I recently purchased a 19" LCD Sony Display Monitor (SDM-HS94P) at 'Best Buy' for $669 (after $100 rebate) and the salesman somehow convinced (conned?) me to shell out $149 for a '3 year' extended replacement warranty, telling me that Sony's factory warranty covers only 1 year parts & labor, and that LCD monitors (in general) have had a history(?!) of pixels suddenly going out (for no reason) in a year or two. I added the additional in store extended warranty only under the understanding that I could opt out of it within 30 days, and get a refund back, if I changed my mind.

I've now discovered, after reading my Sony LCD monitor's warranty card carefully, that my monitor is actually warranted by Sony for 3 years (including both parts & labor) so called 'Best Buy' to let them know that I planned to opt out of the $149 extended warranty offer. The 'Best Buy' customer service person told me that they will refund my $149 if I want, but warned me that if I run into a problem with my LCD monitor, that I would have to ship it back to Sony, and that it could take up to a month for Sony to fix/replace it. On the other hand, if I keep the $149 Best Buy extended warranty and ever have a problem with the display monitor, that I would recieve a BRAND NEW same (or current equivilent model) replacement unit from 'Best Buy' that very day.

Considering all this, do you guys think it's worth the $149 to keep this warranty, or am I just throwing my money away?

I'm also curious to find out if any of you are purchasing 'in store' extended warranties for your keyboards & music equipment.

Many thanks for input and advice.

Scott

Scott, it's just like car insurance Like a comedian once said...., they should call it (in case sh** happens).... That warranty on that monitor a very expensive "just in case". If in 3 years the monitor is still working great, that's $149 smackers paid out for nothing.

Squeak

Hi Scott,
Enjoy the TV....would not have purchased the extended. These products last forever without problems. My son worked at CC and he made all his commissions on extended warranties. You should get your money back.
Zuki

Extended warranties, in general, are a rip. Their highest profit sale. For the item you purchased, I wouldn't have, as it's no big deal if it goes out. As for something like a keyboard that you MUST have, if those are offered with good terms, it might be worth it.

I'm sure a guy of your smarts wouldn't be taken in by any 'salesman'. On the other hand if this type of arrangement were offered to working musicians for their gear it might work!

Do you think we'll see this kind of deal offered for keyboards?

Scott,

I can't believe you fell for that old con game. First and foremost, Best Buy, does not do their own repairs--they send them out to the nearest factory repair center. In fact, when my hard drive on my Compaq Presario crashed, the technician said it would take 6 to 8 weeks to get the computer repaired because during the first year, it was stil under Compaq's waranty, this despite the fact I had a Best Buy Warranty. The drive crashed during the first week of use. Consequently, at this point I cancelled the extended waranty, called Compaq, they overnighted a pre-formatted and loaded 80-gig hard drive and I was back in business the next afternoon. Now I have back-up computers, both laptop and desktop.

After examining most extended waranty programs, I believe you'll find most are not worth the paper they are written on. Additionally, most have limitations and nearly all require that you pay the freight charges to and from the repair centers. I'll take my chances with the factory waranty and hope for the best after it expires.

Cheers,

Gary

Scott -

Dump it immediately! It's like the old sales trick of rust-proofing the undercarriage of your new car.

A couple aquaintances work at electronics stores and they said they get 80% of what they sell for extended warranties. Almost always it is covered by the manufacturer's standard warranty.

That's why they are so PUSHY about these warranties! I always tell them that I can't afford it. Then they tell you that if it breaks to just OPEN THE CASE will run you $500. Blah blah blah....

Bought a $300 Sony Camcorder five years ago and it has been humming along just fine. Your monitor will last for years.

My advice is to dump the policy and run with it.

Tommy

no they are not worth it.
and the saleperson lied to you.
these people are under constant pressure
from thier supervisor to sell these because
it is the most profitable item in the store.
if fact, in some stores, if a salesperson
don't make their (PPP)=product protection
plan sales goal ,they are usually fired.

Definitely dump the extended warranty. The technology may change during a 3 year period, let alone it being very unlikely that anything will go wrong with the monitor.

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Graham

Consumer reports calls extended warranties a ripoff.

I would only opt for such a warranty on a product that is made for home use and I'm using it professionally. For example, let's say I get a camcorder, and I am using it professionally every single day at my job, six hours a day. It is likely to break within three years.

I'm glad you cancelled it, Scott. Good call.

Beakybird

Ditto to all the above. In short, these extended warranties are a great deal for the retailer, bad deal for the consumer.

Glenn

Some years ago Best Buy used to sell an extended warranty for anything for $39 - that was a good deal on more expensive items, but nowadays it is really not worth it.

BTW, most credit cards offer doubling of original warranty, up to an additional year. I think you need to have paid for the item with this card, and then contact the credit card with the purchse information (e.g. Serial Number, price, etc.) Usually I don't bother with this, but for a relatively expensive item, which may experience pixel malfunctions later in life, this may be something worthwhile.

REgards,
Alex

Hi all, thanks to everyone for confirming what I had suspected all along. Though I was finally able to get the $149 refund (back to my credit card), here's the unexpected hassle I had to go thru to get my money back.

When I (earlier today) called the Best Buy store I originally purchased my Sony LCD display monitor & extended warranty from, the customer services associate told me that I could save myself a drive and simply call their toll free customer support number (888) BEST-BUY , and easily get my refund that way. Well guess what, I called that number, and the telephone rep told me that the store had given me incorrect information, and that I actually need to go into a Best Buy store (ANY Best Buy store) to obtain the refund. Though I was a bit irritated at the sudden change of (official?) company policy given to me, but realized if I had any chance to get my refund, I'd better go into a Best Buy store myself to resolve this. Considering the fact that both the original sales person I bought my monitor from, as well as the rep I spoke on the phone assured me that I could get a refund by going into ANY Best Buy store, I decided to drive to my local closest Best Buy (4 miles away), instead of the store I originally purchased it from, which is over 25 miles away.

Guess what? After having to wait in the RETURN merchandise line for 15-20 minutes, the clerk tells me that I can only obtain a credit from the ORIGINAL store I bought it from. I tried to explain what was told to me earlier by both another Best Buy employee & the Best Buy telephone rep, but she said that I would have to wait to speak with a store manager. After waiting 10 more minutess for a manager to show up, the manager went on and on about how stupid I would be to not accept the extended warranty, stating how long it would take from Sony (30 days+, as well as having to pay shipping both ways) if I ever experienced problems with the monitor. I said no thank you, and only then did he finally approve the refund, telling me that I had to wait back in line again, because the RETURNS clerk was already helping another customer. After another 10 minute wait, I finally received a $149 credit back to my card. Following this experience, I have doubts that I will be shopping at Best Buy again very soon.

Thank you all for letting me get this off my chest.


Scott

It's a racket, Scott. Same as selling cars. A racket. Unbelievable tricks they teach the novices to spring on you. It's the almighty dollar at work. Occasionally, you find a real real, like the Logitech speakers (which you returned) but usually, a rip.

Here in the UK, Retailers make more profit when selling the extended cover than they do on the product itself.
All Monitors here are covered by a 3 year warrantee and I assume this goes for other parts of the world.
I have never yet taken out an extended warrantee on any electrical goods we have bought. The salesman gets a very high bonus on every extended warrantee he sells....believe me I have worked in the trade.

IMO 90% of all in-store warranties are unnecessary and a waste of money. But then again, if you find you use your warranty, then it becomes very worth it. I'll go with the odds and suggest you drop the warranty. If you had to send it to Sony, it would still put you ahead.

I may be tempting providence but in all the years since extended warranties appeared in the UK I have bought dozens of pieces of electrical and musical equipment and have NEVER taken out an extended warranty.. I have NEVER regretted it as nothing I have ever bought has failed during what would have been the period covered by the extended warranty..Hundreds, nay, thousands of pounds have been saved..Enough to buy a couple of spare Tyroses.

Trevor

I agree that extended warranties are most often not needed as the product usually lasts far beyond what the extended warranty would offer, e.g. 2 year extended, 3 year extended, 5 year extended, etc.

But one case where an extended warranty paid for itself and more was on my Panasonic DV Palmcoder. I bought the extended warranty (5 year) for around $100 and a major problem occurred about 4 years into the warranty. They ended up fixing it for free which was over $900 in actual cost of parts and labor for the repair.

But more often than not the extended warranty is never used or needed because the equipment or product will run just fine way beyond a 3, 4, or 5 year extended warranty.

An extended warranty on a Car or Truck after the original Manufacturers warranty expires is usually a good thing though IMO because unlike electronics, Cars and Trucks are mainly mechanical in origin and design and tend to need repair more often than a quality standalone electronic device might.

Best regards,
Mike

Get your money back. Best Buy is a good company, but they will offer an extended warranty on anything. Case in point, I got a dvd player for my kids yesterday for 39.99 they wanted me to add a 2yr ext warranty for an additional 29.99. It is a rip off. In 3 yrs that LCd monitor wouldn't be worth it.

Topic: In-Store Extended Warranty Contracts: Are they Worth it?
Scott....in a word....No

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...L

According to Consumer Reports - and they crunch the numbers - extended warranties are a bad idea for electronics and for cars and trucks. With a car, you'd be better off putting the money aside for repairs according to Consumer Reports.

Beakybird

As a general rule, I never fall for the extended warranty thing. One exception was when I purchased a Pocket PC handheld. I went for the extended warranty...glad I did. It died on me several months later and was replaced with an identical model, which died a few months later, which was replaced with a Palm Pilot, which died months later, which was replaced by a Sony Clie' which is, after 2 years, still alive and well! The warranty provided peace of mind and simple exchange at the store with no questions asked. In this case, I'm glad I bought it.

After purchasing my first PSR 2000, Yamaha sent me a survey form and offered to extend the factory warranty 1 full year if I was willing to answer their questions.

It cost me nothing...and I believe they knew the chances were excellent that it would cost them nothing.

Eddie

When i bought my first laptop from best buy I got talked into the extended warranty, the salesman told me the battery would likely go dead and the warranty would cover a new one. Aout a month before the warranty expired I decided to bring it in and have them check it out. I never ran the computer on the battery just left it plugged in.
Anyhow I got the new battery and while it was there the hard drive failed and they had to put in a new drive too.
But I usually do not buy the warranty, I did with the laptop because i did't know any better.

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