Should I spend 10% of the cost of a HDTV on the extended warranty?
Duncan asked:
I’m trying to calculate the total cost of ownership on a $3K HDTV. Are extended warranties a scam, or a must have? I’m also thinking of purchasing from Costco. Do they provide extended warranties?
I’m trying to calculate the total cost of ownership on a $3K HDTV. Are extended warranties a scam, or a must have? I’m also thinking of purchasing from Costco. Do they provide extended warranties?
I did. My HDTV was a projection TV, which meant that the bulb might need to be changed.
Typically, the lifetime of the bulbs are an insanely large number, something like 5 years of TV watching. The 10% should buy you a 4 or 5 year warrantee that include bulb changes and in home service to do color adjustment etc.
The one problem I find myself having to deal with is that with the warrantee, I leave the TV on even when I’m not watching. Why not? they’ll change the bulb when it burns out right? And then I end up using lots of electricity which I pay for.
good luck.
Remember that the cost of an extended warranty is calculated by an actuary so that the company providing the warranty ultimately profits. In effect, Costco expects you to have less than $300 of problems with your TV over the term of the warranty.
From a purely numerical perspective, it is then not worth the money, but then again no extended warranty is based on this definition. In one or two years it is exceedingly unlikely that anything will go wrong with your tv, but if it does, it could be much more to fix than $300.
Then again your $3000 tv may only be worth $800 in 3 years (if not less), so why bother?
don’t do it, it’s not worth it. the price is typically way too high and electronics usually fail in the first year if they do at all and it should be covered by the warranty. i have probably saved over $3k in warranty expense of the past 5 years by not buying the extended warranty.