I know when i buy a laptop, i will be asked if i want an extended
warranty or acccidental damage coverage.. Don't laptop manufacturers
generally cover their laptops for one year anyway?

In article <1164678648.608191.40390@j44g2000cwa.googlegroups. com>,
shareyourknowledge********.com <shareyourknowledge********.com> wrote:
>I know when i buy a laptop, i will be asked if i want an extended
>warranty or acccidental damage coverage.. Don't laptop manufacturers
>generally cover their laptops for one year anyway?
>


What you buy is an extension to the basic warrenty. The "basic'
warrenty may be one year, mail to factory deal. For a bucks more you
might get years two and three and they come to you the next day if
that's what you want.


IMO a good laptop should get 3 years of coverage and it has to be with
the manufacturer, not with the store or a third party.


--
a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m
Harrison for Congress in NY 13CD www.harrison06.com
Don't blame me. I voted for Gore. A Proud signature since 2001

Yes, one year is the standard warranty.

Note that SOME extended warranties may cover the battery (over $200, and
quite possibly will go bad in the warranty period). Others cover
"accidental" damage (you drop the laptop, or you spill liquid on the
keyboard, or you somehow crack the LCD screen). Neither the battery nor
accidental damage is ever covered by the factory warranty.

Repairs to a laptop can be very expensive. If you have to replace a
motherboard or an LCD screen out of warranty, it may cost more than the
cost of a new laptop. Either a new motherboard or a new screen can cost
more than $600.

Personally, my recommendation on extended warranties is:

1. Only buy extended warranties from the manufacturer, not the store.
[however, not all manufacturers even sell their own extended warranties]

2. Only buy extended warranties that cover accidental damage. Note
that not all manufacturers that offer extended warranties even offer
warranties with accidental damage coverage. And, further, note that
even when a manufacturer offers such warranties, all of the extended
warranties offered by that manufacturer don't necessarily include the
accidental damage coverage. For example, both Dell and Toshiba sell
both extended warranties that exclude accidental damage coverage, and
different extended warranties that include such coverage.

3. Expect to pay about $230 to $320 for a 3-year extended warranty with
accidental damage coverage.

4. In a few states, extended warranties may not be available at all or
may have drastically different terms. What's happened is that in these
states, the state legislatures have passed laws classifying some types
of extended warranties as "insurance", making them subject to the
state's insurance laws, requiring that they be sold by state-licensed
insurance agents and just generally creating an environment in which
such extended warranties become difficult or impossible for the computer
manufacturers or even the retailers to offer.


shareyourknowledge********.com wrote:
> I know when i buy a laptop, i will be asked if i want an extended
> warranty or acccidental damage coverage.. Don't laptop manufacturers
> generally cover their laptops for one year anyway?
>

<shareyourknowledge********.com> wrote in message
news:1164678648.608191.40390@j44g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
>I know when i buy a laptop, i will be asked if i want an extended
> warranty or acccidental damage coverage.. Don't laptop manufacturers
> generally cover their laptops for one year anyway?
>

They do, but not usually for accidental damage.

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:456ba34c$0$13644$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
> Yes, one year is the standard warranty.
>
> Note that SOME extended warranties may cover the battery (over $200, and
> quite possibly will go bad in the warranty period). Others cover
> "accidental" damage (you drop the laptop, or you spill liquid on the
> keyboard, or you somehow crack the LCD screen). Neither the battery nor
> accidental damage is ever covered by the factory warranty.
>
> Repairs to a laptop can be very expensive. If you have to replace a
> motherboard or an LCD screen out of warranty, it may cost more than the
> cost of a new laptop. Either a new motherboard or a new screen can cost
> more than $600.
>

I can't speak for the US, but here in the UK, many extended warranties
contain a clause that they will only cover the cost of repairs up to the
current market value of the item. Once the cost exceeds that market value,
you not only don't get a repair, but you don't get the market value either.
The rapid depreciation in value of laptops after sale makes such warranties
fairly worthless.

Personally, I never buy any extended warranty, but prefer to pay £30-40 into
a savings account. I pay for *all* my repairs from that account, and it
still has a balance of nearly £2000 at present. This alone demonstrates
that extended warranties are the great rip off that they are.

In article <456be8f1$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net>,
M.I.5¾ <no.one@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote:

....>
>Personally, I never buy any extended warranty, but prefer to pay £30-40 into
>a savings account. I pay for *all* my repairs from that account, and it
>still has a balance of nearly £2000 at present. This alone demonstrates
>that extended warranties are the great rip off that they are.
>
>


For most consumer items I agree with the above calculation but a
laptop used for an important activity is an exception. If, 13 months
after buying a laptop, it dies you have to select a new laptop, buy
it, and reinstall all your apps etc. This would happen, of course,
when you needed to get work done, not futz with a new system. Most
people have no record of all the software they've bought online (A/V,
firewall, utilities, applications, etc) and have to repurchase it when
they reinstall.

Under a decent warranty, the manufacturer promises to keep your
laptop, or one just like it, running for the duration.


--
a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m
Harrison for Congress in NY 13CD www.harrison06.com
Don't blame me. I voted for Gore. A Proud signature since 2001

"Al Dykes" <adykes@panix.com> wrote in message
news:ekhfu6$bje$1@panix5.panix.com...
> In article <456be8f1$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net>,
> M.I.5¾ <no.one@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote:
>
> ...>
>>Personally, I never buy any extended warranty, but prefer to pay £30-40
>>into
>>a savings account. I pay for *all* my repairs from that account, and it
>>still has a balance of nearly £2000 at present. This alone demonstrates
>>that extended warranties are the great rip off that they are.
>>
>>
>
>
> For most consumer items I agree with the above calculation but a
> laptop used for an important activity is an exception. If, 13 months
> after buying a laptop, it dies you have to select a new laptop, buy
> it, and reinstall all your apps etc. This would happen, of course,
> when you needed to get work done, not futz with a new system. Most
> people have no record of all the software they've bought online (A/V,
> firewall, utilities, applications, etc) and have to repurchase it when
> they reinstall.
>
> Under a decent warranty, the manufacturer promises to keep your
> laptop, or one just like it, running for the duration.
>

This, of course, would be a business decision based on the potential loses.
Many businesses fail to recover following a computer failure. Others
soldier on, but not without some inconvenience. Most of that first group
would survive if they just had a decent backup regime, but the inconvenience
can cost a business plenty.

We pay for cover for all our company PCs such that, if this PC went up in
flames, it gets replaced with a PC with the same software *and* (this is the
important bit) with all my user files properly restored and useable. We pay
a high price for this - the annual cost well exceeds the cost of the PC.
But if we didn't we would be vulnerable to going out of business if disaster
struck.