Laptop service plan

[coldmeat]

I suppose I have decided on getting the Sony Vaio SZ780. here

I originally asked about the FZ, but kind of shied away from it because of it's battery, and I want something a little smaller.

I just wanted to know if I should get the service plan or not. From what I hear, the SZ seems pretty reliable, but there are still stories of them breaking. It's just that it's an extra $200-320 for it.

what do you guys recommend?

 

[TheStu]

It is generally more difficult to service a notebook, and more expensive, and they are more prone to failure since you are going to be moving them (you get a tower and once you set it up, it doesn't ever really leave that spot, certainly not while powered on)... i would get the warranty.

 

[corkyg]

I have had 5 notebooks, and I travel frequently to Latin America, Europe and around the USA. I only once got an extended warranty. Laptops are pretty tough if you take care of them. I have decided to be "self insured" from now on.

My reasoning is like so . . . since I have never had a laptop needing warranty repair, it influences me. Extended warranties make big bucks for the seller. If they are so profitable for them, they must therefore be unprofitable for me. I simply take the cost of the extended warranty over time and create my own replacement fund.

It really boils down to what you can afford and what the statistical break points are in the insurance business.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Extended warranties make big bucks for the seller. If they are so profitable for them, they must therefore be unprofitable for me.

That's exactly how I feel. Extended warranties are big, big bucks for the seller.

It is kind of like gambling. You place your bet on your notebook failing between 1 year and 3 years. The warranty company (or store) takes your bet against it failing. Who's going to win the bet? As with gambling, the "house" makes the rules and knows the math behind it, and of course over time the "house" always comes out ahead. Sure, now and again someone "wins" but over time...

 

[masteraleph]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: corkyg
Extended warranties make big bucks for the seller. If they are so profitable for them, they must therefore be unprofitable for me.

That's exactly how I feel. Extended warranties are big, big bucks for the seller.

It is kind of like gambling. You place your bet on your notebook failing between 1 year and 3 years. The warranty company (or store) takes your bet against it failing. Who's going to win the bet? As with gambling, the "house" makes the rules and knows the math behind it, and of course over time the "house" always comes out ahead. Sure, now and again someone "wins" but over time...

That's the standard way that insurance works (ignoring health insurance, which has become far more bloated than it once was). You don't buy homeowner's insurance or renter's insurance because the odds favor you; on the contrary, the odds are that you will, in the long run, pay out more in homeowner's insurance than you'll ever get back. You're buying insurance because a low price per month is acceptable to you, but six figures in damages are too much to recover from.

My personal take is that the only "extended" warranties worth the money are ones that include accidental damage, such as Lenovo's Thinkpad Protection (Dell has a version too). I consider the odds that I'm going to accidentally spill coffee into my laptop or drop it down the stairs to be far higher than the odds of my CPU dying after 2 years.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: masteraleph
My personal take is that the only "extended" warranties worth the money are ones that include accidental damage, such as Lenovo's Thinkpad Protection (Dell has a version too). I consider the odds that I'm going to accidentally spill coffee into my laptop or drop it down the stairs to be far higher than the odds of my CPU dying after 2 years.

That makes sense. One of the few times I purchased extended warranty was on my first CD "discman" from Circuit City. They touted it as a "performance" warranty (at the time, don't know now) and told me it means that for the duration of the extended warranty, Circuit City will make sure I have a functioning unit. Darn thing survived being dropped a couple times, but what did it in was being left in my car, in direct sunlight parked for a Summer day in Imperial Valley (we're talking 120ºF in the shade). The cover softened and bent up over the sensing pin (to tell player lid was closed). Thus, the player would not work (thought lid was open) unless I pressed it down. It did work with a thick rubber band around it so I used it like that for a while until I could get over to a Circuit City. Got there, handed it to the guy and told him it doesn't work unless lid is pressed down. He grabbed a disc and verified what I told him. They happened to still have those in stock and so he brought out a brand new box, opened it in front of me and handed me the new player.

The other time I got extended warranty was for my Ford Contour SVT. I ended up needing it repaired under extended warranty, but the cost of the repairs that it covered was still just under the $1500 price of the warranty, so it didn't pay off. It did develop more serious problems AFTER the extended warranty ran out, so go figure.

These days if something doesn't have more than a year warranty and I'm concerned about it (like with an LCD monitor and HDTV I bought) I just use a credit card that adds a year warranty for free. I figure two years is good enough for technology at the rate it moves.

 

[coldmeat]

I think I'm going to pay for the 1 year extended. I wish I had a credit card that could cover the amount and give me the 1 year extended for free.