Currys & Coverplan by Mastercare

trace-j

It really is a con. Extended warranties now have to be covered by the Financial Standards Authority.

magoogy

my hubby is wanting to buy a tv at currys - its about £500 - he usually does take out the warranties for stuff as if they break we cannot afford to replace them with him being disabled and not working and im his carer - i currently have my washing machine on a coverplan and my computer is still covered even though ive paid the plan off - my hubby also has a cd player on a plan at 4.99 a month - so, if we dont take these out - say after about 2 years it breaks - what happens?

my washing machine is about 7 years old and this is an extended coverplan at about 6.00 month - this is due to expire soon - do i replace or do i hope my machine packs up in the meantime and i get a brand new maching after all this time?

bernardh_2

Have a look at the John Lewis site.They provide a free 5 year guarantee with large tv`s.
I would think that they would be more likely to honour a guarantee then Curry`s as well.

April2

magoogy wrote:

my hubby is wanting to buy a tv at currys - its about £500 - he usually does take out the warranties for stuff as if they break we cannot afford to replace them with him being disabled and not working and im his carer - i currently have my washing machine on a coverplan and my computer is still covered even though ive paid the plan off - my hubby also has a cd player on a plan at 4.99 a month - so, if we dont take these out - say after about 2 years it breaks - what happens?

my washing machine is about 7 years old and this is an extended coverplan at about 6.00 month - this is due to expire soon - do i replace or do i hope my machine packs up in the meantime and i get a brand new maching after all this time?

As the Americans would say, "Do the math."

The CD player is costing £60 a year to insure so, if it does break after 2 years, you'd already have paid £120 for its replacement - how much did it cost originally?

And you've already paid nearly £600 to insure that washing machine!

Putting that insurance money into a building society account (and not touching it unless the item in question needs to be repaired or replaced) would be better value.

webmasterpolo

Took the advice right out of my mouth April2! Totally agree with you. Another option is to purchase on a credit card so a) they are jointly liable with the retailer and b) get it on 0% to pay off slowly over time to make it more manageable c) some offer FREE extended warranties on appliances bought on them. (beware barclaycard used to do this and heavily marketed it, but this has now been withdrawn).

dylanlewis2000

Ok, i have some serious issues with you lot skitting the cover. I have purchased coverplan on my laptop which i have to say has proved invaluable. Not only is the service second to none, but i have sent my laptop back 4 times, each time its been picked up on say the monday, and if i have not recieved it by the friday, i have the laptop back fully working by the monday. I have no complaints to make about it. Yes you have to pay about an extra £300 for the cover on a £1000 laptop, but dont you think its worth it?

Everyone who slates cover has not really used it. If you had bothered to phone coverplan up yourself you would have noticed that you dont take the products back to the store as there is no guarantee that they leave and when they return. You should mail them off yourself. Dont forget that you only have to pay for the phone call you dont have to pay for any postage.

Recenly i have started working for dixons, which i know you are going to call me bias but i have had the same feeling for some time before i started to work for the company.

stripeyfox

I have used Coverplan on several occasions and have always found them to be utterly hopeless. A few years ago my VCR packed up. Coverplan (or Mastercare or whatever they're called) came out to fix it. My mum let the chap in and told me later that he'd looked at it, that it was dirty heads that had caused the problem, that he had fixed it and charged her £30.00 for the call out. i was a bit miffed but thought "oh well, guess its my fault then" until I tried to use the VCR and found it to be still not working! I can't quite recall how long it rumbled on for but it was weeks and weeks and three call outs before they sorted it. Later, the manager of Dixons said "oh you should have brought it back to the store, I'd have swapped it straight away".
Failing to learn from my mistake, I brought a new PC and later a laptop, both with expensive coverplans and both times they went wrong and both times they were frustratingly awful in their service. When my monitor went bang I was without it for SIX weeks and my lap top has been back three times for a dodgy power supply which took them ages to diagnose.
More recently, the modem broke. They had it for two weeks whilst they fixed it. After having it back a few weeks, it broke again. I noted that in those few weeks the Coverplan had expired ( I had not renewed - lesson finally learned) but since their repair had lasted only a month or so, I figured that they might feel obliged to put it right, but no chance "computer says nooo" was about all I got from them.
Dixons/PC World/Currys - terrible customer service from all of them.

(I did recently get the chance of revenge against the youth who sold me my laptop in Dixons when I used my physical advantage against him when our paths crossed in a local football league match. It cost me £8 for the booking so no moneysavingexpert there but it was worth it)

peter_the_piper

I would not normally pay for extended warranty but did so when I bought cd walkman for my daughter. Car broken into when on holiday, car insurance did not cover it, household didn't either. Had brainwave to check warranty and it covered it, got a full value voucher and replaced. So they might be worth getting for this alone.
Peter.

jomist

I bought the Coverplan agreement through Currys when I bought my washing machine, but don't usually for other products. I find that when Curry's offer to sell you the plan at the time of purchase, if you tell them you're not sure...might need time to think about it, they discount it straight away. They discounted £80 of the washing machine cover.

I had to use the Coverplan today and have no complaints with the service at all. (p.s. I don't work for either Coverplan or Currys!)

soolin

I took a coverplan once on a washing machine as I am a very heavy user and my machines rarely last more than a few years. I was paying about £12 per month for the cover and the first time I called them out in about year two they took 8 days to arrive and then could only give me a 'day' they were going to call and not a time which I hate.

It took them three goes to get the right part as they didin't carry anything with them, so that was three days off work. In year three the machine died and all they would do would be to give me the value of it, not a new one as they said I used the machine a lot! Hello...that's why I took the warranty out.

On the machine I replaced it with I didn't take the cover and again it suffered a problem in year two. I got a local repair man who came at my convenience after 5pm one evening. He fixed it first time and it cost me less than £40 including the standard charge and part.

I eventually replaced that machine in year 4 having saved myself approx £390 by not having coverplan. The saving more than covered the cost of a new machine. Don't forget that the quoted call out charges etc are from the manufacturer, I use local repair people who charge a fraction of the cost and no call out.

I never now take warranties instead I just pay my own 'insurance' into a savings account that will cover repairs or replacement.

One further tip, if you ever get the hard sell from a salesman about how you must take the warranty as these machines are expensive to repair etc, phone the manufacturer. When I bought my last freezer I actually got such a hard sale including a sob story about his commission, that I phoned the freezer company to complain that the salesman was telling me that their products were unreliable. They took all the details from me and told me they offered their own warranty direct and would discount that for me if I wanted it. They told me though that statistically the product was not likely to break down.

Soo