Warranties for white goods are they really worth it?

Poppy9

I paid £2 for a year's accidental warranty on headphones from HMV. The headphones cost £20 in the sale for DD and so far when the first 2 pairs broke in about month 5 and 9 they replaced them without using the warranty as I had the receipt and they said that they were covered for against developing a fault - both times one ear stopped working. Then just a week before the warranty was due to expire OH shut the laptop down on them and broke them so they were replaced.

I did take out an extended warranty on my previous FF. I don't normally bother but it was very cheap £54 for 2 years. Door came off in my hand due to faulty hinge and they decided to replace the FF rather than repair plus I could keep the old one. Aside from the door hinge it was in perfect working order so I gave it to my nephew who had just bought his first house.


There was a thread on it here.

Jakg

Geordie_bear wrote: »

...by law I'm covered for UP TO 6 years by the sales of goods act...

fixed

Geordie_bear wrote: »

Yeah but under the sales of goods act you have a 6 year warranty courtesy of the government & it's free!

I'll say it again. UP TO. Where reasonable.

If you bought a cooker for £25, then no, 6 years is not a reasonable expectation.

If you bought a cooker for £2500 then yes, 5 - 6 years would be a reasonable amount of time.

Esqui wrote: »

As with any warranty, service plan or insurance, it largely depends on what is covered (or excluded). Mostly, they offer convenience...

Spot on - you can go down the SOGA 6 year route, but as it's over 6 months old you must prove the fault was an inherent manufacturing fault. And even then you'll still struggle to prove the failure after xx years was shorter than a "reasonable" amount of time.

Instead on most support plans you pick up the phone, explain the problem and someones at your house tomorrow ready to get it fixed.

sillygoose

I have an extended warranty offer sitting here on my desk. Normally I dismiss them - many appliances I can fix myself and I buy quality stuff so rarely its relevant. But a year ago I got a cheap deal on a large Freezer for the garage, being an Indesit I quite expect it not to last long but it was very cheap for a huge frost-free. I am being offered another 4 years cover for £100 including no quibble all parts & labour or full replacement. I am actually quite tempted for once. Be even better if it suffered a catastrophic fault in 3.99 years time....hmmm!

worbikeman

DCFC79 wrote: »

some people buy the cover for piece of mind and others buy it without knowing the item is covered for a year anyway.

If it was peace of mind that would be something but how do we know they wont wriggle out of payment by something mentioned in the small print? I have a washing machine on which was offered a warranty but it only covered parts, not labour. !!!!!!? Might as well just take a chance. If it conks out - buy a different make next time.

Lemon_Labs

I'd buy an extended warranty because the hassle you have to go through to get something even looked at after 3 years is a real pain in the !!!!!

I bough a BEKO washing machine which wouldn't turn on and after about 15 phone calls and 5 letters I got it sorted.... after 3 months! I dunno about you but I cannot wait 3 months for a washing machine with a family of 4. After 2 weeks I went out a bought a new one and the warranty cost me £20 more than the engineers report I had to get. However it cost me more than the engineers report because of the phone calls. I'd rather pay a little extra than have to mess around calling people every other day, sending off letters, getting reports done etc. It's never straight forward and I cannot be bothered with the hassle.