Notebook Computer Extra Warranty, Worth It?
My wife’s 4.5 years old iBook G3 died two weeks ago. Well, probably not like the flaming iBook, but it will not boot from the hard disk, and booting from the installation CD only results kernel panic with memory-related error messages. Sounds like it is time for a new computer! That iBook was actually the last computer I have bought (all my others are either scrapped junk or laptops provided by work which I have no choice what-so-ever) so you can pretty much see how excited I am! Going to the online store and building the new computer to exactly the way I wanted it!!
Oh wait. I am still limited by the budget. D’oh.
So I went to Dell Australia, picked the new Inspiron 1420, and tried to customise it for the best performance my budget allows me to have. (No, don’t ask me why I forsake Apple to go to Dell and Windows Vista). At the end I spec’ed one with
- 2GB DDR2 RAM
- Core 2 Duo 1.8GHz T7100
- 160GB Hard Disk
- 1440×900 14.1″ WXGA
- …
Certainly a good enough computer for my wife to surf the web, edit some documents and do her own tax return (she has been on the Mac for the last 4 years and have to use my PC to run eTax). All up for less than $1,700 (+ 3% cashback from MoneyBackCo). Then I realised something — hey what about extended warranty? I bought AppleCare when I purchased the iBook and I’ll say $400+ for it is actually worth it simply because the motherboard died a year and half down the track and the extended warranty totally covered it.
Then again I am on my 3rd Dell laptop from work now, all insured with 3 year business care plans, but all have no trouble at all. Moreover if anything goes wrong with a Dell lappy, it should be relatively trivial to fix comparing to an Apple equivalent because (1) I have better knowledge on PC than Mac (2) Dell parts on eBay are cheap. It does make you wonder whether the extra money you pay for the extended warranty (up to $480 for 3 years on an Inspiron) is a good idea.
Well. Finger crossed, took the middle ground and ordered my wife’s new Inspiron with only 2 years warranty.
Do you buy extended warranty on laptops or other products?
If you buy a laptop from Dell from their website and don’t ask for an extended warranty then they call you up and try to badger you into getting one.
Now, would this be because:
a) They are looking out for my welfare?
or
b) They make a nice hefty profit out of extended warranties?
I am betting on b).
That is almost a rhetorical question. Of course it is (b) :)
Maybe you should ask the sales who called you that why they have so little faith on their own product. Or if they are so keen on selling you the extended warranty because the likelihood of failing is so high, why don’t they (1) fix up the quality control (2) make extended warranty standard? :)
I don’t really buy the extended warranty. Although I’ve only bought a lappy once in my life and that was 6 months ago. It cost so much for a student to pay. I can only hope nothing is gonna go wrong with my lappy.
It seems worth it when it breaks after a few years, but if it doesn’t, then there’s no use of the warranty, right? Maybe purposedly break it and make a good use of the warranty! :)
Why such awesome specs?
Did you purchase with credit card ? Some credit cards offer extra 1 yr warranty on top of any standard warranty cover.
@John — exactly my point. It is like buying insurance. Should I comprehensively insure my car or not? Should I buy content + building insurance for my house? Just that in the case of a notebook, extended warranty is roughly one third the price of the notebook. Sounds more like a rip off, but sometimes people still buy it so they won’t get ripped off even more with expensive repairs.
@Jonk — one word. VISTA (ouch!)
@JB — yes it is on credit card. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll take a look.
I’d prefer to buy a cheapo (say $1500-ish) laptop every year without extending the warranty, rather than a more expensive laptop and extend the warranty. You might get more than 1 year out of it if it doesn’t blow up @ the 12 month mark, in which case you win.
If it does die soon after the warranty runs out (which even for dells is rare), you can either pickup a cheap second hand replacement for not a lot, given how quickly laptops depreciate, or a new laptop which will be faster/more hdd/more ram, etc, for the same or less than you paid for the one that died.
In short, don’t insure items with such steep decpreciation - its just not worth it.
(of course, I’m hypocritical - I spent a wad on a macbook pro, and did buy the warranty for it - but if doing it again, I’d go with a cheap dell and no warranty, since I’d upgrade after max 18 months anyway)
It depends on the product. However for computers I believe extended warranty is a waste of money. Especially anything longer than about 18 month to two years.
With computers the computer depreciate so quickly that if you think about your 480 dollars, you could buy a second hand laptop to scrap for parts to repair your current one. Or put the money towards an upgrade in two years times.
Extended warranty is such a huge money maker for many products (especially white goods), however in alot of cases it is unneccessary. Under the Sales of Goods Act 1893 and other state statues, Companies have an obligation to make sure their goods are fit for purpose. This NSW fair trading commission explanation was the easiest one to find.
————— (http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/shopping/refundsrepairs/warranties.html#Implied%20warranties)
Implied warranties are implied by either statutes or common law. Implied or statutory conditions and warranties require traders and manufacturers to ensure that every product provided is suitable for the purpose for which it is supplied.
Products must do their job properly, bearing in mind their price and the way they are described. This is a legal obligation that applies, whether or not a trader or manufacturer decides to provide a written warranty or guarantee (voluntary warranty).
Consumers may ask for a refund if the goods purchased:
-are so defective that they should not have been sold, for example they don’t work, they break down or they develop a serious fault. If an article becomes defective after sale, one of the considerations for merchantable quality would be the price received by the supplier for the goods (eg. a $2 watch wouldn’t be expected to last as long as a $300 quality watch)
-are not suitable for their intended purpose made known to the supplier, or
-do not match the sample or description provided.
For example, a refrigerator is an expensive item. It is not unreasonable to expect it to last longer than 18 months before it’s ready for the scrap heap. Even if the voluntary warranty on the refrigerator has expired, a consumer may still have a valid complaint under the law if it had a structural fault eg. defective insulation not apparent at the time of purchase, which became obvious after only 18 months.
These implied warranties cannot be excluded or modified by a manufacturer or trader when the product or service is bought for personal or domestic use, even if the consumer does not return a manufacturer’s guarantee card or notice provided with the goods.
—————
In effect all you are paying for in alot of cases is ease of warranty claim……