extended service plans

Hi Folks,
Has anyone had any experience with HP's "Accidental Damage Protection" and/or "Express Repair Extended Service" plan's?

Are they worth the investment?

thx

 

That's what I'm wondering too. I actually bought a 2 year service plan from CompUSA for $250 (I'm a notebook newbie... a nervous one at that.) But I'm now having buyer's remorse over purchasing the plan... luckily.. it's returnable.

What are everyone's thoughts generally on extended service plans for HP's??

 

The service plan for "any" extended warranty or service plan is only as good as the company behind it, What is the company that H.P. or Compusa goes through for the service.? who does the repairs and where. Read the policy that you have and call them and ask( who? they are and where they are located and a name and who they have that does the repairs or service), then come back with the name of the place, then a person can tell you.

 

are these units so stable that no-one in theis forum has ever used the extended warranties? Or don't you folks keep your machines long enough...lol

 

I've used the HP express repair on two previous notebooks, replacing motherboards on two laptops (and one hard drive). Cheap insurance for $99/1 yr or $179/2 yrs. Get a refund from CompUSA and apply it to the HP extended warranty. Plus you have until the standard warranty expires to buy the HP extended warranty. Might be good if you sell your laptop before the first year is up...

Just my two cents!

 

This is correct for 3rd part extended warranties, but not when it comes from the manufacturer themselves. Of course you also do have to look at the manufacturer when buying anything. You don't want to buy an extended warranty from a company you've never heard of before, you never know if they'll still be around.

Since this is from HP/Compaq, it's a good company and no worries of them flying away before your warranty expires. HP sends your systems to either their own repair facility or to one of their authorized repair facilities (certified to repair HP notebooks). 3rd party warranties are the ones you should be concerned about. A lot of them will cover the waranty themseleves or get another 3rd party service company to do the work. It's not guaranteed to go to an authorized repair facility.

I bought my HP notebook with their 2yr extended warranty. I didn't get the Accidental Damage protection plan. I haven't had the need to use their repair service yet, but I'm confident that the repairs will get done right (my friend works in an authorized HP repair facility, business computers only).

As recommended, I'd return that extended warranty you bought and spend it on an original HP extended warranty plan.

-Vb-

 

I don't believe in extended warranties. Here's why:

Your laptop is probably covered for a year without any plan (at least my last two were). If you take that 250 and just save it, put it somewhere where it can pick up some interest, one year from now you could sell the laptop you have now and put that money with the money you'd put toward that warranty and just upgrade to a new unit...with another year of warranty. When that can be done, it doesn't make financial sense to buy a warranty.

My $.02

 

Masked,

It makes perfect sense to buy an extended warranty.

Based on what you said, let's calculate that out.

- You buy a new $1500US notebook without extended warranty.
- Put the $250 (if that's how much it costs) you saved on not buying the ext warranty and get 5% interest (never gonna happen) in 1 year. This will give you $262.50.
- You sell your 1 year old notebook (new technology already out in the market and your 1 year old notebook is getting obsolete, if not already) for $750 (probably not even this much)
- You now have $1012.50 to spend on a new notebook. Yes, this might seem like a lot, but this is based on a whole bunch of "what if's". It's doubtful you'll be able to get $750 for it and there's no way you'll get 5% interest on $250.
- Now you're out of a notebook, plus, you now have to spend more money to get yourself a new notebook which you don't know if it'll work flawlessly from day one line your old unit did. Not only that, you'll probably have to spend a whole whack of time searching for the "right" notebook for yourself.

I say why bother. Yes, you do get a new system in the end, but with all the hassles, extra time & cash spent, you'll just end up with another notebook, albeit faster. If you're happy with the current unit, just by adding the extended warranty to the unit will extend your happiness another 1-2 years. By then you'll actually need a system and the money you saved & the interest you made in that extra 1-2 years will make buying a new notebook much more worth it. Not only that, you now will also have another notebook to use as a backup or give to a family member or even sell for $100 or so.

That's just what I think, but it will finally come down to user preference. Do they want to upgrade every year or do they want a notebook that will last them for a few years to get their money's worth.

-Vb-

 

I didnt spend that much on my laptop, and the way computer equipment depreciates, I dont get extended warranties either.

1 Year manufacturers + 1 Year Visa Platinum warranty.

The Platinum also covers 90 days accident/theft protection.

 

I think the Accidental Damage Warrenty is a nice thing to have. HP's ADW costs 99 dollars for 1 year. If you dont drop or damage the laptop in that year you can just tell them your battery is dieing and they will send you a new one at no cost.

Since batteries tend to cost more then 99 dollars you make your money back and you end up with 2 batteries. If you do drop the laptop you can get it fixed once for free. That seems like a good deal to me.

I still have to check on it but I believe you can extend the warrenty for a year at the end of the first one so get your free battery and pay 99 dollars again for the next year.

 

I'm not 100% sure if the extended warranty will cover a battery. They usually only have 1 year warranty, even on the NC series notebooks that come with a standard 3 year warranty. Just make sure to check on this item before purchasing the ADW coverage.

-Vb-

 

My example wasn't meant for a laptop that expensive. If you're gonna throw down 1700 for anything, a warranty is probably worth it.

Never thought about the "battery argument" though Not a bad idea, actually, but again, a new machine is gonna come with a new battery.

 

Yes, with a low cost notebook, I guess an extended warranty might not be worth it in the long run. Especially if your credit card also extended the warranty by 1 year (might need a gold or platinum card for that).

Regarding the battery, a lot of companies don't require you to ship the battery back, and I have seen/heard that a lot of people call before their standard 1yr warranty is up and say that their battery is not holding its charge anymore. They will get a new battery sent to them under warranty. Most replacement parts are covered under a 90day DOA warranty or remaining unit warranty, whichever is longer.

-Vb-

 

Yes, most Gold and Platinum Visa cards have free "Visa Warranty Manager"
Matching the manufactures warranty, up to a full year.
You can call first, to see if your card already has this feature. They also offer extented warranties up to 5 years (if you want to purchase). In the past, also at times, will send you a letter towards the end of your manfacture+1 extended year's time, asking if then, you want to purchase an extended warranty. A nice touch, if you starting to have problems, and didnt purchase one in advance.
1-888-577-VISA

For my "cheapie" $520 deal notebook, 2 years [free] is enough. Hopefully it lasts that long.

I suppose an interesting question would be-

What is the average life span of a notebook?

Getting banged, moved, bumped around, much more then your desktop ever would. What is the average lifespan of a portable laptop?

 

Personally, I don't think I could call and say my battery doesn't work when it still works fine. But that's my quirk.

I bought the 3 year waranty plus accidental damage protection from Sony. I did it because the T series is pretty expensive, there's no way I could justify buying a new one every year. Plus with the CD-RW / DVD built in, the chances of some alignment or other problem is pretty high. I know some people who didn't buy the accidental protection, then spilled something on their lappy. If that happens, you generally lose more than the keyboard. But the clincer was, the package was half price if I bought it when I bought the lappy. That made the price reasonable to me.

No matter the coverage, company, etc - you have to remember that if your lappy has a problem, you will have to send it somewhere for repair. You will have to do something else for your computer, have your data backed up, figure out how you're going to work around not having "that special program" for a week. Plus, when you get it back, the repair center will probably have re-imaged the disk to its original factory state. (You wouldn't believe the number of problems that are fixed by doing this.) So you will go through the hassle of finding old licenses and CDs, reinstalling, restoring, etc. All in all, you will be seriously inconvenienced for a couple of weeks at least. It comes down to the same inconvenience of buying a new lappy. Mostly computer hardware is pretty good these days. Basically, you're buying insurance in case you do something stupid. Otherwise, you're buying the value of getting another year of use out of your two year old machine.

Remember, every successful company makes a profit on every single business transaction.

 

I guess it depends on a while variety of things, build quality, your usage habits, etc....

I take good care of my stuff and am very, I guess you can say a..l retentive about my stuff. I do take my notebook to work and travel and use it a lot (sometimes leave it running for 1 week straight), but even after all that, my old Toshiba notebook has lasted me for 4+ years without any major problems. I did get the extended warranty and probably had to use it 1 or twice, but nothing ever major.

BUT, my bro's GF also has the identical notebook (bought at the same time) and her unit has a cracked LCD cover, had the LCD replaced, the keyboard replaced 3-4 times, modem harness broken, floppy drive swapped, systemboard replaced and switched batteries once. This all happened within the 3 year extended warranty (except for the battery swap), but it's still running. I'm confident if she didn't have the extended warranty as well, she'd have a new notebook by now.

So, it mainly depends on how you take care of your unit and also some luck on getting a 100% quality unit. Although, stuff does happen sometimes and even a quality notebook may just stop working after the warranty is up, so it's hard to tell.

-Vb-