quote:

Originally posted by FiveFiveSixFan:
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I've never been tempted by extended warranties for vehicles, appliances or even other electronic items like TV's, etc. but I'm wondering if having 24/7 access to OS and software issue support might make it worthwhile.

I did that with Dell. I’ve used it maybe 5 times for when something happened to the OS. I’ve also sent it back twice for hardware problems. The last time was I think I damaged the screen wiping it down with too wet a rag.

I know 2 people who got more than their money's worth with extended warranties:

1. friend bought a used Charger about 10 years ago and got the extended warranty for $1,200. Being a Dodge, she got many times the cost of that warranty for repairs.

2. friend bought a treadmill from Sears and bought the extended warranty for $120. My assumption is most people who get a treadmill didn't use it as much or as hard as he did. Burned out 3 motors, they sent a tech out each time to replace the motor before they replaced the treadmill the fourth time out. He might still have that thing.

In general I never buy them. But I generally buy good quality things. The only thing that would have helped was maybe one 40" HDTV that had a panel issue when it was between 4 and 5 years old. If I had bought a 5 year warranty it might have helped. But by then a new 40" was not much more expensive than than the deductible on a warranty.

For cars, the only extended warranty I would consider is a factory extended warranty directly from the factory. 3rd party that dealers push are worthless. Most extended factory warranties allow you to elect to buy them anytime in the normal warranty period, so it's best to see how the car does first, and if it has issues then buy the warranty close to the end of the normal warranty, if it's trouble free, then you probably won't need it.

If you look at the cost of buying warranties for everything, and the number of times you actually use them, you are WAY WAY ahead to never buy them and then deal with the occasional out of pocket repair.

I ended up getting AppleCare with the new laptop. They had a $100 off promotion when purchased with the new machine so that helped. The fact that the laptop uses a relatively new chip figured into my decision as well.

Thanks for the replies.

I figure if they are willing to take the risk, and don't have the control over the way it's used/abused like I do, then I can take the risk and save the money.
So far I've had about 15+ years of using Apple phones (4) and Ipads (2) and never had a failure that they would have covered and have now far exceeded the savings to pay for a new one.

I get it for the bigger ticket items like MBPs.