Extended Warranties: Yay or Nay?

So I've been living without an Ipod now for a few months cuz mine died & the cost of fixing it was equal to me buying a new one . Ofcourse the Apple salesman said that had I had a warranty I'd be covered. Needless to say, I didnt have one.

Now, I'm the type who ALWAYS buy's the extended warranties offered by stores when you purchase electronics. DH absolutely hates that I do that & feels that its a waste of money. He even showed me an article where an electronics guru said that most store-offered extended warranties are a waste of $ because in most cases nothing goes wrong with a product, especially in the first 2 years that you have it.

And as is the case with me, I'll buy the ext warranty for maybe 2 years & once that time is up I usually don't renew it. So ofcourse, by the time something does go wrong with it, as in the case of my Ipod, the warranty is up because I didn't re-extend the warranty....sigh....

So here I am thinking about extended warranties & how useful/valuable they are & trying to figure out if they are really worth it. I'm going to buy another Ipod soon & am trying to figure out if I'm gonna get the extended warranty (which I probably will cuz thats just how I am).

For some reason, I can't seem to buy something & resist the urge to say "NO" when the salesperson asks if I want the extnd warranty. But maybe I need to just rethink this. This is where you come in! LOL

My question to you is do you ever get an extended warranty?

If you do, do you keep renewing the warranty once its up?

If you don't, why don't you?

i NEVER buy the warranties for the exact reasons you ponited out in that article - funny but the ONLY exception for me is Apple - i would buy a warranty for an iPod b/c they really do break and are super expensive to fix. lol

I used to work at Circuit City and I HATED selling the warranties!!! One of the reasons they moved me off the salesfloor... Unless its one of the "accident" warranty that basically cover anything and everything... I wouldn't bother. How often does something happen to your electronics in the first couple of years? If something does, its going to be in the first year or so and that will be covered by the manufacturer. Also, you can buy the warranty up until the return period is over, so don't let a salesperson talk you into it. Go home, think about it and go back to the store if you want it.

If they have an accidental protection plan on the IPOD... I would get it... bc my IPOD would probably take a hard drop when a new one came out...

i never buy them. i bought my last ipod refurbished so it came with a 1yr.

I bought a 4th gen ipod about 3 years ago for $200. It broke recently. I could buy a used 4th gen for probably what the warranty would have cost, or maybe less. instead I just bought a new ipod. I got a refurb video ipod for $200. If my ipod didn't break, i wouldn't buy a new one. but since it did I got an upgrade & I'm really enjoying the video.

I tend to buy electronics cheap so I don't have to get upset when they break. i often buy an older model when the new modle comes out. i got a good deal on my first ipod because it was B&W when the color screens came out.

I'm kinda in the middle. It really depends on the product. If it's only a two year, where it will cover it for two years, including the one year manufacturer's, then I don't bother, but if it's two years on top of the one year, so three years total, and a good price, then I will. I used to work at The Source by Circuit City (KINDA like the american CC, but not quite) and we sold warranties on EVERYTHING. If I thought it was worth it, I told the customer, but if they came in to buy a usb cable, I'd still let them know it was available, but I'd be like "You dont' really need it" lol

On an iPod, I'd probably go for it, especially if you really LOVE your ipod. I didn't, because it was my first one and I wasn't sure if I was really going to like it, and at the time it was $50 to extend it to two years in total. But if you can find the "Apple Care" warranty, you buy it in a little box (at least here in Canada anyway) and it even covers the apple phone support, so you can call apple whenever you have a problem and talk to them for free (or pay by the call without it). Not 100% sure if this is still available as I worked at The Source about a year ago, but it was much better than the store-offered warranty, plus it was directly through Apple, no middle man

When it comes to other electronics though, ask about the details of the warranty and what it covers. On a laptop computer, we used to offer a free battery replacement when your battery began to die (which, in three years, if it hadn't died, you could still bring it in anyway) so that was huge seller because the warranty was $99 and you eventually got a $150 battery for it, but for a desktop computer it was MUCH harder to sell, and not really worth it. I was too honest to sell many warranties lol

I don't think I have ever bought the extended warranty for anything, even my ipod, maybe we should start...

hmmm i was just thinking aboutthis because i got a laptop two days ago but didnt get the warranty because it was so expensive and i didnt know what it covered...maybe i should look into what it covers and hopefully i can still buy it if its worthwhile...thank you for starting this post!

Ladies thank you so much for your replies! I guess DH is right in that I'm getting these warranties for nothing, especially when you consider that not one thing has happened to anything that I've bought that would require me using the warranty to get something repaired! When I think about how much $ I've spent in the past on ext warranty's, I could just cringe!

Oh well when I tell him how many of you agreed with him he's soooo gonna say "I told you so" LOL

I did just buy a laptop & got an extended warranty for that, just in case!!! It seemed like I really needed it since its something that I use all the time!

I also think I'll definitely get one for the new Ipod since those are really expensive to fix.