Can I purchase a Vaio ADH Warranty from a third party?

I guess I am going to CTO the Z22 when it comes out.

I have had to purchase numerous Vaio ADH warranties from Sony in the past and never had to use them (thankfully). But they are very expensive.

So I saw this on a third party website for less than on the Sony website:

BKSPS3ADHNB3

Supposedly it is the sku for almost $90 less. I have seen others for much less including in home service NOT offered at all from Sony right now.

Questions:

Is this valid with a new CTO Z even if I do NOT buy it from an authorized retailer?

Do I REALLY need the ADH?

Also, my VISA signature card offers to extend the warranty for another year (Warranty Manager Service). Is that sufficient? Can I still get it repaired at an authorized Sony facility or does it have to be VISA's decision where I can get it repaired?

 

Yes, purchasing the Sony warranties via 3rd party websites are acceptable. There's a contract code where you use it to register your product.

IMO, I'd get ADH or no extended warranty at all. Without ADH coverage, Sony/Servicenet will fight you in every way possible to tell you that the laptop was not a manufacturer's defect and that in fact it was user abuse.

 

Two alternatives to consider:


1) Square Trade has an excellent reputation and sells 3 year full defect and ADH coverage on any new computer for less than most manufacturer and store extended/ADH warranties, they cover it regardless where purchased. (They even give 2 years coverage on used equipment purchased on eBay or Amazon, though ADH is excluded.) They have a commitment to fix your computer in 5 business days or they cut you a check for the original price paid. All the reviews on them are excellent. I have two of their wttys, but have never needed to make a claim. You can always get a better price calling them to buy it vs. buying it online.

2) Regarding the ADH coverage, if you have homeowners or renters insurance to protect you belongings from damage or loss, you can purchase a "scheduled article" rider and cover damage or "mysterious disapperance" of each item you schedule (most commonly used for costly jewelry or fine arts) and with most carriers (I can vouch for State Farm), you can get zero=deductible coverage for a laptop for $10-$20 per year. This covers all the things a mfr's ADH warranty covers and them some, eg, submerging your computer and loss from theft or apparent theft (they call the latter "mysterious disappearance") which are excluded from Sony's and others' ADH policies. They also cover used items, provided you have a bill of sale from the original purchase or a valid appraisal. The downside of this coverage: if you have to use it more than once every 3 years or so, it can have some effect on your overall premium, but unless you have a big house, the total premium for personal articles coverage is not so large that even a 15% increase would be that painful. Keep in mind that you can't make two ADH claims with, say, Sony's ADH coverage, because it says in the contract that once they have replaced your computer one time, the coverage becomes null and void even though the term of the contract may be years longer.

Anyway, I hope this helps, even as it complicates things. The reason I looked into it was specifically because of all the bad stories I read of Sony warranty non-coverage: they call a defect "user mishandling" and they call an actual case of accidental damage from handling "abuse" or "intentional damage" and in all cases try to duck out of coverage. There is a fairly current thread going from a guy who a hinge problem, and they denied him coverage despite it being an known defect, and denied him ADH coverage for reasons they didn't even state.

 

Interesting.

Then If I go with SquareTrade + ADH through rider insurance, will Sony parts be used or would it be serviced with other laptop brands in a generic facility?

The other question is how is the limited warranty that comes with the PC? VISA says they will extend that by a year.

 

All good questions, and I can't say I know the answer to most of them. One principle always applies: if you have more than one source of coverage, each source will require that you collect as much as you can from the others until it comes in to pay it's coverage. It can be a catch-22, though the same is true most insurance. Generally, you can just show that the other policies don't cover the problem in question and they will take responsibility - something never said in the same sentence with the word "Sony!"

It does mean that if you are covered by Sony's product wtty, Square Trade won't pay until you have first tried to get service from Sony and was turned down. I think you can easily keep the extra year of Sony protection via Visa to yourself, so after Sony's std 1 yr wtty expires, Square Trade will do the rest. Even homeowners insurance requires that you collect from any other sources before it pays the balance. If you don't have ADh from any other source, that will make it go directly to the ST wtty if you have accidental damage or loss of the item.

I am not sure who Square Trade typically uses for repairs, but I think they almost always have on-site service, due to the very brief 5 days they have for getting it done. I would assume they would only have Sony certified techs doing work inside the computer. I think ST is pretty much more like insurance than a service contract; in the majority of cases it has a tech look at the damage or problem and makes an economic calculation of parts and labor to repair vs. cut a check and I think wtty claims are rare enough that their business model works if they usually pay out the full purchase price when there is an ADH claim, fairly often for an internal hdwe failure. It would be worth calling ST and goggling it to find out what they commonly do in various scenarios, as I am largely guessing.