Thinkpads Forum

Personally I want to spend extra money (if I have) on purchasing more horse power than on warranty.

With limited budget, do you think it is wise not to buy an extended warranty ?

It depends on how you usually use your laptops, or electronic equipment in general. Do you tend to break things? Is the laptop going to stay on your desktop most of the time or will you carry it around? If you leave it on your desk and rarely move it, and if you take good care of your laptops, then you will probably not need to buy an extended warranty.

thinkweird wrote:<snip>
With limited budget, do you think it is wise not to buy an extended warranty ?

No. ... JDH

Personally I don't think it matters how you use the machine, it can be sitting on a desktop and never move and still blow out a MB or LCD.

Get the warranty, it's peice of mind and a huge savings down the line if something happens.

The typical profit margin on extended warranties is around 90%. You do the math. If you take the price of the warranty and put it in a separate bank account, you'll always come out ahead in the long run (and not very long, either).

Yes, it is peace of mind. Very, very expensive peace of mind.

There are rare situations where it makes sense, and you can always find someone who was saved a very expensive repair by having an extended warranty.

You can also walk into any casino in Atlantic City and find a big sign with the names and happy pictures of the slots jackpot winners. Does that make a playing the slots a good investment strategy?

Ed Gibbs

Bravo, egibbs! I have owned close to 30 laptops since Aug 2002 and have had problems only once, with my first laptop, and it was my fault (I dropped the CD-RW drive onto the floor). Since that lesson, I have always used my laptops with care and nothing ever went wrong again. If you are buying a >$2K laptop, then it might be worth buying extended warranty, but if it's $1K or less and if it will never leave your desk, I don't think so.

And I didn't even mention the fact that by the time the factory warranty expires you can probably ebay an identical replacement machine for less than what the extended warranty cost you. Which is one reason the profit margin is obscene.

Another is the fact that so many (most?) claims under extended warranties are rejected for reasons set out clearly in the 27 pages of fine print.

Ed Gibbs

pianowizard wrote:Bravo, egibbs! I have owned close to 30 laptops since Aug 2002

Whoa! That is a LOT of laptops!

I'm with Ed on this one. 3 years standard warranty is fine for me. It's usually time to upgrade thereafter anyway or, as Ed pointed out, cheap to go to eBay for an identical replacement. Also no warranty will bring back your data. My peace of mind comes from making backups! I didn't vote. I'd vote for another category along the lines of "Don't need an extended warranty because technology depreciates so quickly."

I'm with Ed on this one. 3 years standard warranty is fine for me.

Three years standard warranty, that sure was not an option when I bought my t60. One year standard.

Kyocera wrote:Three years standard warranty, that sure was not an option when I bought my t60. One year standard.

And I believe the OP was asking whether or not it's worth extending the warranty from one to three years.

My personal opinion is that upping it from one year to three years is a no-brainer, but he can wait until near the end of the year to buy it.

gator wrote:

pianowizard wrote:Bravo, egibbs! I have owned close to 30 laptops since Aug 2002

Whoa! That is a LOT of laptops!

I misspoke. I have a list of all the computers that I have owned, and it shows 34 laptops and 13 desktops, excluding the HP Jornada 720 handheld PC that I owned for about 2 weeks.

pianowizard:

And I believe the OP was asking whether or not it's worth extending the warranty from one to three years.

And I was making the point that there is no three year standard warranty, nothing more.

Kyocera wrote:pianowizard:

And I believe the OP was asking whether or not it's worth extending the warranty from one to three years.

And I was making the point that there is no three year standard warranty, nothing more.

I know, I was just elaborating on what you were saying, to make sure everyone else knew what we meant.

I always buy a two year onsite next business day warranty upgrade. Ever had to go a week or more without your ThinkPad, as you would with the standard depot warranties, whether 1 or 3 years standard? Really nice to have the peace of mind to know a tech can be onsite within 24 hours to fix. Three years is too long since technology advances so quickly. If you're going to pay over $1500-2000 for a notebook, why not spend another $250 for two years of onsite repair?

Also, there is a minimum of 3 years of warranty service upgrade for ANY model ThinkPad. You can still purchase any time during the oringal warranty period. It will back date to the original purchase, but it's never too late. Even beyond the 1 or 3 year standard warranty, you can add a post-warranty.

Of course, I also have extended warranties on my cars, home audio/video, furniture, appliances, kids, wife, air and food. I'm paranoid I guess.

kjjb0204 wrote:Of course, I also have extended warranties on my cars, home audio/video, furniture, appliances, kids, wife, air and food. I'm paranoid I guess.

And I'm glad there are people like you. Some retailers will actually discount an item below their cost knowing they will make it up on the service contract. So the many folks who take the service contract are subsidizing people like me getting a better deal than I would otherwise get.

Thanks, and keep buying those service contracts. In fact, are you sure one is enough? Why not get two on everything just to be safe?

I didn't answer the poll either, but I think there should be an answer that says I don't buy them, but I think you should.

Oh - and be sure NOT to read the fine print that says the company that already has your money gets to decide if they should pay for your repair if you ever need one.
Ed Gibbs

Three year warranty helps with resale. Without a warranty, the unit does not sell for much on ebay. Thinkpads hold up fairly well in value over 1.5 to 2 years thus, it really does make it worthwhile to own the warranty if you plan to sell your used machine.

I didn't answer the poll either, but I think there should be an answer that says I don't buy them, but I think you should.

I think you've made your point ed. The morons buy them the smart people keep their money and pay through the nose when something breaks and they have to pay full price to have something repaired. I see it every day. The *smart* people don't but service contracts on their printers, faxes, copiers, and then when we hand them a bill for $1200 because their main board got fried from that last thunder storm or suzy creamcheese spilled coffee inside the printer, they feel real smart. I see these smart peoples mouths drop when they are told with a contract they'd pay half the cost of that board per year, and that's only one board. We recently had a physicians center downtown that got hit with lightning (cat5 can definately carry some voltage) and had to pay over 40,000 in office equipment repairs, for computers, printers, etc. With a contract at least some of the cost would have been eliminated, because the labor $125hr would have been covered.

In my business we *love* these very smart people. So I completely agree with you.

I NEVER buy the extended warranties...it may be stupid, but thinking back I don't ever remember getting burned by not purchasing one. My main concern would be the internal electrical parts and I think if they are going to fail they would do it almost immediately and certainly within the first year...so I live on the edge! I want to spend my limited money on upgrades, not warranties I, hopefully, will never need. Besides, it gives you a good excuse to buy a new one!

Kyocera wrote:We recently had a physicians center downtown that got hit with lightning (cat5 can definately carry some voltage) and had to pay over 40,000 in office equipment repairs, for computers, printers, etc. With a contract at least some of the cost would have been eliminated, because the labor $125hr would have been covered.

The same people had saved millions elsewhere by not buying extended warranties. Physicians aren't dumb. I think we need to look at the long-term benefits of warranties, not just isolated cases. Ed's gambling analogy was perfect.

Also, don't forget that the OP's question was "With limited budget, do you think it is wise not to buy an extended warranty ?". If you are rich, buying extended warranties is of course a no-brainer, but if you aren't, then it may not be worth it.

OK, my opinion, if you have a limited budget then you should get an extended warranty because if something breaks down the line you will be covered for any costly repairs. If you don't have a limited budget then don't get any warranties ever for anything.

I have had things break on my thinkpads during the warranty, the service was fast and didn't cost me anything, so I'm really not convinced that not having one would have saved me any money
A $180.00 hard drive with CD's was shipped next day air to my house when my drive crashed on my t42 a couple years ago. That practically paid for the extended warranty in itself.

And physicians really aren't all that savvy about office products, I know this because I do this for a living, they are always asking my opinions of what they need for their networks and the best equipment for their needs. I've been to a few Physicians homes configuring them to network thier computers and printers and they have no clue of what they need, why should they? Hardly any of the medical facilities we service have any doctors involved in any purchasing of equipment, that is why they have purchasing departments within, the number crunchers who squeeze those pennies very hard, but one thing they do is buy contracts, I.T and service for their office equipment. And trust me the purchasing depts that are too short sited and don't get things covered wind up in the position I described above

Ed's gambling analogy is perfect for a gambler, I'm not a gambler. That analogy could also be used for homeowners insurance, which I have, is that a waste too? Would it be a gamble to not have it...yes...if my lappy's and musical equipment got stolen I'd at least be able to get some recompense.

Just found this article:

Extended warranty a waste: Consumer group rips fear factor

egibbs wrote:And I didn't even mention the fact that by the time the factory warranty expires you can probably ebay an identical replacement machine for less than what the extended warranty cost you. Which is one reason the profit margin is obscene.

Another is the fact that so many (most?) claims under extended warranties are rejected for reasons set out clearly in the 27 pages of fine print.

Ed Gibbs

So you're saying after 1 year, you could buy a T60 for $249.00, the cost of upgrading an express model to a 3 year onsite warranty? So, if the T60 series came out in January, in two months we'll see every T60 on ebay for under $300? That makes sense.

I think we also need to make the distinction between buying an extended service contract from IBM Global Support and buying one at the register at Best Buy. There is a huge difference in the red tape and service levels you can expect from these two types of warranty providers. I sell to Fortune 100 companies all day, every day, and these companies buy service upgrades for their mission critical systems, period.

I would say that if it is your only machine then the warranty is definitely worth it. But for people like me who have multiple computers, then I personally find it to be a toss up.

kjjb0204 wrote:So you're saying after 1 year, you could buy a T60 for $249.00, the cost of upgrading an express model to a 3 year onsite warranty? So, if the T60 series came out in January, in two months we'll see every T60 on ebay for under $300? That makes sense.

No - every machine I've bought from IBM up to and including my T42p came with a standard 3 year warranty. If Lenovo is no longer offering that, then an extension from 1 to 3 years might make sense for some people, although it is still overpriced insurance.

For the poster who compared service contracts to homeowner's insurance - do you typically pay 10% - 20% of the purchase price of your home on an annual basis for your insurance? If you do, you might want to shop around a bit.

Ed Gibbs

In my experiences with many electronics (computers, HDTV's, tuners, etc.) if something goes wrong, it goes wrong within the first year, or even the first month. Once the problems are sorted, the stuff lasts for a long time or until it depreciates to about 20% of its original cost. For me, the one exception was a Dell 20" LCD (2001FP) which lasted 5 years before it crapped out, but it is now worth basically nothing since you can buy a brand new better monitor for about $300.

I tend to buy a lot of refurbished stuff, and usually never have any problems. If there are problems, the are in the first month so I just return and get a brand new product for the same price.

With all that said, I would advise against an extended warranty if you treat your stuff with care.

kjjb0204 wrote:I think we also need to make the distinction between buying an extended service contract from IBM Global Support and buying one at the register at Best Buy. There is a huge difference in the red tape and service levels you can expect from these two types of warranty providers. I sell to Fortune 100 companies all day, every day, and these companies buy service upgrades for their mission critical systems, period.

What are the differences between bestbuy and IBM Global Warranty? Which one has more 'red tape' and worse service levels?

The Best Buy agreement is the worst of the two, but that was only used as an example. The point is that it would be far better, as there is a difference, to get the warranty from IBM or a pretty large reseller thereof instead of a simple retailer agreement like something you would get from Best Buy or some other similar outlet.