warranty worth it??

hi guys!

just wanted to ask a quick question before ordering an m570r from novatech??....is it actually worth getting a 2 year warranty for £80?? since it is a pretty sturdy and reliable system and the novatech are also pretty good arent they...

Thanks!!

 

this can be closed now coz i have already ordered it!

 

Not really....you can always call and change the warranty option based on what information people deem to tell you and how helpful you'd consider it to be.

For me, a 2 year warranty at that price is decent, as sturdy as a system is, sometimes you may have something to change.

This Toshiba, 3 years running, in the last stretch of the warranty, vertical dead pixels, if not under warranty, I'd have to live with it as a screen to replace is expensive.

Think about it as paying that money for 2 years of peace of mind.

 

yer mate i thought about the 2 yrs peace of mind and got it in the end!! thanks!!

 

you should've bought the one year and bought the entire expense with a credit card

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=64951&page=11

 

But first check that the credit card does actually offer a warranty extension because not all cards do. My wife and I have some cards that do and some cards that don't.

 

Also, some cards exclude computers, and some have maximum dollar limits on the extended warranties that are too low to be worth much for laptop coverage.

Be sure to read the terms of your credit card's warranty coverage very carefully so that you will not be disappointed when they deny your claim due to some kind of "exclusion".

 

2 years is the minimum smart choice for a warranty.

 

False!

I bought a computer last summer with a one year warranty. Buying two years would have been utterly stupid, as in "not smart". Why? Because I knew that a) the warranty was domestic --- meaning that repairs would be done on US soil only and that shipping was paid only from and to US addresses and b) that I would be abroad for the second year of the life of the computer. (Indeed, I'm leaving for Taiwan in September.) Buying a second year would have been a 100% waste.

It would be nice to modulate opinions with words like "usually", "in general", "in most cases...", etc.

 

That statement was meant as a general one, if you`re moving to another continent, that kinda changes the equations,na ?

2years of warranty is the smartest choice.
I`d still go for a longer one,better resale chances.

 

I did not hesitate for one moment to get a 3-year warranty for my machine through XoticPC... I say $197 is well worth the piece of mind it offers.

 

if u live in canada its NOT worth it

 

im happy iv taken it coz as u said it does definately give u piece of mind and its not like i took it from alienware where their CS is quite unreliable in terms of actually getting things fixed at which point u will be better off without a warranty...but novatech do this care pack thing and i dont think the 5793s tend to be break as much if at all...well thats wat most ppl who use it say on this forum..

 

I strongly, strongly disagree. Warranty choice is highly dependant on many factors.

Will you be tinkering with the bios, overclocking, pulling apart your laptop and otherwise voiding your warranty early? Don't bother paying for more.

Will the costs of shipping the laptop in for warranty work (if not included in the warranty) exceed the costs of simply fixing the laptop yourself? If so, don't bother.

Does the warranty cover enough to be actually worthwhile? Many do not cover dead pixels, or have limited coverage on screens in general, and that's really the only component that's a concern. Others are all readily replaceable at minimal cost. For example, if my processor died (they do that? I've never had one die, but hey...) I'd just take the opportunity to upgrade to a better processor, rather than use my warranty to replace the current one.

Thus, I never get anything beyond the basic warranty coverage, typically one year.

In my life, I have never made use of a computer's warranty. Since the days of IBM XT's, not once. I've had components fail, but I've simply replaced failed components. In every case, it's never cost me much over the price of an extended warranty(often under); and nearly always less when shipping costs are factored in. Further, I can purchase a replacement component, install it myself in a day. Or, I could ship my laptop off to some distant repair facility, and have it gone for weeks, or, in some cases, months.

Extended warranties, IMHO anyways, are for people who can't/don't want to fix their computers themselves.

For instance, for me to ship my laptop in for repairs would cost me approximately $100 - one way; I don't even know if I have to pay for return shipping costs or not. My lappy would be gone a minimum of two weeks (shipping time there and back); and I'd suspect it would take at least a week between being received and shipped out, if not more.

 

If you`re a regular user, and just use the laptop daily or close to daily, 1 year might not be enough to get it into shape. In 2 years,you`ll know if the laptop has any hardware issues or if it`s prone to disasters, and you would not pay a cent for it.
Heck, honestly, I think the minimum STANDARD warranty should be 2 years.

 

I agree. E.g., I bought an _HP for my wife several years ago, and during the second year we had it I started getting an error when I ran the _HP diagnostics (which I started running 'cause I'm paranoid that way ), but didn't see any performance issues. Luckily, by the time I decided to replace the hdd (which took me a while since I'd never cracked open a notebook at that point - now I'm a vet with this **((&*^ vaio), I still had a week left on the extended 2-year warranty, so I got the hdd replaced for free - I also had to replace the a/c power adapter several months earlier (thankfully, they "overlooked" the fact that the jack had been damaged by use, rather than being defective as delivered ). At that point, cash was a little tight, so I was glad to have the warranty; otherwise, it would have taken a while before I could fix the system - and my wife has no patience for that sort of nonsense.

 

That's pretty much how I see it but at the same time, you have to realize that it is possible to incur a huge loss on an laptop which is out of warranty if the hardware problem is really bad.

Yikes! That's a bad deal. PowerNotebooks offers better than this. (XoticPC probably too.) IIRC, under their warranty 2nd day shipping is paid both ways. So your shipping cost is $0. But you are looking at a minimum of 5 days without a laptop. If it is shipped on a Monday and it arrives at the service center and is shipped back on the same day (which would be a Wednesday) you get it back on Friday: that's 5 days. 5 days is still a lot of time without a laptop for someone who is dependent on their laptop.

 

I'd sure like that.

 

Teh problem being for me that I'm Canadian. There are companies offering things like you mention there, but none of them (that I found when shopping for this notebook) offered it to Canada.

It does go back to the first point, though: If the things you do on your notebook void the warranty in the first week you have it, what good is a warranty?

For me personally - and I realise this is highly subjective - a warranty is largely useless the moment it states you cannot open the laptop, overclock, upgrade bios, etc; as I do all those things on a regular basis. It is, in fact, the *reason* I buy the hardware - it's my hobby

So, for me, the warranty may as well just be 1 month; and that's all I use of it. I'll give the PC a month just to ensure that everything works properly. At the end of that time the laptop is in so many pieces the warranty is long gone =)

 

I'm Canadian too. I fixed that problem by moving to the US. (Actually, my wife was the reason I moved.)

I think we agree on the broad lines: read the fine print of the warranty you are thinking of buying and see whether it makes sense for your situation. There are no absolutes.

 

~nods~ Exactly. They're great for some people, and an utter waste of money for others.

Now, if I could only find a company willing to uphold their warranty even after the Dremel gets involved... ~sighs dreamily~

 

PCMW ships for free to canada for warranties.

 

I got a 3 year warranty myself. It was only 199 dollars so that's not too bad considering if something breaks, I could end up paying a lot more than that.

 

Hi folks,

@ Dreidel ... That was GOOD info for me since I hardly read the Fine Prints on my credit card's agreement.

Q1: Can I buy Extended Warranty after I receive my Sager ... since it is the mail already?

Q2: Would you buy the Extended Warranty from Sager or Reseller?

Thanks,

G!

 

You can buy the extended warranty during the 1st 90 days after the ship date.

You should buy it from the dealer that sold you the Sager laptop.

 

Hi paladin44,

Thanks!

G!

 

Then how would large computer corporations make any money? Most people think, "Its a computer, what can go wrong, its an electrical device just like an alarm clock, right?" WRONG. I bought a ZD8000 from HP a few years back and it came with the standard 1-year warranty, and I thought that was pretty good, so I didn't get the 2-year warranty; and on the 1-year, 8-month anniversary of ownership a whole row of vertical pixels died, permanently stuck on a pinkish color... that and the power button is all wacky: you gotta hold it down for like 30 seconds to turn it on, and the fans are spinning as well. After I bought this baby I gave my 8000 to my mom to use for internet/basic things. I will NEVER get anything less than 2-3 years for a warranty. Also, the HD in a Compaq Presario I bought back in 2001 died after 9 months, it had a 6-month warranty... but other than that I am surprised it is still going strong, and I have upgraded it a bit too (Athlon 900Mhz, 384MB RAM, Geforce 3 64MB, 30GB 5400RPM HD, Windows 2000 PRO)

 

So BigJohn,

Basically Stop playing it "Cheap" and cough up the $ for at least a 2 Year warranty and have a piece of mind.

G!

 

Hi folks,

I was just reading through Sager's 1-Year and 3-Year warranties and in both they keep talking about LIMITED Parts & Labor ... what else is there ...

Q1: So are the 2 warranties identical as far as TERMS go ... except one is for 1 year and the other for 3 years.

Q2: @ Paladin ... when you said to buy the Warranty from your Reseller ... for example ... does PowerNotebooks offer a different Warranty than Sager's 3-year one?

Q3: If I buy the laptop without software and I load up my own OS and then find out the Hard Drive or something else is dead ... can Sager weasel their way out of the Warranty for Hardware malfunction?

Thanks,

G!

 

The word "limited" in this context has a specific legal meaning which I don't remember. It is pretty frequent in warranties.

Probably not but there's always a risk. I've so far never had a manufacturer refuse me service because I did not buy an OS from them.

 

Thanks lemur.

G!

 

gonwok, please don't let bigjohn's potty mouth influence you...I know you can express yourself without using those lazy words.

Lemur is correct...limited basically means limited to what is contained in the writing of the warranty.

The only real difference between the 1 and 3 year warranty, other than the term, is that the AC Adapter and battery are only covered for the 1st year.

What I meant was, you should always buy your Sager warranty from your reseller. There are no warranties other than Sager's on a Sager branded laptop, with the exception of a 3rd party Accidental Damage Policy, which we recommend getting from www.safeware.com.

Whether you buy an OS or not has nothing to do with the hardware warranty.

 

Hi folks,

@ paladin ... Thanks for all of your help and answers. Paladin, I DID NOT take offense to BigJohnson's input AT ALL. May be you took my response wrong ... I guess that was my "dry" attempt to being funny.

@ BigJohnson ... I think you are A-OK in my book ... and Appreciate any and all comments and input from you.

Thank You ALL again ... for educating newbies like myself here!
G!