warranties question

hey guys im gonna buy me a zx5000 this week and i was wondering about HP's warranties. i only got like 2 more years of college so i dont need a long term warranty. i havent seen many discussions about it, and it doesnt seem like alot of people get it either. so i was wondering if i should get and extended warranty or just stick with the basic one???

thanx

 

We decided to stick with the normal warranty at this time. But, we may buy the 3 year Accidental/Express Extended warranty before the 1 year is up. I think it would be a good thing to have, since I've heard the lcd itself can run around $1000.

Anybody have the Accidental and Express Extended warranty?

HP zx5000 - Ordered 8/15, est. delivery 24th - P4 3.0HT, XP Home - 15.4" Widescreen/Brightview WXGA - 128mb ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 - 512MB SDRAM (1x512) - 60GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive - DVD/CD-RW Drive - 54g Integ Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth - 12 Cell Battery = $1577

 

I personally got a warrenty but I think it depends on the person here is my argument. Most likly if it dosen't break the first year the parts are in good shape and installed correctly and should work for many years unless damaged some how. If your a poor college student like me paying your computer off over a year or 2 you might not be able to aford a costly repair so I got the accidental pertection for that reason. Now later when I have a job after school and more extra money I will probably stick with the standard warrentys because if something bad were to happen I could afford to repair or replace it, but right now I can't just spend another 1500$ when I still owe that much. I hope you see my point and maybe it will help you decide what is best for you. Just as my opinion I think HP/Compaq's are great systems and a warrenty is probably not needed, just something to make you feet safe.


Compaq R3000T (CTO)
P4 Desktop 3.0GHz w/HT
1 X 512MB RAM
Radeon 9600 128MB
60GB 5,400 RPM HD
AquaMark3: 24,257, 3DMark03: 3,115

 

I've never purchased the Accidental warranty, but I have bought standard extended warranties, and I must say it has come in handy. I had to replace an LCD & systemboard after the standard warranty and that would have cost me way over $1200CDN (approx $930USD). So, with experience, I'd suggest getting any kind of extended warranty, but only direct from the manufacturer.

Regarding the Accidental Coverage, I think it says in the fine print that major parts are only replaced once or once a year (if you damaged it). But even repairing an LCD once because you cracked it by accident under the plan will more than pay itself off. If your accident prone or travel a lot, I say get it.

-Vb-

 

best thing to do is just go with the standard warranty, after the 1st year it is much more likely to get dropped or stolen than to just die. Get a personal articles insurance policy, I got one from statefarm for ~$35/year for $1800 of coverage, no deductible and it covers everything except acts war. If it is stolen or just lost or I drop it in a pool it is covered. It is much better than anything fromthe manufacturer as they will only give you a refurb replacement of the same model while an insurance company will give you a check to buy whatever you want...Plus they are cheaper.

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

Yes, can save more money by going with whoever does your car or homeowners insurance, but make sure it is a separate "personal articles policy" and not an "add on" or "rider" on your home owners or renters insurance. There are two reasons for this.
1. homeowners or renters insurance usually has a high ($500-$1000) deductible that you have to pay towards the replacement, while a personal articles policy can be zero dollar deductible and be very cheap still.

2. now days insurance companies are very quick to raise, cancel or re-classify you as a high risk even if you only have a couple of claims. Most even have a 3 strikes and your out and once you have been canceled it is very hard to get anything except high-risk inssurance, so it is not smart to use one of your strikes on a broken or stolen laptop and then have something happen to your home and have the insurance company drop you as a high risk.

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

Yeah, I agree with bootleg2go. Buy express extentended warranty from HP, then isure your notebook with your car insurance or something, it shouldn't be expensive, I have mine covered with All State. I think it cost me like 7$ a year, but it because I also have car and renters insurance with em.

zv5000z AMD 64 3000+ 1.8 Ghz 768 DDR SDRAM 15.4" WXGA (1280x800) 30 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive 64MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) 4 440 Go

 

well thanks alot for your help guys, i think imma go with the 2 year extended warranty seeing as i only got 2 more years of college. i'll also look into getting the added insurance from my car insurance company.

thanx

 

I've had great experience with HP and them honoring their warranties. I'd get the 3 year warranty because HP warranties are cheap and cover shipping to and from with usually a five day turnaround.

Example of my experiences with HP, Dad brought a $1800 Compaq offline from pcmall (i know, but he doesn't always listen well) and purchased a carepak directly from the HP site for the 3 year extended warranty for around $180 (how cheap is that). Well the comp went dead around a week after he purchased it.

He called pcmall and they told him to call HP, he called HP and they sent a box for the comp the next day. 5 days later the comp came back but without the 40gb hd, it had a 20gb hd instead, and had a problem where now the system wouldn't boot every time you pressed the startup button, sometimes you had to press it 3 or 4 times before it would boot.

He sent it back to compaq, 5 days later no PC shows up, he calls gets an account manager that after a day calls back saying the part needed for this custom unit wasn't available at the repair depot. My father *****ed about waiting 2 weeks for a comp he paid for that was essentially DOA and getting a shoddy repair, missing original HD, ect.

The manager told him he'd call him back the next day, he did, and offered my dad an upgrade to a $2800 model that he could send out immediately. Wow, that was great customer service.

Then after a year and a half of service this notebook goes down with screen flickering and he ships it back but "oh no", the care pack was registered with the serial number to the comp he purchased, not the one he shipped to them. They still fixed the comp (sys board, screen) once my dad explained what had happended on word of mouth even without verifying it with the account manager.

Then nearing the end of this warranty period he called and told them his screen was dimming, guess what, another mobo and screen change. Also during the warranty period on that box was a battery replacement and a DVD unit replacement which they just send out.

The way I look at it is, even if you're in line for a new box in two years, for a few dollars more you effectively can have a new box to pass down to someone else (mobo and screen, ect = new box) because notebooks fail, and that's just the reality of owning them.