Great member question: How will the ensemble extended warranty package work with the free extra year promo?

The question I recieved today was as follows:

This is not only a good question, but one I can't answer at the time being and have repeatedly asked Asus - with no response to date.

Asus's extended warranty package is a $169 packet of paperwork to get an extra two years added onto the standard one year - for a total of three. The current promo on the yonah ensemble line is for an extra year warranty for free - for a total of two.

Right now I can say that if you want the three year warranty, you can buy still buy the package and have a three year warranty. However, if you don't buy the package, you'll certainly have a two year warranty. What is unclear is how they want to work in either just a third year or if they would some how extend the warranty to four years (which would be sort of unheard of). I can say that going to four years probably isn't their intenetion as the promo was really just to give people two years and use that to help them buy up their stock, but for those who want that third year - could they perhaps reduce the cost of the extended warranty pacakge from $169 to maybe even $90-100.....

This is a post in progress. I felt it was good enough - and since it was probably the 20th time I've been asked very PM, IM, or email in the last week with the same question.... So, I just wanted to present it to the community and get them to understand what's going on and I will try to get an answer and post it right in the thread. Thanks MLG for bringing it to my attention today.

 

My guess...3 years total with the extended option...

The extra year right now is just a bonus, and I would guess Intel is subsidizing that, but I'm just speculating.

If they extend the "extended" warranty to a total of 4 years, they could be doing some expensive repairs on a relatively old and less valuable machine.

 

Exactly, but the bonus is backed by Asus - most likely through some incentive from Intel obviously... but regardless, it's up to them. The only thing that concerns me is that is sort of helps the some people but then wouldn't help those who are willing to pay for extra coverage..... That's why my main concern that I'm voicing with Asus is if they could change the free warranty upgrade form to include perhaps a $100 mail-in rebate for the warranty package......... so they can still get the 3 years they wanted, but get the same benefits as having one of those years paid by Asus in a way...

... and yeah, 4 years gets very hard.... heck, 3 years is tough because it just is.... in the 4th year, parts could be so hard to get, even for asus that it would be impossible to cover a warranty claim........ or at least make it very difficult and time consuming.

 

As of 11pm EST I got a single message and it only clears up the fact that this boggles Asus' collective minds as well.

With the information above, if any of you could come up with the same conclusion they did, let me know.... Basically it was said that a customer could still buy the extended warranty package and get a total of 3 years. I don't want to quote them because they may get upset not only for disclosing private communications, but also because of the simplicity of the quote and lack of understanding of the question at hand.

.... we'll see where this picks up tomorrow.

 

Justin, this seems like a semi appropriate area to ask this question - the sticker with my S/N and Model Number, as well as the stick for my extended warranty are starting to get worn down - almost to the point where they can't be read - d0 I need to be concerned about this?

 

Take a picture of it and make sure you file that away... if those stickers aren't there or wiped off - theoretically there is no warranty and that's actually in the warranty agreement from Asus.

 

OK, hopefully my 1.3 MP camera does the job. Thanks.

 

Yeah, just saying that technically the warranty does read if those are unreadable or removed - there's no way to prove warranty. However, I know for a fact that my own systems show wear there and yet the systems are don't really get beat around. That's because I use them on my lap a lot and the wear from my pants is enough to wear that down over time.

 

Today's update is this:

Basically Asus understands (finally), what the issue is here and although they admit that having a 1 year option to get to that 3rd year with the promo would be ideal, they don't currently have this to offer. They will be offering it down the road as the new models have a 2 year standard warranty and they'll only increase the warranty to a total of 3.

So, if a customer wants one of the systems that have the extra year promo, but wants a total of 3 years, it's still going to cost them $169. Likewise, apparently if anyone wants one of the new merom systems and wants a total of 3 years, they'd need to do the same thing. Eventually Asus will have a single year extension available at closer to $100, but since the warranty needs to be purchased at the time of the notebook purchase, either you'll have to wait to buy, buy without any warranty extension, or pay for the current extension package they offer.

May not "make sense" dollar wise, but this is the most logical way to put the current answer to the question.