product service plans

[beerbandit]

i just bought a digital camera yesterday at best buy and was offered a 4yr plan for $60, the camera was on sale for $250 ---- i was told that that the plan covers everything, even if i step on the camera

ive nevr bought any of these policies for any of my electronis --- pretty much all remain at home, ill will be taking this around with me and it is pretty small


mainly curious if anyone has any expirience with using one of these plans --- is it difficult to get results, also if my camera quits working in 3yrs its most unlikely that the same product still exists so what do you think would happen

also im getting a $50 rebate so its only going to cost me about $200


cheers

[Dynasty]

[BusterStacks]

if it was circuit city or best buy, do NOT buy the plan. It only covers defects and totally sucks. Those plans are 60% profit for the store.

[Cubswin]

obviously, they dont sell these service plans because they are -EV for them. unless you are going to be especially rough on the camera pass on it... youll prolly want a new camera in 2 years anyways. plus, cameras will continue to get cheaper with better features...

cubs

[ThaSaltCracka]

basically if something is gonna go wrong with it, it will happen early while it is still under the manufacturers warranty. I wouldn't buy one in this case. Although I did buy one when I bought my laptop, but that laptop cost me $1300.

[Redmen62]

Typical margin on these plans is 55-75%. Major -EV for the consumer. I worked at Future Shop (Canadian, Best-Buy owned and operated) for a Christmas season, and of the 40 hour training process, around half was devoted to selling these things.

[cbfair]

I bought one when I got my first ipod about 3 years ago; it was a 20gb model and I was told the plan would cover anything at all, even if I stepped on it or words to that effect. The best part of the plan is that it covered the original retail price meaning that if anything went wrong, I could bring it back and have $400 to spend on a new ipod. Well, about a year later, they introduced the 40gb model with a whole new design and it retailed for... you guessed it, $400.

So what do you think I did?

I did what any rational, sane consumer would do. I placed my ipod into a glass of water and left it there for several hours. When I took it into the store for a replacement, it still had water behind the LCD and the guys who worked there were all passing it around saying they'd never seen anything like it. I told them my cat pushed it off the counter into her water dish and left the store with a brand new, upgraded ipod.

Naturally I paid $25 for another replacement plan and its a good thing I did cause about a year later the hard drive failed and I had to get the thing replaced with... you guessed it, another redesigned ipod. The store no longer does their own insurance on ipods and I had to go with an AppleCare agreement through the manufacturer. Probably -EV this time.

If the program will provide store credit for the original price and cover any damage whatsoever, I think they are seriously +EV. But you've got to be willing to put the hammer down when the time comes to upgrade or else they aren't worth it.