Best Buy or wherever service plans

[Cancer Man]

I'm buying a Mini DV camcorder tomorrow and might get it at Best Buy to collect some reward points. If I spend around $500 on a camcorder, does it make sense to buy the service plan at around $100 for four years or am I safe with the factory warranty? Just curious. I've always thought it was a waste of money.

 

[Hpslugga]

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[Cancer Man]

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[longhrnfan]

its usually worth it at bestbuy. They dont cry too much about when you take **** back... just dont drop it and think its covered. we spent a month on the ocean with a new DV cam w/ it, and digital cams bought there, and then right after wen there and had them cleaned for free, decent deal. Also had the battery replaced in an ipod, and the DV. I say worth it. Its REALLY worth it for car audio there.

 

[Sip94]

Unless you plan on intentially breaking the item just before the warranty expires so you can get a new one or unless you are a clutz, extended warranty plans are a suckers bet. They love to sell them, because it's pure profit. 95% of the time you will end up regretting it. Money down the drain. Why don't you just light a cigarette with a hundred dollar bill? You'd get more out of it. In other words don't do it. Trust me, you will not use a camcorder as much as you would think (unless your gonna make amature porn). You'll use it about 2-3x per year on average. It's not a real big wear and tear item.

 

[Hpslugga]

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[7Titles]

I think COnsumer Reports did a test on this and the only items they recommended it for were plasma TV's and laptops. 100$ also seems way too high for a 500$ item. If you were going to uses it every day then you might consider it.

 

[BA93]

unless you think there is a 20% chance you will drop it, why waste the money.

 

[longhrnfan]

get them for batteries and cleanings, then get the batteries replaced, and the unit cleaned.

 

[DLev]

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[chuychanga]

If you decide to get wasted at your wife's cousin's rehearsal dinner and then jump in the hot tub with your digital camera in your pocket then it's worth it.

If such an occurence were to take place, provided you had the extended warranty, you could take it back to Best Buy (after letting it dry out in the sun, of course) and give a well thought out and elaborate web of lies like, "Uhhh, it just quit working."

The Best Buy dude will then toss it in a box with hardly a glance and show you that the newest cameras, one or even two steps up from what you originally bought, are now cheaper than the old one. You could then go home and show off your newer and nicer camera and tell your wife to shut the hell up.

You probably wouldn't want to tell her about the three CDs you also bought with the leftover refund.

 

[BA93]

They don't sell the policy to lose money. the average person who buys the policy never uses it. Not to replace a battery and not to get a new unit.

 

[Ollie]

Check out dustin_c1's review of the service plan

 

[Turd of Doom]

If you do buy it go ahead and tatoo sucker on your forhead first. If its going to be a lemon you will know it in the first year. On the off chance that it is the one thing in your life to quit working in year two the use some of the thousands of dollars you will have saved on ******** extended warenties and buy a new one.

I bought a phone at best buy once and when I declined the salesmans repeated attempts to sell me the extended warrenty he looked at me like I was some kind of dumbass. God if I could go back in time I would kick the **** out of that guy.

 

[BNB]

Circuit City used to be good with warranties when I worked there. People would always come to us complaining about best buys return policy when we would take anything back. Like someone said, it is a huge percent of their profit. Back in 95 or so I could sell a computer and make 50 bucks, but if I talked someone into buying a warranty that was another 100. There was one guy that I worked with that would actually sell the warranty by telling people when you are tired of the computer, hook it up to a car battery and bring it back for a new one.

After working there and seeing the returns, it is just a crap shoot. I think you are better off probably not buying a warranty ever, and if something breaks, fix it of buy a new one and you will come out ahead, the same, or if you are one unlucky son of a *****, behind.

The only valuable warranties I thought were the ones that didn't cost that much 5-10 dollars for a discman or something, b/c they wouldn't try and fix those and just give you the latest model.