Didn't Get Extn'd Warranty...Mistake??

Hi:
I have owned a VPCZ for a year now, haven't had a single issue with it since day1. Today marked the last day that i could have gotten an extended warranty, or extended warranty with accidental damage. I figured if i ever got an extended warranty, it would be w/ accidental damage since an accident seems more likely then a hardware failure.

Called them up, 2 year extn'd with ADMG included would with taxes cost be around $850.00CAD +. To me, 850$ for a problem which might not even ever happen within the next 2 years seemed uneccesary. Furthermore, the laptop stays on my desk at home 99% of the time and I don't eat/drink around it.

Should I have payed the 850-900 ish $ and gotten the extnd warranty with accidental damage or did I make the right choice? Just felt like money I could be putting towards a new laptop in the future.

 

No... you should have bought the insurance when you first got the laptop when they give you a huuuge discount on warranties... your computer will probably burn out of become obsolete in a year or two anyway so it doesn't seem worth it to me. save your money for when you get a new laptop.

 

burn out in a year or two?
if they burn out that quickly i probably shouldn't have gotten such a high configuration....

 

haha I didn't mean actually burn out, that can happen like mine did, but that usually doesn't happen usually its a single part that has problems, I've had very few systems that haven't had problems at some point. This is because manufacturers are making parts cheaper so that they can sell laptops cheaper and replace the parts for cheaper. they expect to have quite a few laptops in need of replacement parts over their warranty lifetime, its why they make parts cheaper. I hope that made a little more sense, and sounded a little less scary, all I meant was it's better to be prepared.

 

ahh i see...well i've had the laptop for over 1 year now with 0 problems so far(knock on wood), and i'm sure in a couple years i'll be replacing the laptop anyways...hopefully my motherboard or something like that doesn't crash anytime in the near future though haha

 

Just be careful with your Z.

 

Also, it's no great shakes to forego Sony's [wonderful] service. I don't know how they qualify their techs, but you certainly hear enough horror stories about their ham handed techs causing more problems than they solve.

I for one agree with saving your money and then just accepting the cost hit in the unlikely event that you have a problem (or fixing it yourself).

 

I've had my Vaio for just over 3 years now. I'm very glad I paid for the extra Sony Warranty.
It's had 6 new hard drives (it's a twin drive laptop) and about 2 months before the 3 year warranty ran out, the motherboard died.
That would have been a lot to pay for!

 

Looks like you lucked out. But your also in the UK and Sony warranty seems to be pretty good there. If that happened to you in the USA, Sony would have taken weeks and weeks to repair the hard drive. Then they probably would have lost your notebook somewhere and refuse to offer a replacement lol (this has actually happened to a user here)

 

Wild accusation, "this actually happened to A user here". I guarantee there was more to that story than what we heard, and one bad experience can't speak for a host of good ones.

 

well considering my laptop stays on a desk 99% of the time at home, i'm not too concerned about accidents. I also don't have any need to overclock it and such since I don't really game much on it, so if something inevitably goes wrong in the next few years such as some ports stop working of i get a hardware failure somewhere down the road i'll just pay the cost to get it fixed. Sister has had her vaio for 5 years now with 0 problems, so i guess it really just depends.

 

In reply, I have to say that the collect/return/repair service was nothing short of excellent, in all cases. Very quick too in most cases.
The first person I spoke to on the phone was not that helpful. They just towed the party line (ie have you done a recovery? That's all they ever want to know!).
Apart from that though, it was a very good service.
Maybe I was lucky in some respects but unlucky in others. A £2000 laptop shouldn't really need 6 new hard drives and a motherboard in less than 3 years.
C'est la vie!

 

Well the Z uses SSD which would be pricey to replace, but i'll just hope things last as long as possible. Few years down the road i'll pick up another laptop anyways so I guess we'll just have to see. For now, my Z stays stationary on a desk 24/7 so I don't really see accidents being an issue, and hopefully over the next couple years things go ok.

 

It's not just one user, I've heard tons of stories about Sony warranty support. And the fact that it even happened to 1 user is enough to scare me away. True, the support is not bad for everyone, but even 30% of people have problems with it then that means there's a 1/3 chance of you getting screwed. For a $4000 notebook, that's not good at all. IMO, Dell is the only PC manufacturer that has good warranty support in the USA.

 

With previous sony laptops, when I run into a hardware issue, which hasn't been anything too bad (like a motherboard replacement), I tend to just order the part and fix it myself/get someone I know & trust who works at a computer shop to fix it for me. I feel sony's warranty service can be hit and miss, with sometimes them taking it in and fixing it right away, and other times just saying they won't cover it.