing to do with it after the sale. Consider, then, the chances of getting your money back if the following happened. OfficeJets carry a 1 year warranty from factory, usually express exchange. This means that if a problem occurs within the first year the customer owns the printer, HP sends them a new/refurbished one from the factory and we send the problematic one back to them. We are not, and cannot get, authorized to perform the repairs ourselves. A customer purchased this extended warranty and had a problem sometime after the factory warranty was up. We received a fax from the third party warranty company asking us to repair it, but we couldn't. Nobody bothered to check into this before selling the warranty.
3rd party "warranty" on-site repairs
Here is an even worse example of extended warranty problems. We often receive faxes from one particular extended warranty provider. Without exception, we are offered $125 to go on-site and perform work on the equipment. This is supposed to cover parts and labor. Our labor rates are $80 per hour, and we usually stay very busy. Why would we take time to drive two hours to take care of equipment that wasn't purchased from us, will not bring us new customers, and will often take repeated trips, when we could make more money working for our customers in that time? These faxes, if they weren't thrown away immediately, usually resulted in the individual having to bring the equipment in to the shop and wait in line behind the people who really pay our salaries. Usually they waited a minimum of two weeks to get fixed. And, after the repairs were completed, we had to spend hours on the phone trying to get our money. It's not worth it to us.
In closing, I would strongly advise against the purchase of an extended warranty, at least on computer equipment. The service will not be what you expect. Not because of the people who actually fix your problem, but because of the companies behind the warranty.
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Epinions.com ID:
bdlightman
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Member: Landis Vinchattle
Location: Central Nebraska
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
I love technology/computers and spend my free time trying to learn everything.
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