We have just received a notice that the maintenance/warranty on our dryer is about to expire. The cost to continue is $200 a year. Ridiculous!
But, somehow, DH and I both fall prey to these expenses fairly easily. He just purchased a new laptop, which seemed a great deal on sale at $1000. When the clerk rang it up, he said of course we will want the extended warranty, and the accidental warranty and maintenance agreement. DH said yeah...and the total shot to $2K.
I said WAIT A MINUTE (one of those times when we balance each other 
)...just how much is the warranty? Well, for four years, and for complete coverage and maintenance and connection to all your other devices, it's $250 a year.
Okay, so our house HAS been hit by lightning, and we've lost some modem and power supplies...
...but in four years, DH will likely rather buy a NEW computer, than that to have paid twice for the old one!
I did in fact fall for this five years ago, when I purchased the washer dryer set on my own. Busy day, needed item, a warranty and maintenance contact where they will maintain the items for four years, clean out the lint trap, repair and replace anything that's wearing out...$100 each item each year...but in the urgency of the moment, it seemed completely reasonable.
I asked DH about this today. After all, his policy is, if you are buying a premium item and paying a premium price, why does it need a warranty? If you pay extra for quality, it should have quality. If not, what are you doing?
So, why are we buying warranties and maintenace contracts? His simple response: "I never thought it all the way through."
The reality is, we don't USE warranties and maintenance contracts, except on the vehicles. Anything breaks, we fix it ourselves.
EASY: There is NO WAY that we can SIT ALL DAY to wait for a REPAIR person to come fix something that isn't broken. So out with the maintenance.
EMBARRASSMENT: There is NO WAY I am going to let a repair man see the gunk in my lint trap, or how dirty my refrigerator is (I'm told it's not, but, well, produce sheds!).
I'm sure I could get through all the E's.
Now, DH and I have designed, built, repaired and maintained state of the art equipment. We can replace bearings and washer and take things apart and put them back together.
Yet, we keep falling for the contracts.
So...DH is going through all of our warranty/maintenance/contracts and deciding what we NEED (cars), and what to dump, or get our money back.
And, I'm sticking with his question...if we pay premium for quality products, why DO we need a warranty or maintenance agreement?
Do you pay for warranties?
May 17th, 2006 at 07:08 pm
22 Responses to “Do you pay for warranties?”
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May 17th, 2006 at 07:46 pm 1147895203
Hmm, I was going to say that some warranties may be appropriate for those who aren't able to make repairs, but I can't think of any of our appliances or electronics that have needed a repair in those first four years. (Our current two vans were bought used, privately, so had no warranties.)
It's an interesting question you ask!
May 17th, 2006 at 07:56 pm 1147895768
May 17th, 2006 at 08:04 pm 1147896296
May 17th, 2006 at 10:12 pm 1147903937
May 17th, 2006 at 10:19 pm 1147904347
Computer stuff I have my son in law to handle repair work........my warranty of sorts!!
May 17th, 2006 at 10:40 pm 1147905608
I agree with DH...if they are such great products (commercials with the sleeping handing man...) WHY do they need such a huge warranty?
Cars only. We have had one lemon, and we got back a lifetime of warranties before we traded it in.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:46 pm 1147905979
I have owned three puters over several years and never had to have them repaired...knock on wood....they just got old and outdated...so the kids took them and used them until the old puters finally went kaput.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:54 pm 1147906443
The car we had that was all electronic controls, ACK. The "brain" would just STOP in the middle of I-5. It was replaced at least a dozen times, over $1000 against the warranty each time. DH will never go without some lemon protection again.
But we've gotten smarter about buying practical durable cars, too.
May 18th, 2006 at 12:38 am 1147912697
Also, I've gotten kind of cynical about paying for quality--too often, things have been as much of a lemon as I'd expect from a cheaper product. Right now I'm going with "buy cheap and discard as needed". Not great for the environment, but better for our budget.
May 18th, 2006 at 02:30 am 1147919419
Of course, we so rarely buy anythign new that the problem of whether or not to buy the warranty rarely comes up. Heh.
May 18th, 2006 at 04:36 am 1147927005
1994 dodge ram van, 1994 ford temp... all of them are under 80000 miles on the speedometer... no problems yet, no warranties...
May 18th, 2006 at 01:52 pm 1147960342
Seriously, I came home from a 36 hour shift at the med school, and he had taken my BLENDER apart all over the counter to get a PART (a screw, or something) for his LASER SYSTEM...
I have personally taken apart our dryer, repaired, and put back together...
How silly is it to not think these things through. But when you are at the cashiers, and they just throw it on at the last minute...and you just WANT TO GET OUT OF THERE...brain lock, I guess?
May 18th, 2006 at 09:49 pm 1147988976
They think Im nuts...but when they are on auto-pilot mode, NO is their first thought...lol
May 19th, 2006 at 01:35 pm 1148045751
Hmmm...maybe that's their plan!
May 19th, 2006 at 06:54 pm 1148064891
May 20th, 2006 at 03:47 am 1148096828
Hit the button.
Hit the button.
Hit the button.
May 20th, 2006 at 08:34 pm 1148157284
May 21st, 2006 at 03:09 pm 1148224174
May 22nd, 2006 at 07:45 pm 1148327118
But, I have found my warranty on my dell laptop to be very very very helpful!! There is a design flaw in my Dell Insprion 600m. It has a little pin (the size of pencil lead) which lets the computer know when the top is being shut or not. It has broke at least 10 times. The standard warranty replaced it without any problem. My CD drive actually stopped working a month or two after I bought my PC and it was replaced. Because of these incidents, I chose to extend my warranty. I paid like $150 for 3 more years. (At that point, I plan on buying a new laptop.) I've already used it! My page up key on the keyboard broke off and couldn't be put back on. They sent me a replacement keyboard without any problems. I wanted to extend my warranty because I NEED my laptop to last me through college.
May 24th, 2006 at 02:07 pm 1148479662
May 25th, 2006 at 06:12 pm 1148580772
**I will say that sometimes you may need a new hose due to wear and tear on the old one. But it is certainly a warranty issue.
May 31st, 2006 at 07:32 pm 1149103932
There is something called "planned obsolescence," meaning that many appliances are not intended to last forever becus the manufacturer wants you to buy more products.