Best Buy Extended Warranty - Good News/Bad News

7763 Views 10 Replies 11 Participants Last post by Andrew Pratt, Jun 27, 2007

Gordon Eastman

Discussion Starter · Jun 27, 2007

Good News:

My 32 month old first-gen 20" iMac G5 has been replaced with a new, current 20" Intel iMac under the No-Lemon term of the warranty.

Bad News:

Best Buy repair service is glacial. The first two repairs (failing fan, failed motherboard) were done by CompuSmart under the 1-year Apple warranty and took 5 days and 12 days. I considered 12 days slow until I got to the two repairs done by Best Buy. Their first repair (failed power supply) took 37 days, their second (another failed power supply) took 28 days. The local store could not provide any estimate of when either repair would be complete.

In the second case, it turns out the work was finished in Toronto on June 12 and it did not arrive back at the Ottawa store until June 24. During this interval I called the store and was told it would be back within 60 days of when I left it or I would get a replacement free. I asked if Best Buy considered anything under 60 days good service. I was told yes. I asked if he had said that with a straight face. Again, I was told yes.

Verdict:

Would I purchase a Best Buy plan again? Unlikely. While AppleCare does not have an explicit replacement policy, postings here and elsewhere suggest there is a reasonable chance that Apple would also have replaced my iMac under the same circumstances.

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guytoronto

· #2 · Jun 27, 2007

37 days? 28 days? 60 days?

Good lord, in computer terms, that's an eternity. I have issues when my Internet goes down for half a day. I can't imagine what I would do without my computer for a month.

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pollux

· #3 · Jun 27, 2007

I was pushed to get Best Buy's extended warranty every time I buy
electronic stuff from them. And their warranty service plans are very expensive.

At least the sales staff there aren't commission based so it's a lot easier to say 'no' to them.

I remember one time when I was at Future Shop to buy a $50 DVD player and I was pushed to get the extended warranty for $40. I had to shout at the sales person to stop him selling me the service plan. It was brutal. I don't really want to be rude but sometimes enough is enough.

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dona83

· #4 · Jun 27, 2007

guytoronto said:
I have issues when my Internet goes down for half a day. I can't imagine what I would do without my computer for a month.

You can get help for that I heard.

<Donald> I added crowd noises and goal horns to this game I videotaped!
<Veronica> You're young, of course you have time for these things.
<Mike> You need to get a life.
<Donald> I have an iLife.

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mclenaghan

· #5 · Jun 27, 2007

I had a similare experience with a big box store back in 1999 when I bought my G3 not knowing what I know now, I would buy the Apple care over anything else. Our CD drive was acting up and they wanted us to ship it or drive 2 hours to their repair place to have it looked at. I decided to live with it and it is still going 7 years later.

I think these box stores make some serious money on their extended warranties. My wife just went through about a 4 days with only one computer and she was getting very stressed. I don't think that 2 months would be very good service. Any Apple care repairs that we have dealt with motherboards etc. have been very fast and usually a number of days not weeks.

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messed_kid

· #6 · Jun 27, 2007

dona83 said:
You can get help for that I heard.

<Donald> I added crowd noises and goal horns to this game I videotaped!
<Veronica> You're young, of course you have time for these things.
<Mike> You need to get a life.
<Donald> I have an iLife.

Sure, you "CAN" get help...but why would you want to?

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Jestered

· #7 · Jun 27, 2007

My advice.... do not ever buy any warranty on your Apple products except through Apple. A few reasons:

1. If something happens during the initial year of Apple warranty... BB and the other places won't touch it. They will not touch it until the initial Apple warranty expires, because that is when their warranty actual begins.

2. Because of #1 above, if you have a support problem after 90 days of purchase, you cannot call Apple because you do not have phone support after 90 days and BB is not going to do anything either.

3. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, BB and the other stores do not always use Apple parts when doing repairs. I don't know where they get some of their parts, but not all of them are Apple parts. I am not talking about hard drives and stuff like that either. I know a person who had the lcd panel replaced in his Mac at BB and it was not an Apple part.

4. SLOW......... etc......

That is just my opinion.....

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dwp

· #8 · Jun 27, 2007

The big box stores make a killing with extended warranties because the extended warranty is their own. Let me explain...

If you buy a Sony TV from the Sony Store you may be offered an extended warranty. That extended warranty comes directly from Sony of Canada. It is offered by Sony Stores and smaller retail outlets like G & G, Star, etc.

Buy the same tv from Future Shop or Best Buy with an extended warranty and that warranty is covered by the store, not Sony.

In the first example if something should go wrong Sony will come to your house and fix it. In the second example someone will come to your house and maybe fix it or take it away to be repaired which can take a long time because they may not be properly trained to repair that model or they may not have the parts readily available.

The reason FS and BB are so forceful in their extended warranty sales is because the extended warranty is
a) pure profit,
b) makes up for the the deal you just squeezed out of them on the product purchase
c) and helps cover the cost of extended warranty repairs already completed on other customers' products.

Are extended warranties worth it?

Let's put it this way... if you need it you'll be glad you had it especially if the product was expensive.

In the case above of a $50 DVD player probably not, but with an expensive tv or computer especially a laptop it might be a worthwhile expenditure.

Extended warranties direct from the manufacturer are the best. Third party warranties are the worst.

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Macified

· #9 · Jun 27, 2007

I wouldn't classify the extended warranty as pure profit. BB and FS have service departments which have a portion of overhead costs, they have equipment and staff and the cost of handling defective goods.

I'm sure they make good money on the warranty sales but it isn't just profit. They are banking on a percentage of product being bad and more than covering potential losses. If a particular product is significantly outside of the accepted percentage of failure it is dumped or the manufacturer gets an earful.

I have done okay with extended warranties at BB and FS but I only buy them for certain types of products with the potential for failure. Handheld PDAs and the like. I have had quick turn around on repairs or even quicker replacements. The warranty makes sense in some cases.

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Heart

· #10 · Jun 27, 2007

Gordon Eastman said:
I asked if Best Buy considered anything under 60 days good service.
I was told yes.
I asked if he had said that with a straight face.
Again, I was told yes.

LOL

That's funny. I truly L O L when I read it. :clap:

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Andrew Pratt

· #11 · Jun 27, 2007

As a rule I decline all extended warranties except for Dell laptops where its virtually a must have. I haven't signed up for AppleCare for my MBP yet as I have the year to wait and since my credit card doubles the warranty I'd be paying a lot for what boils down to one extra year with AppleCare.

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