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