Extended warranties on big ticket items? Hell yes, and it has paid off for me.

Dolemite censored

Dolemite censored

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Bought a 75 inch Samsung HD TV in March 2021. In June 2022, after the manufacturer's 1 year warranty expired, the fucking thing went south with vertical lines in the picture that couldn't be adjusted or removed. But, I purchased it at Costco and leveraged the concierge warranty and exchanged that Samsung piece of shit for a 75 inch Sony. Took about a month and several emails, but it worked out. No more Samsung crap for me.

Bought a Bosch Dishwasher from Lowes in April 2022 that was highly recommended Best Buy in Consumer reports. Purchased a $69 3-year extended warranty for it. In June 2023, the Bosch flashed error messages and stopped running. Called in the warranty, but they were unable to find a service repair contractor in my area, so thy sent me $762 to get a new dishwasher. Good stuff. I contacted a local appliance repairman who came out and diagnosed that there was a clog in the drainage and the machine automatically stopped so that there would be no flooding. He bypassed the clog and placed the drainage valve through the garbage disposal, and the machine has worked perfectly ever since. The repair cost me $175. So that $762 check minus cost of repair and cost of extended warranty still left me ahead by $518. Quirky note: WA state does not want you routing dishwasher drainage through your garbage disposal, but plumbers and service people here regularly ignore that. The original installers ran the drainage through a simple outlet that was unable to be cleared since it was about 1/2 inch thick and ran down at a right angle from the machine.

I think that since all major appliances/electronics are made in China it makes sense to get an extended warranty/service contract, since the Chinese are not known to have good quality control.

For other less expensive items, not so much.

Opinions?
 
huskers1217 said:
no home warranty?
Click to expand...

Builder's warranty expired. The place is only 4 years old. And I paid for 2 complete inspections, one upon buying, and one before the expiration of the Builder's warranty (@Peter Gozintite would approve). I'll buy a repair warranty if I stay much longer.
 
Dolemite censored said:
Good stuff. I contacted a local appliance repairman who came out and diagnosed that there was a clog in the drainage and the machine automatically stopped so that there would be no flooding. He bypassed the clog and placed the drainage valve through the garbage disposal, and the machine has worked perfectly ever since. The repair cost me $175. So that $762 check minus cost of repair and cost of extended warranty still left me ahead by $518. Quirky note: WA state does not want you routing dishwasher drainage through your garbage disposal, but plumbers and service people here regularly ignore that. The original installers ran the drainage through a simple outlet that was unable to be cleared since it was about 1/2 inch thick and ran down at a right angle from the machine.

I think that since all major appliances/electronics are made in China it makes sense to get an extended warranty/service contract, since the Chinese are not known to have good quality control.

For other less expensive items, not so much.

Opinions?
Click to expand...


So the dishwasher was fine?
 
Dolemite censored said:
Bought a 75 inch Samsung HD TV in March 2021. In June 2022, after the manufacturer's 1 year warranty expired, the fucking thing went south with vertical lines in the picture that couldn't be adjusted or removed. But, I purchased it at Costco and leveraged the concierge warranty and exchanged that Samsung piece of shit for a 75 inch Sony. Took about a month and several emails, but it worked out. No more Samsung crap for me.

Bought a Bosch Dishwasher from Lowes in April 2022 that was highly recommended Best Buy in Consumer reports. Purchased a $69 3-year extended warranty for it. In June 2023, the Bosch flashed error messages and stopped running. Called in the warranty, but they were unable to find a service repair contractor in my area, so thy sent me $762 to get a new dishwasher. Good stuff. I contacted a local appliance repairman who came out and diagnosed that there was a clog in the drainage and the machine automatically stopped so that there would be no flooding. He bypassed the clog and placed the drainage valve through the garbage disposal, and the machine has worked perfectly ever since. The repair cost me $175. So that $762 check minus cost of repair and cost of extended warranty still left me ahead by $518. Quirky note: WA state does not want you routing dishwasher drainage through your garbage disposal, but plumbers and service people here regularly ignore that. The original installers ran the drainage through a simple outlet that was unable to be cleared since it was about 1/2 inch thick and ran down at a right angle from the machine.

I think that since all major appliances/electronics are made in China it makes sense to get an extended warranty/service contract, since the Chinese are not known to have good quality control.

For other less expensive items, not so much.

Opinions?
Click to expand...
Most CC's double the manufacturers warranty without any additional action. I had a TV replaced by that.
 
dikowt dowg said:
So the dishwasher was fine?
Click to expand...
ha, yeah my takeaway from this is that Bosch (good brand, BTW) didn't know what their own error codes meant. That should have been a relatively common one.
 
fordman84 said:
ha, yeah my takeaway from this is that Bosch (good brand, BTW) didn't know what their own error codes meant. That should have been a relatively common one.
Click to expand...

I was wondering that myself.
 
fordman84 said:
Those are the biggest rip off in the history of man. Never buy a home warranty. I've only ever had one after buying a house since the seller almost always throws one in for a year.
Click to expand...
I had one when I bought my current house. The microwave, which is built into the wall, stopped working. I called the home warranty and they refused coverage because the microwave wasn’t built in. I said, it’s literally built into the wall. I know, sir, but it isn’t built in built in, it’s just built in.

Excuse me?
 
williewilliejuan said:
I had one when I bought my current house. The microwave, which is built into the wall, stopped working. I called the home warranty and they refused coverage because the microwave wasn’t built in. I said, it’s literally built into the wall. I know, sir, but it isn’t built in built in, it’s just built in.

Excuse me?
Click to expand...
Our last house had two A/C units that were like 15 years old. Compressor went out, called warranty. They sent a guy with a magnet sign on his truck (red flag) who told me the compressor needs to be replaced and they would cover it after my $50 service fee and the coils need to be cleaned for $150 plus the install kit isn't included (power harness) which is $150 and the EPA haul away is another $100.

I told them I would pay for the coil clean and inspect it before they left, I would supply my own power harness, and leave the compressor I'd handle it. "No sir, can't do that as the EPA won't allow it". Showed him my EPA refrigerant license and explained I have done A/C repair and where my dad worked. Suddenly all I had to pay was the cleaning and service fee call. When he was done I told him we needed to go check the cleaning. I informed him that the contract for the cleaning stated it would be chemical cleaned and fins would be repaired. So I made him get his fin tool out, which he didn't have on him so I loaned him one I still had, and stood over him like a fucking grade school teacher while he combed out all four sides. Took him about an hour and I stood there the entire time. All he had done was run a hose over the coils like a lazy fuck.

Never again. The common homeowner would have ended paying nearly $500 for a compressor on top of their warranty cost. And he didn't even do a good job.
 
Dolemite censored said:
Bought a 75 inch Samsung HD TV in March 2021. In June 2022, after the manufacturer's 1 year warranty expired, the fucking thing went south with vertical lines in the picture that couldn't be adjusted or removed. But, I purchased it at Costco and leveraged the concierge warranty and exchanged that Samsung piece of shit for a 75 inch Sony. Took about a month and several emails, but it worked out. No more Samsung crap for me.

Bought a Bosch Dishwasher from Lowes in April 2022 that was highly recommended Best Buy in Consumer reports. Purchased a $69 3-year extended warranty for it. In June 2023, the Bosch flashed error messages and stopped running. Called in the warranty, but they were unable to find a service repair contractor in my area, so thy sent me $762 to get a new dishwasher. Good stuff. I contacted a local appliance repairman who came out and diagnosed that there was a clog in the drainage and the machine automatically stopped so that there would be no flooding. He bypassed the clog and placed the drainage valve through the garbage disposal, and the machine has worked perfectly ever since. The repair cost me $175. So that $762 check minus cost of repair and cost of extended warranty still left me ahead by $518. Quirky note: WA state does not want you routing dishwasher drainage through your garbage disposal, but plumbers and service people here regularly ignore that. The original installers ran the drainage through a simple outlet that was unable to be cleared since it was about 1/2 inch thick and ran down at a right angle from the machine.

I think that since all major appliances/electronics are made in China it makes sense to get an extended warranty/service contract, since the Chinese are not known to have good quality control.

For other less expensive items, not so much.

Opinions?
Click to expand...
I don't generally buy extended warranties and have never been burned by that. I have two Samsung Smart TV's that operate flawlessly. In general, it's the hardware that fails and if it's going to do that, it usually does it during the warranty period. There are exceptions of course. BTW, Bosch is a great brand.

The biggest rip off is computer warranties. There's an old adage, hardware always blames the software and software always blames the hardware. When I bought my last desktop from Dell a year ago, they tried hard to sell me the extended warranty. I quietly told them that if the hardware was going to fail, it would likely so so during the warranty period, AND if I so much as loaded any software programs that weren't pre-loaded by the manufacturer, Dell would simply blame rogue software for any performance problem.
 
fordman84 said:
ha, yeah my takeaway from this is that Bosch (good brand, BTW) didn't know what their own error codes meant. That should have been a relatively common one.
Click to expand...

It wasn't Bosch - their warranty expired. It was the extended warranty vendor.
 
The extended warranty on my big Sammy includes picking it up and taking it off the wall and putting it back up. Peace of mind. Too big for me to do alone.

And the warranty I purchased for Panzerwagon (even though it was used) was for 4 years. I haven't had to use it yet, had a smallish item I paid for out of pocket. That was because if I don't use it, it gets re-upped for another 4 years. And I plan to retire in 2 years (70 because working from home is so smooth) so having that full warranty with no deductible is appealing.
 
Bosch is a great brand. The dishwasher acted as designed. The extended warranty people didn't have anyone available to diagnose/fix the condition, so they sent me a check for a replacement.
 
Dolemite censored said:
It wasn't Bosch - their warranty expired. It was the extended warranty vendor.
Click to expand...
Oh, yeah they are going to be idiots. Could you not still call Bosch for customer support without a warranty in place?
 
Kind of along these lines, my parents have an LG washer and dryer. The washing machine was acting up a couple of years ago so my dad installed their customer service app. No shit you could activate the app and then turn on the washing machine and it can trouble shoot it just from the sound. The app popped up a code which was some sort of hard water filter in the line and directions to pop it out and clean it, put it back in and it worked.

No clue if it is listening to the clicks and whatever or if there was some sort of code transmitting outside of our auditory range. Either way it was impressive when he told me about it.
 
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