|
|
Posted by Geena Phillips on 02/01/07 15:06
Stan Brown wrote:
> Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:00:47 -0600 from Aaron J. Bossig <linkvb06
> @SpammersWillBeExecuted.ptd.net>:
>> The manufacturer's extended warranty, on the other hand, is a legally
>> binding contract entitling you to certian satisfaction should the product
>> fail under normal circumstances. It's worth the money in that you have
>> an absolute guarantee that your product will be repaired/replaced.
>
> It *may* be worth the money, but probably isn't.
>
> Multiply the probability the unit will need replacement, times the
> cost of replacing it, and compare that to the cost of the warranty.
>
> For most durable goods the extended warranty is a horribly bad deal
> for consumers because it's a hugely profitable item for sellers.
> That's especially true with electronics, where you know prices are
> going to continue to fall.
>
> If you buy a DVD player today for $150 (fairly high end for a plain
> player), you know within a couple years the same player (or one more
> capable) will cost about $50. If there's less than a 20% chance the
> player will fail within that time -- almost certainly true -- then
> the value of the extended warranty is not $150 but $50 times 20%,
> which is $10.
You're absolutely correct, Stan. Unfortunately, as I've learned, trying
to educate people about this issue is an uphill battle, and electronics
stores rake in HUGE profits on the sales of what are basically pieces of
paper (hell, I'd probably RUN a Best Buy by now if I had displayed any
willingness whatsoever to push that junk on people).
--
--
Well, whaddaya know? War WAS the answer, after all. Go figure.
A lone Micronaut lost in a world of Star Wars action figures,
(The Excessively Parenthetical) Geena-- Worrier Princess
"Reciprocity... is the key to every relationship."
--LAPD Capt. Dudley Smith (James Cromwell), in L.A. Confidential
"Andy Warhol once said that everyone would be famous for fifteen
minutes. The unfortunate corollary is that everyone will also appear in
a Freddie Prinze, Jr. movie for fifteen minutes."
--me
"This is like driving a Rolls Royce, naked, in mink underpants."
--Tony Bourdain
"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it
helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons,
but at the very least you need a beer."
-- Frank Zappa
"I'm not sayin' it's the best thing in the world FOR ya; I'm just sayin'
it's the best thing in the world."
-- Alton Brown
"The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is
that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes,
wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their
prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet
this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all
the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in
all history."
-- Robert Heinlein
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|