Do you purchase extended warranties, you do ? Then you are being ripped off by the biggest con in the high st?

Question

A friend of mine was telling me about his plasma TV going bust after 4yrs. C---T refused to repair the set as it was out of warranty............ Rubbish, this was a £2600 plasma !. I told him to go back to C---T and quote The Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994. It states "....strong enough to last a reasonable length of time and have no faults....." Unquote, It applies to all retail goods and the retailer is responsible for the repair/replacement. Salesmen dont want you to know of this act. The statute of limitations is 6 yrs but dont expect to take back a £29 vacum after 2 yrs.

Answer 1

You buy something and the salesperson tells you how great it is, .
Then you go to pay for it and they then tell you what a heap of crap you have bought and you have to buy an extended warranty because in a few months time it will go to pieces .
RIP OFF DELUXE .
Not to mention Insurance they try to sell you on the same junk.
I really hate it when they target the elderly with this scam.
Never bought and never will.

Answer 2

I bought a 3-yr for my WS TV instead of the 5-yr plan.

The sales guy said if it was going to go, it'd be within 3 years.

3 and a half years later - bizzzt! It's knackered.

Thing is, I was offered an extension after three years and I didn't take it up.

I recently bought a camcorder and a minidisc recorder. If something happened to either of them, I simply wouldn't have the money to replace them. They get a lot of use and the warranty also protects them against accidental damage.

The camcorder warranty is spread over 10 months and no charge for not paying it all in one go. The Minidisc warranty was £20 for three years, replacement or repair. It's an obsolete model so I'll probably get a better version if it packs up. The camcorder was £79 for 5 years and at £7 and £15 a year I feel they are both worth this small extra cost.

I don't have the same warranty on my computer as it is self-built and I just buy a new bit to bolt on - dead cheap.

Weigh up the pros and cons. If the device packed up after a year and a one-off repair would cost a minimum of £60, is it not worth an extra £20 to take away the hassle for three years or even five years?

I remember spending £60 (rising to £80) a year on a washing machine warranty over five years and within those five years it needed two replacement motors at £200 - £250 each not including the £120 labour to fit them each time. The total I spent was £350, the total cost was £690 - I was quids in!

Yes I could have had a new machine but this one ran beautifully for 12 years and I could not have replaced it with a similar quality make for £350.

Answer 3

I agree. I have purchased many electrical items over the years and have only called in the warranty on one or two occasions, and then it would have worked out cheaper to buy a new, updated model. So I do not buy the extended warranty now, and I find it is cheaper to have your contents insurance made to accidental damage to cover all items.

I agree that some sales people are very pushy and even walk away to another customer when you continue to insist that you do not want the extended warranty - so as some other answers suggest it is always worthwhile speaking to the manager/ess and then boycotting the store until such time as they have a product you need at a competitive price.

Answer 4

No way, they are a total con. I say avoid them at all costs and if the sales person is very pushy tell them to stick the extended warranty and the goods you were going to buy and go elsewhere. Sales people like to cause you anxiety so you make needless purchases because they directly benefit from the sale, not you! My rule of thumb is to remember sales people have a problem with the word "NO" but you don't!

Answer 5

Extended warranties - my @rse, total and utter rip off, and what really gets up my nose is how the smarmy salescreeps push like mad to get you to buy one. I always make a point of telling them straight away that i'm not going to buy one so just forget it. Last time i bought a laptop i walked out of PC World, i'd told the fool 3 times i didnt want it but he kept banging on about it - told him to shove it in the end and went to laptops direct instead, saved money doing it as well.

Answer 6

Agreed - a huge rip off. When they try and sell you a "3 year extended warranty" it is only a 2 year extended warranty as you get a year for free anyway.

Answer 7

No don't take them the amount you will be paying each month or year is enough to buy one of the items new it's a con right enough.If your goods are all right for 1st year whilst under warranty then I'm sure they'll last a few years ok.

Answer 8

I definitely agree with the apple headphones! I had to replace my ipod earbuds every 3 months. The sound quality was okay for me but after a couple months they always short out in one ear. Funny thing is I was actually gonna mention that as my biggest ripoff. I gave up on apple earphones and stared buying headphones from other companies now.

Answer 9

I have had nothing but great experiences with Best Buy. I buy all my electronics from there. I got an extended warranty for my t.v. and have already had to use it twice in 2 years. There was no service charge and they came to my home to fix it. They were fast and curteous.

You really have to be careful where you shop. Stick to the big name stores for electronics because the mom & pop shops will only service your items when it is convenient for them.

Answer 10

I hate going into electrical shops these days, all you get is the smiling salesman trying to rip you off.
I use to work for a well known computer company and all they cared about are warranty's.
There customers services are all trained to know about the sales of goods act but not many consumers do.
I prefer to buy all my goods online at least i don't get the hassle of sales staff anymore.