A reason not to take out extended warranties?

hpuse

Also to add,
It is highly unlikely and important to understand that no manufacturer will design 1 item to go wrong from their tried and tested production units after 6 months.

If there is no specific complaints after 6 months from the other general member of the public who bought the same item, then most likely it is either due to:
a)way of handling
b)power surges etc
b)simply your bad luck with item

mute_posting wrote: »

That is upto you - the sticky point is, as it is over 6 months old it is up to you to prove there is / was a fault (not the shop to prove it isn't wasn't faulty) - i.e you would probably have to commission an independant engineer to produce a report or otherwise prove that it hasn't lasted a reasonable length of time.

HTH

MP

0161lorraine

hhhhhhmmmm just bought new fridge freezer tod and was persuaded to take out extened warranty now not sure if ive done right thing after reading here, could cancel suppose, wht do u think???

peter_the_piper

The only one I've taken out recently was for a Fuji camera and included an accident repair clause. Being fairly clumsy it seemed to be a worthwhile expenditure for an easily damaged item.

Nilrem

I don't pay extra for extended warranties, but will go for a retailer who offers one free (or at little extra cost, if offered as standard) as part of their normal package - John Lewis did me a price match on my latest TV so I got it for about £50 more than the cheapest I could find it online, but the same price as the cheapest I could get it in person and included their normal 5 year warranty.

Whilst in theory modern stuff should last longer than older ones due to improvements in knowledge of the materials, and solid state tech, in practice from what I can understand the design and testing stage of most consumer products (be it TV's or washing machines) has been cut back massively in recent years to improve the time from design to market, as has the level of redundancy and tolerances built in.
Things like using plastic (much cheaper to handle) to make the gears and guide tracks in optical drives*, with the result the drives last a fraction of the time** add to that the changes in what they are allowed to use for solder (the lead free stuff has a really odd quirk, in that for some reason it'll grow crystals at random, anything from the day it's used to 10+ years down the line regardless of the conditions it's used in***), and I'd say that things today aren't going to last on average as long as they used to

Manufacturers know we don't want to pay for quality as much now as we used to, and build the stuff to be practically throw away (even on more expensive items the parts are usually made in the cheapest possible manner), they're also unwilling to spend too much on testing if it means that it'll raise the price of the unit above that of their competitors, even if it means they ship products with a higher than average failure rate

For example our current washing machine had a motherboard failure twice, the engineer knew what the problem was as soon as he came out under warranty with the comment "it'll fail again in 3 months these boards are rubbish" (he knew the problem as soon as we told him the model) - he was right and it wasn't until the second replacement that the manufacturer had got the design/QC on the boards right (visible changes in the layout meaning a revised unit).


I guess what i'm saying, in short is that I won't pay for an extended warrantee as sold by Dixons group (not that i'd shop there anyway), but if I can get one for a reasonable total cost of the item + warranty compared to the cheapest for just the item, i'll take it.
Yes SOGA is good, but it's a lot of time, effort and hassle to use, and it's harder to use after the first couple of years.

*Using plastic instead of metal saves a fraction of a penny in manufacturing, but has the result the lasers can wear a groove in the part that is meant to keep them level (IIRC it's one of the major problems Sony PS's had - the wear along the lasers travel stopped it tracking accurately due to the plastic used simply not being up to the task).

**I've got an early model DVDplayer that is built like a tank and still works fine - it's outlasted multiple newer units my friends/family have had, and has had probably 3-5,000+ hours use over the past 6 years.

***Nasa's page on the phenomon - interesting stuff, especially as at the moment it'll even happen in a Zero G vacuum (and one of the reasons equipment that lives depend on is exempt from the laws regarding forced use of lead free solder).

mark101

Every Warranty I have had I have used. Seems to be just pure bad luck.

Bought a fridge/freezer not even a year old the things freezing up. Called them in to fix it. Once something’s fixed its bound to have further problems.

If the cost is not massive compared to the price of the item, id I'd say go for it. If it’s the other way and you could buy something for around for the same price then I'd say leave it.

brightonman123

any large purchase (esp tv's, fridges, mayve washing machines WITHOUT a free5 year guarantee would not be on my list, to start with-

doesnt say much for maker's confidence in their own products!

DCFC79

is it necessary to buy extended warranties though, we've got a fridge, dishwasher and freezer which we have had longer than 5 years and they still work fine,