Is the 4 year warranty worth the money?

Read topic +, mt friend says, i won't neeed it, and that it's just like throwing away money

is that right?

or should i just go for it?

or maybe, do that 3 or 2 year warranty plan.

Also, if some1 can explain what are exactly the normal + accidental damage warrantys are, that would be great.

What i mean by that is, lets say i throw my laptop @ the wall, and say it fell accidentaly. Would they give me a new 1?

thx

 

Depends on how long you want to keep the laptop. You should probably get the warranty based on that. As far as what the warranty entails, you should ask whoever youre getting the warranty from.

 

More likely they'd either fix it or give you a refurb.

 

I need mine to last at least 3 years while I'm in school so I did get the complete 3 year warranty w/ 3yr accidental damage.

 

no , it is wasting.

cause it 's going to be outdated before it breaks and you will want a new one very soon, so dont get that.

 

ight, thx

refurb .. wtf .. not a new 1?

same here, but since the 4 year is just 80$ more expensive, i might go for that..

 

Not if he plans on keeping the laptop for three years. Say he has it for 1.5 and then it craps out on him. No warranty and he's SOL. Just because its a bit outdated, that doesnt mean the OP will need/want a new one. Not everyone can go out and buy new systems every two years.

 

well worth it imo.

I work at the unniversity here, so I get free 3 year complete care warranties, I would pay for it too, if I were not working here. The things I have had to use the warranty for, beyond 1-2 years are crazy that they still have parts and such!

 

I would always get a warranty with a laptop, especially any accidental damage warranty.

A laptop is carried around, and is subject to more strains than your average desktop. Even normal usage can cause something to break, and when that happens, you don't want to be without a laptop.

The accidental coverages is the best, IMO, since it only takes one drop to completely destroy your laptop.

If you're buying a $499 or less laptop, then yeah, you might not want to pay for a warranty that costs more than the laptop. I got a 3 year warranty with my PowerBook, and I'm still using it (this is a pre-intel machine too...) Just because something 'newer' is out does not automatically mean that it is 'outdated'. If it still does what you need it to, then why not get a warranty? It can save you money in the long run.


If you're buying a $1500+ laptop, I would recommend at least a 2 year warranty. Consider how long you'll have the laptop, and when you might upgrade to a new one. There's no point in buying a 4 year warranty if you'll be ditching it in 2 years for a new one anyway, but if you're the type to keep computers around for a while or if you'll pass it on to a friend or a family member, then I'd say definitely go for it.

 

but what's the replacement cost of said $1500 laptop in 2 years? don't compare the warranty cost for the 2nd year to the cost of a new current model laptop in 2 years. Compare the cost of the 2nd year of the warranty to the cost of replacing exactly what broke - only 2 more years outdated.

 

I purchased the 4 year premium warranty with all the bells and whistles with my laptop. Im entering year two of ownership. I haven't had the need to use the warranty yet, but I guess if I drop it or it gets rained on then Im covered. personally, I don't think Ill ever get more than a 2 or perhaps a 3yr warranty ever again.

 

That's what i was thinking 2., i mean the warranty costs over 500$. and if any thing breaks, im sure it would cost less than 500$.

+if i might sell in a few years, if this lappy wouldn't play PES 2010 or 2011, then im defo going ot sell it.

How much would i be able to sel it for in 2 years time?? 2.5 t9300, 265mb 8600gt, 4 gigs ram?

do you beat ur students with it? lol

I will porb keep it for at least 2 years, but i do not usually brake my stuff, so im not sure weather to go for it or not.

i just checked , 2 year warrnaty + accsdintal damage = 300$, no thank you.

DO you know weather it will play PES 2010 & 2011 or not? also gaming wise what should i expect from this? (i do not play the latest games. not planing to, since ill be going to collage in sep & ill be doing pre med!!!

So you mean, uhm , for instance, my proseccor breaks in 2 years, at that time it would prob cost 100$ or less .. thats what u mean right???

You have a great point dude, 300$ 2 year warranty can get me 3 proseccors ..

I can see my self in that position in 2 years time. so i might not get a warranty , (will my bro tells me they are useless so did my friend), they'd kill me if they knew i was still asking about the warranty .. lol


thx guys .. right now, im thinking of not getting a warranty ... yay (less $$)

+ new cupons coming out in april 1st .. can't wait ..

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...t?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&dgc=EM&cid=29095&lid=657105

Thx everyone ..

 

I think it definitely depends on the laptop. I just got the M1730, and with the parts in that guy (17" WUXGA, either T7200 or X7900, not sure yet , 8800SLI, 2x200GB 7.2K HDD), even after a year they will still be pretty pricey to replace. In my case I got 15% off ($400) for purchasing a $140 1 year warranty, so that was a no brainer, and I added the $119 CC later. When I called to add CC, they offered to add an additional year for $99 more, which I may call back to add, still thinking about it. I paid $2260 for the laptop before any warranties, so the additional cost for 1 yr limited and 2 yr CC was $260, or 12% of the value of the laptop price, or roughly 8% of the new laptop cost(I can get a fully loaded x9000/8800SLI for $4200, so I figure about $3500 for my config). To me 2 years is pretty much a no brainer, even after 2 years the laptop will probably still fetch around $1500-$2000 used, so not cheap to replace (I still see loaded & warranted M1710s on eBay going for $2K+). I think I just talked myself into extending to 3 yrs for $100 more .

If, like another poster mentioned you are purchasing a value priced laptop, then long extended warranties aproach 50% of the laptop value today... in that case the replacement (IF you need it) would have you break even, so odds are against ya if you take care of your equipment.

 

Well i do take care of my stuff, + right now, the warranty would cost 1/3 of the laptop. so basically the lappy costs 1500$ (with a 1 year non-accidental warranty). the 4 year warranty (with accidental damage warranty) costs 530$ or a bit more, so i guess in a year that lappy would at least go down 500$, and then that means the warranty had cost me more than half the lappy.

Thx, but im 99% sure that i'll go with the standard 1 year warranty.

Just waiting for the cupons.

 

exactly.

Not to get too technical, but to be more accurate, you should form a best-guess for:

1) the future cost of what the item(s) will cost

2) the odds that the item(s) above will break during the time frame, expressed as a decimal (100% = 1.0)


Then, multiply 1 * 2 (either per component and sum the answers, or just for the whole laptop)

If the end result is more than the cost of the warranty during the time frame, then buy it.


One of the reaons I never buy warranties is because I assume (yeah, yeah, i know what that means) that the company selling the warranty is doing so at a profit and sets the price where their expected payout (1*2) is LESS than what they charge you. Basically I assume that their guesses for what will happen for #1 and #2 above apply to me as well (ie: that i have an "average" likelihood to break something - which is accurate).

If you believe that you tend to break things more than "average", that you are better at predicting the future costs of today's computer components than a computer company, or that the standalone warranty-transaction is not profit-generating for the company (it may not be, after all), buy a warranty.

 

IMHO,

its all about your technical expertise and capabilites compounded by your expectations of lifespan for the unit and your upgrade tendancies.

I have only ever bought one extended warranty. It was direct from Sony and it was less than $200 for a 5 year warranty on a $4000 HD TV.

On a laptop, for me its pretty much a waste. I have a 7 year old inspiron 8100 or 8200 I don't recall right now, that i gave my daughter. Its still kicking A** today. I have opened it up and busted in to it and modded it like mad. Added internal bluetooth by wiring it to the motherboards USB connectors and blocking off the USB port I used. 7 years, still runs great.

I replaced it with my new 1720. If anything breaks I have already seen that i can get a refurb M/B for about 100-150 on Ebay. New screen under $300. Most of the internal cards are also available on ebay for next to nothing. The only thing I havent tried to price is the video card.

Top that all off with what I do for a living, IT person and for me, to drop a ton of money on something I can fix myself is a bit wastefull. If your not comfortable doing repairs or installing/configuring/fixing software, then it is a good option.

It's really all about your capabilities and expectations. If I buy something and it breaks sooner than I think it should I don't lament not having bought that extended warranty, I just don't buy from that company anymore. Companies should produce a quality product that they can proudly stand behind for a good amount of time instead of expecting the consumers to pool their funds in an extended warranty pool to cover the costs of repairs. In my opinion it is one of the greatest tricks pulled over on consumers as a whole. Sell them the product then make them pay to get it fixed. Well that and cable/sat people telling me to rent a box so that I can then pay them for the TV channels I am watching. Now thats turning the tables if you ask me. Not only do you pay for the equipment to watch the channels but you pay for the channels too. Sorry... /rant off I guess I think consumers as a whole need to be able to speak with a unified voice and tell the market what they want. That is the only way it will listen, when we threaten not to buy from them anymore in enough numbers.

 

Thats true. But only if youre tech savvy

But like i said, your warranty should depend on how long you keep it; if its for 2 years, 2 year warranty. Like I said, say your laptop craps out on you sometime, and you have no money to replace it. What do you do? Id rather pay 200 now rather than 1500 later.

 

Dell's warranty also gives you on-site coverage during the first year, as opposed to mail-in. The additional money spent to get that coverage for years 2 and 3 (and possibly year 4) is well spent, provided you need the laptop to last you that long and you're investing a decent amount of money into the laptop.

If you're buying a laptop for $400, it's kind of silly to pay $200 in warranty coverage. But if you're spending $1,000, the extra 10%, even 20%, is well worth it. If you're spending $2,000 and up, unless you have that kind of money to spend each year (in which case you can afford the warranty, too), it seems pretty obvious you want it protected by a warranty.

 

why would it be $1500 to replace a 2-yr old computer that was $1500 when brand new?

 

ok fine, 900, either way, its still more.

 

but my point is that there's only a 20% chance, at most, that you break the laptop and have to incur this $900 cost (unless one is very clumsy).

$900 * .20 = $180 expected expense.

EDIT: I guess I shouldn't be too hard on warranty buyers. It's not necessarily only if you're clumsy.. but also if your expected use is in a rougher than expected setting... after all, if you are buying a notebook to bring with you when you scale Mt. Everest, get the warranty regardless of how careful you are.

 

How do you figure that there is a 20% of needing a new laptop?

I look at it like this. If the **** hits the fan, how much of a mess will you have to clean up?

Personally i dont get warranties unless they are embedded in the price or im buying something VERY expensive (5k or more). But then i am also very careful with my things.

 

If you are very careful with your notebook, it makes more sense not to go with one. If you're a student and you put your laptop in a bag and walk around with it all day, it's probably a good idea to get one. If you put it in a briefcase and go to work where it sits on a desk all day, then you may not need too much of a warranty.

You may do all the calculations and decide that you're better off without one, but it just takes one slip, trip on a power cable, or seemingly misfortunate incident to knock your laptop off of a table. I don't want to make it sound like you absolutely need one, but it is a portable computer, and even if you take care of it, it will likely see more abuse than any desktop ever will.

Warranties for laptops and desktops are two completely different issues, and if you ask me, they are more worth it for laptops. (I wouldn't really suggest a warranty for a desktop computer.)

I've 'saved' money on the warranty for almost every laptop I've used.

 

One other thing I haven't seen mentioned (that should be combined with the other advice to help make the decision) IMHO is the particular model of laptop you are buying and the reported reliability via forums like this (especially if there are any common chronic issues reported). In my case after reading about some peoples experiences with the M1730 and the increased odds that parts will fail over the long haul (high stress/heat laptop especially if used to game), and the fact that the warranty was as cheap as it was relative to the cost of the laptop, again no brainer for me.

I have an M170 with extended warranty and C&C which has already paid for itself and then some. My pops accidentally closed the lid with the usb mouse sitting on the keyboard (it blended in I guess)... DVD drive went out... etc.

If you are only going to use your laptop for surfing the web, it doesn't have any uber expensive parts (those NEVER seem to go down in value after coming down from their initial release bloat price, there are always more buyers on eBay wanting to upgrade their laptop to the uber part than there are sellers, and these parts are rarely commodotized), then the odds are low that you are going to have a part failure due to stress, so that should help tip the scales against spending that much $ on a warranty.

Also, I haven't seen any mention of the fact that you can actually get free limited extended warranty depending on which credit card you use to purchase from your creedit card company... so if you have one of those (Amex particularly), then you could get that extended warranty for a year for "free".

And I agree on never having warranty for desktops. All desktop parts end up being commoditized since they are so much more standardized, and they also are less prone to heat stresses, accidents, etc.

Not saying desktop parts don't fail, but hell I don't mind it when that happens, cos that is an excuse to UPGRADE . Plus, I usually by a base model high end desktop if i go with an OEM and then purchase my own upgraded parts (RAM, HDD, Video, etc.) cos I can get better parts so much cheaper than the upgrade prices, and all of those parts normally come with GREAT warranties (5 yrs for HDDs to life for RAM to double life with vid cards).

 

Thanks for your comment , D2N.

 

I'd get the 2 or 3 year warranty, personally. It's what I have on my computer, because computers have problems sometimes

 

Hi, I purchased the 3-year accidental for my XPS 1530, and I hope that I never have to use it. I figured for the price I paid for the 1530, it would be worth it!

I would also rather be safe than sorry (and, I can be accident prone sometimes)

I hope the next 3-years roll out accident free, with my Lappy

That's my opinion!

 

np,( what comment?)

anyway, i have decided not to go with a warranty ... i would rather keep my 500$ ...
an XPS 1530 with a T9300 + 4 gigs ram + 1 year warranty for 1200$-1300$

sounds alot better than ...

a XPS 1530 with a T9300 + 4 gigs ram + 4 year warranty for 1700$-1800$

*hopefully i won't regret this.

 

The way technology is going, your notebook will be obsolete in four years.
I'd go for 1 or 2 years.

 

+1, also, you could replace any part(s) for less than 500$. and in a year or 2, that whole notebook would probably cost about 800-900. so you could almost get half of the parts for 500$.

 

I would say 4 years is overkill.

3 years is just about right looking at current trends and development. No point for additinal warranty if you don't get accidental coverge.

The most expensive part of a latop is its LCD screen. A moment of inattention can spell disaster for it. Replacement cost of the screen itself could be as much as a depreciated 2 year old lappy...which would be a pity if you could not replace it for free.

Your lappy probably wont be very mobile after 2-3 years to need the extra warranty as by then your battery would probably be dead (although my 3 year old 630m's 9 cell battery still gives me a very usable 4hrs per charge) .

 

4 year warranty option for m1530 differs from other mailny:
- its Next Business Day repair
- it is international

For me international and NBD was most important (i'll be using it in Poland). It costed me extra 80$ (copared with 3yr option) and I get 70$ gift card (i probably wont use it). When I resell it in lets say 2 years having still 2 year NBD warranty will pump up its price I guess (plus it will look almost brand new as it has accidental damage protection - all scratched etc parts will be replaced).
But that is my opint of view.

One more thing - there was a $599 discount on this brand new laptop as well

 

warranty in the uk is worthless, the SOGA will cover u for upto 5-6 years approx.

 

What you all think about the BestBuy PSP warranties?

 

Mine was included in the deal (3-year complete everything). I added 1 extra year for $80 with a $70 gift card because I needed a wireless-n router anyway. Might as well. Feel really good with my coverage, have no plans on replacing it unless something happens since I'm not much of a gamer anyway.