Store "Protection Plans"

[Boyiee]

So I'm about to go buy a new Laptop from bestbuy, and I know that protection plans are just price gouges to make stores a good profit and shit...

But I've never bought something so high priced and fragile before like this, so would a protection plan be worth it? Everyone I know drops their laptop or something, would it be protected against that? Accidental damage at all? Or is it just an extension of the, if something happens internally and not by user we'll refund it?

[Yabby]

It has been a while sense i've seen the plans but if i'm correct i thought the accidental plan is the highest cost one. Most laptop retailers have like 3 plans, the 1st two are just extensions of the laptops normal parts warranty. IE you drop it you are fucked ether way. The last one covers that but cost like 1/3 of the price of the laptop lol. Only way i would buy the coverage is if you plan on doing a lot of traveling with the laptop. I myself have never (Even while traveling) dropped my laptop because i'm not a retard....

[Epical]

So I'm about to go buy a new Laptop from bestbuy, and I know that protection plans are just price gouges to make stores a good profit and shit...

Yes, these plans do happen to make the companies profit, but at the end of the day, they are also there to give you support, coverage, and/or possible replacement twice or three times as long as you would have should you just take the 1 year manufacturer warranty. The pricing ("gouges") isn't just thought up by some dude in an office somewhere to be as high as possible so the company can roll in buckets of cash every day. At the end of the day, when the company has to deal with repairing your machine, they have to employ tech labor, deal with shipping companies, order new parts, install and guarantee their work, and give it back to you within a certain time frame or else THEY have to give YOU a new computer. If you think about it, the parts itself within a repair job are almost the entire cost of the store plan.

But I've never bought something so high priced and fragile before like this, so would a protection plan be worth it? Everyone I know drops their laptop or something, would it be protected against that? Accidental damage at all? Or is it just an extension of the, if something happens internally and not by user we'll refund it?

There is a huge stigma against these plans, part of which I understand, part of which I don't, but you aren't paying $150-$350 to only make the store money. You're paying that to have long-term coverage on a piece of technology that has a high chance of malfunctioning AFTER the warranty the box comes with. There's a reason manufacturers only give you a limited 1 year warranty out of the box... if they supplied all their products with a 2, 3, or 4 year warranty directly they would lose a ridiculous amount of money on repairs long term. The 1 year warranty is there to prevent any premature ("premature" in this sense being less than a year) malfunction or performance issues. After that you're on your own. That's where third parties like Best Buy come in. They offer you a product, realize that you'll probably have it for more than a year, and subsequently offer a service to provide you with coverage for the following year or two so you won't be left stranded with private techs. Those little computer shops charge you $50-90/hr labour, plus parts. For example, a three hour job to take your laptop in, diagnose it, repair, and give it back to you is lets say $150-340 in labour alone. Then you have parts: anywhere between $30-600 depending on what is wrong with your machine. This is for one repair. If your machine breaks again... well, you've probably just matched the amount you paid for it in repairs. The store plan is $150-$350 (depending on price bracket and year length), and it's a one time fee when you buy your machine: no annual charges or anything.

As far as physical damage goes, it doesn't cover that as it would not be a hardware defect - it's user inflicted. That goes for water damage and viruses as well. If you buy from Best Buy, they cover hinges now. If you're in four times for a major repair, on your fourth trip in you are entitled to a brand new laptop. Otherwise it is signed in for repair and given back to you when fixed. There's no direct OCE for laptops if it's broken. If your machine is in the back for 60 days (or quoted for 60 days due to a backordered part), you're also entitled to a new laptop. Everything else is fair game.

The biggest reason why people have a hard time justifying to themselves that these plans are worth it is because they're paying a big chunk of money for an intangible service. The store knows that. It's up to you to decide whether you want to risk the hassle and headache of going the long route should something happen to your machine after your manufacturer warranty has expired. Everything is a risk, nothing is guaranteed. Each individual person has to decide for themselves whether it is worth it or not.

Anyways, I'm not here to tell you to buy it or not. I'm just giving you some facts you may not have been aware of before, or might have been biased towards due to hearsay from friends or people that have had bad experiences. Should you decide to go with it, remember you can drop in for free cleanings, performance diagnosis and maintenance, and others (ask your salesman)... your machine doesn't have to be broken to utilize the store's services. If not, you have 14 days for returns or exchanges!

Also, before you go and buy your laptop, you might be interested in checking out this article. It's from November '09, so it's fairly recent.

Remember that the store wants your business, if you are going to go with one of their service plans, remember the ball is in your court in a way: ask for a free bag, or wireless mouse, or pack of blank DVDs, or whatever. They shouldn't have a problem scratching your back too. Have fun and good luck!

Disclaimer: the details I mentioned are from a Canadian retailer owned by Best Buy, also mirroring their warranty service plan. It may be different for the US.

[Bikpik]

Check and see if this is a manufactures warrenty or an instore. Most manufactures offer a 1 year warrenty, then stores try and charge you for their 1 year warrenty, that basically nets you 2 warrenties that end the same time, which is 1 warrenty too many. So ask when their warrenty starts, and the manufactures end kind of thing. Also, ask the store what's covered, and be direct with your questions, like "If I spill water on it, would that be covered?" "If I drop this from a 2nd floor window, will that be covered?"

That being said, if you are a clumsy person, and don't know how to fix it yourself (or know anyone that can) if it breaks yourself, I'd get the warrenty.

Just looked up Bestbuy's warrenty for you

http://www.geeksquad.com/uploadedFil..._Computers.pdf

[Stiker]

Usually, any protection plan will not cover physical damage to the components. So yeah, if you drop it, it likely won't be covered.

Think of it this way: protection plans are meant to provide a service that will allow your equipment to continue to work as it was intended to. Clearly, no laptop is intended to be used with a nice mix of dropping (save for Toughbook series).

One thing to ask though, is if "normal wear and tear" is covered. If it is, that will help cover some cases of physical damage. I remember I had a digital camera knocked out of my hands and the battery door would no longer close. Best Buy was actually really nice about it and covered me since it was just the battery door that was damaged and it could reasonably be inferred that the damage was caused by normal wear and tear.

[Rellikard]

Best Buy offers 1 year Accidental for $99. It's the same period of time as your manufacturer's warranty, just allows you to destroy your computer w/o worrying about it not being fixed. In the end, it's going to come down to how well you think you'll upkeep your computer. If you're getting a Mac, I'd definitely at least get a 1 year accidental. When the new version of that product's coming out, you can destroy yours come in and they'll send it out for repairs but Macs with a few damages (screen cracked and liquid damage), usually they approve for exchange at the service center.

The warranty won't work for everyone. Depends on how clumsy you are. And nothing's exchange in the store, it's always sent out for repair. If the service center deems it's too cost effective to repair, they'll approve an exchange. But if within your manufacturer's period you cracked or destroy your computer to the point where it isn't worth repairing, they'll approve the exchange and your plan will be fulfilled. Best Buy plans only cover 1 product exchange outside of the manufacturer's warranty. So buying a 3 year accidental plan and they exchange it within the 1st year due to your constant damage, since the manufacturer doesn't cover accidental damages, they'll consider it as an exchange under your plan, not your manufacturer's warranty. If the computer keeps having parts die naturally within the 1st year and they approve for exchange, can exchange it as many times as needed within the 1st year. I think the accidental plan IS worth it, even just for the 1 year. Hope that helps...

PS: I work for Geek Squad.

[SnickySnacks]

Also, before you go and buy your laptop, you might be interested in checking out this article. It's from November '09, so it's fairly recent.

An article about high laptop failure rates from a company that sells extended warranties on laptops and only includes laptops that were covered under their warranty? Now that's not a conflict of interest. /sarcasm


The thing is, these ARE just a numbers game for the company. That's what insurance is. If a laptop costs $1000 and the warranty costs $200, the company is betting that they will be replacing less than 20% of the laptop and usually much less. Remember they are earning interest on that money during the years you aren't getting your laptop replaced.

Plus keep in mind that at the point your laptop breaks, 1+ years down the road (after the manufacturer warranty expires) it will be worth much less than it was new and refurbished replacements will be much cheaper for the company to replace/fix yours with.

Of course that's not to say that the warranties are always a bad idea or anything, but the companies provide these as an extra source of income, not because they care about you in the least. If they weren't stupidly profitable, they'd stop offering them.

[Epical]

An article about high laptop failure rates from a company that sells extended warranties on laptops and only includes laptops that were covered under their warranty? Now that's not a conflict of interest. /sarcasm

Sorry, I should've specified that I was pointing at the different manufacturer failure rates (page 6), not the entire article itself. It should help with the decision to choose between two brands that are otherwise more or less identical.

[Alderaan]

The bottom line is, companies barely make any profit on high end electronics such as computers/laptops. You'd be surprised at how little the markup is on what they actually pay for them. Hell, they make more of a profit on selling you a pack of blank DVD's. That's where the protection plans come in, it's instant profit for them. For something like a laptop, i'd say it's worth it if you drag it around to places, otherwise i wouldn't bother.

[Boyiee]

SO get a 1yr justttt in case. Sounds good.

[Darus Grey]

Extended warranties are analogue to gambling, the house always wins.

The best strategy is to never ever ever buy them, sure, sometime in a decade you may completely trash your $600 laptop and go "Damn, wish I bought one".

Then remind yourself you've saved thousands not buying them for every expensive device, and go replace it.

Net gain, you.

[Souj]

Was buying an $800 laptop at bestbuy, and they asked me if I wanted to buy this one protection plan...It cost $600. wtf is that shit? It seems pretty hard to justify spending $600 on any kind of protection plan, especially for an $800 laptop.

[Rellikard]

They changed policy and only offer certain plans on certain computes now. Like highest priced plan you should see @ $800 is $249 or so for a 3 year accidental.

[fishstix]

I used to get $10-1year anything-insurance on hard drives from compusa back in the day. There were sales like an 80gb drive for $80 - $70 mail-in rebate. Buy the drive w/$10 insurance, use the rebate, return the drive for the full $80 cash. Me and a friend only did it a few times, but yeah, probably helped in their demise >.>

[Jefe]

I always thought extended warranties were for fools? Anyway if you really want one, perhaps you should try other alternatives: http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/

[alexisamonster]

pro tip if your buying a mac,
step 1: buy intro macbook pro
step 2: buy 1 year accidental protection plan from bestbuy for 100$
step 3: "accidentally" break mac on day 364 after backing up all your stuff
step 4: get a brand new mac for 100$, re-buy plan and repeat

since you got a mac pro, they HAVE to give you a mac pro back, you can also take the money as store credit and use it for anything else

[Darus Grey]

Reminds me of Costco's old policies, it will get changed eventually when abuse becomes rampant, so exploit it well you can.

[Kohan]

I'm sure it's too late to stop you, but the majority of Best Buy's technicians are fucking idiots. Their hiring requirements are laughable, and their work is almost unconditionally awful. Yeah, I know that someone who posted in here works for Geek Squard -- sucks to be you, buddy.

Also, the fact that stores may ship your laptop away for significant repairs means there's no real benefit to buying a warranty in a physical store. I would highly suggest purchasing a laptop from a reputable online manufacturer and getting their extended warranty instead.

Of course, as mentioned, it's probably too late. Alas.

[Boyiee]

The problem was I was reading a lot of reviews about the little quirks this laptop had. A lot of people reported it had 1 speaker that didn't work, or something else trivial.

Having the option to go down the street to bestbuy and exchange it for a new one was appealing to me, and about the warranty, bestbuy covers accidental. Never know.