Insurance policy on 61" Samsung Rear DLP?

[trader]

I got myself talked into buying a 600 buck policy for four years (includes bulb replacement) on a $3300 Samsung 61 inch rear DLP. I can "return" the policy for 30 days. Anyone have an opinion on why I should keep it? Thanks a lot.

Trader

 

[Leprkon]

two bulb replacements would pay for that in a hurry. I'd stick with it.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Yes, two bulbs will pay for it and if you have any single other problems, that will likely pay for it as well.

I would make darn sure, that you get at least ONE bulb replacement prior to that warranty ending though. No comments on how you do that... but you'll figure it out.

3 years, 360 days into it... "Hey guys, my TVs bulb blew, give me a new one" Yup, if they are doing it for free than that's the call I would be making.

 

[rgriffin25]

Isn't it reasonable to assume the price for these exotic bulbs will drop after these sets become more common? Or do you think they will always stay around the $300 price range?

 

[BMXTRIX]

I think it is reasonable to expect prices to drop some. But, they are continuing to develop bulb technology, so the bulbs may not drop despite increases in sales as they want to make bulbs that are brighter and last longer. New technology costs $$$ so we pay for it.

I haven't seen much change in bulb pricing over the last 5 years despite a huge surge in LCD/DLP sales.

 

[trader]

Thanks

Thanks guys.

What bmxtrix was saying (wink wink) had occurred to me, but then what rgriffin had said also occurred to me. but the fact that i'll get at least one bulb change out of it, plus the coverage on anything else, seems to make it worthwhile.

Set looks great, just need more HD programming out here in Wilmington, NC. Anyone know if an upconverter would do much for me or should I just stick it out till more and more broadcasting becomes available?

 

[MDS]

Many people seem to rationalize that it is good to buy the extended warranty to cover bulbs, but doing so is really pre-paying for a bulb replacement. Would you rather pay $400 today so that you are covered 2 years from now when the bulb needs to be replaced or wait to pay for the new bulb when you actually need one. Only you can decide.

Now if the set ends up needing some other major repair after the mfg warranty expires, then the extended warranty would have been a good purchase. It's like insurance - if the set never has any problems, then the warranty was wasted money(except for the pre-payment of the bulb replacement). Most of the time electronics that are faulty or have inherent problems will fail within the mfg warranty period. An extended warranty may buy you some peace of mind, but in most cases it is a waste of money because you will never need to use it.

 

[sjdgpt]

Many people seem to rationalize that it is good to buy the extended warranty to cover bulbs, but doing so is really pre-paying for a bulb replacement. Would you rather pay $400 today so that you are covered 2 years from now when the bulb needs to be replaced or wait to pay for the new bulb when you actually need one. Only you can decide.

Now if the set ends up needing some other major repair after the mfg warranty expires, then the extended warranty would have been a good purchase. It's like insurance - if the set never has any problems, then the warranty was wasted money(except for the pre-payment of the bulb replacement). Most of the time electronics that are faulty or have inherent problems will fail within the mfg warranty period. An extended warranty may buy you some peace of mind, but in most cases it is a waste of money because you will never need to use it.

Agree

Remember, except for problems related to moving parts, mositure and heat (hence the problems with bulbs), most modern electronic equipment items if they will fail will do so within the first few days of life, and will typically be a DOA (dead on arrival) problem related to shipping damage or poor production QC.

The best extended warranties are free. The rest are just money for some salesman.

By the way, another way to calculate the benefit of the extended warranty is to determine the cost of a typical repair session. If you were to need the visit, what is the cost benefit? Spending $600 for an extended warranty if the typical repair session is $200 would require 4 repair sessions to be a benefit, 3 repair sessions would only be a break even. Me, personally, if my TV is having any repairs outside of the warranty period, I would be quickly looking for a new TV.

 

[woodman]

Let me begin by saying that I've logged more than 50 years of actually working on the insides of these beasts - so I have vastly more working knowledge of the issues at play here than your average "enthusiast/hobbyist".

Having said that, I have to vehemently disagree with those that proclaim extended warranty protection to be a waste of money. IMO, anyone buying a HDTV set of any sort, size, shape, or description - at any price level today
without buying all of the protection that he can get his mitts on would be playng a very foolhardy game. Of course he would most likely be basing his decision upon the "conventional wisdom" which states that most all service problems that show up in TV sets occur in the first days of operation, or at least during the mfgs. warranty period. Sad to say, this "conventional wisdom" is no longer true. But there are a number of other factors that have reared their ugly faces and changed the nature of television as we have known it. Let me elaborate.

1. With the advent of digital TV in general, and of "HighDefinitionTV" in particular, the complexity of the sets have virtually exploded exponentially. Along with this complexity, the possibilities for service problems increases right along with it.

2. At the very same time, economic pressures on the mfgs. keep pushing them to add more and more features, capabilities, etc. and at the same time reduce the pricing - forcing cost-cutting to be the "name of the game". So, even though the public (mistakenly) applauds the price reductions, it's not really in their best interests at all.

3. One of the cost-cutting areas to be particularly hard hit, is the technical support infrastructure, which has gone from trying their very best to help the service agencies with as much help as they can, to offering as litle help as they can get away with!

4. While all of this is going on, competent techs are rapidly vanishing from the scene as the "handwriting on the wall" proceeds to light up and blink - informing them that they're involved in a frustrating, low pay career that has no hope for future betterment!

5. Today's sophisticated TV sets are priced far cheaper than they have any right to be. It's a little known fact that consumer electronics products are one category that has consistently farted in the face of "inflation" - with prices continually going down while the prices of virtually everything else that we buy have been going up! With many companies cutting back on their warranties, buying additional protection is just good, common sense. It could be thought of as merely upping the "price of admission" somewhat closer to where it should be to begin with.

In my view, the mfgs. should offer the public a choice ... a lower priced line with less warranty protection, and a higher priced line with the sort of warranty protection that all of the company's products really should have going in.

Hear me now, and believe me later

 

[docferdie]

It's all about how you view the numbers. Insurance policies serve but one purpose to the seller and that is to make a profit--think about it BB, CC and every other retailer that sells service plans would go bankrupt it the claim rates on these polices were high.. At 18% of the purchase price it simply means that the insurer expects less than 1 in 5 people to actually file a claim for the full price of the product. If you can not live with those odds then by all means buy it. If you believe that the same product will likely be half the price in 2 years time thus increasing the relative cost of the insurance then don't get it.
For me a reasonable insurance cost would be 5 percent of the purchase price for a period of three years. This is strictly a personal opinion by the way.

 

[MDS]

Let me begin by saying that I've logged more than 50 years of actually working on the insides of these beasts - so I have vastly more working knowledge of the issues at play here than your average "enthusiast/hobbyist".

Nice to pat yourself on the back, but your post is your OPINION and has no basis in fact.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I'm normally not a big believer in extended warrantied- the figures show they're a huge profit item for retailers, and obviously they wouldn't be if the vendor had to service the items frequently. And any "warrenty" from Best Buy would be virtually worthless, as I've found when trying to get them to honor their agreement (BB is a rare combination of dishonesy and incompetence, IMOHO).

That said, I'd definately consider the $600/4 year deal a good one (provided it's not from BB). I use a DLP FPTV, and bulb replacement is a legitimate issue. They tend to blow at the least opportune time, almost like they're wired into your checking account, just waiting for it to drop to a certain threshold first! A $4000 tv is a pretty substantial investment, and God only knows what it might cost to fix it after the regular mfg'r warrant expires.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the bulbs to get cheaper, either. There's even a chance (albeit perhaps a small one) that in a few years, the bulb your set uses might not be available. In that case you might get a new set under warranty! This is very common with laptop computers; they can be expensive to fix, and it's not uncommon for the vendor to simply replace yours with a more current one under extended warrant.

It's true that a TV you pay $4k for today might cost $1k in 2 years, but I still think you're smart to CYA.

 

[sjdgpt]

1. With the advent of digital TV in general, and of "HighDefinitionTV" in particular, the complexity of the sets have virtually exploded exponentially. Along with this complexity, the possibilities for service problems increases right along with it.

2. At the very same time, economic pressures on the mfgs. keep pushing them to add more and more features, capabilities, etc. and at the same time reduce the pricing - forcing cost-cutting to be the "name of the game". So, even though the public (mistakenly) applauds the price reductions, it's not really in their best interests at all...........................Hear me now, and believe me later

I agree with your position regarding the complexity of HD TV's.

But....

I may be a typical hobbiest, but my background is also quite different. My family's company sells industrial equipment that include digital controllers. How would you like to spend 20% of your companies manufacturing equipment cost on one piece of equipment and have the sucker fail the day after the manufacturer's warranty has expired? That is an issue that I face each and every day, and we do not sell extended warranties. Our manufacturers face the same competitive issues, cutting corners, adding unproven components, poor QC, poor tech support etc.


Regarding digital equipment...

Experience has shown that MOST catastrophic failures come relatively quickly. The DOA item is the most common problem. DOA (dead on arrival or very shortly thereafter) can be a big problem. The next most common problem is the first units manufactured after the dreaded design change... I hate those. Poor QC shows up next, usually a loose wire, or flux on a circuit board, and those failures are usually quite quick, but can take several months to flair up.

Once you get past the early failures, long term failures usually are one of two types of failure.... a single chip or circuit fails, or there is a monster catastrophic failure, and those failures can be years or decades after being installed. And heat, moisture, dust and movement are the usual sources of problems. Repairs can be costly. But these days, we just swap out circuit boards for a nominal fee.


Every car I have owned has had the extended warranty. Heat, moisture, dust and movement are the enemy of the components in a car. Spending $672 (acutal cost) for an 5 year extended warranty on a $34,000 car can make sense, especially for somebody like me that drives the car until it drops dead in its tracks.

We have extended warranties on every computer in the business. Computers are critical to the business, and we are very abusive (dusty). The cost of the extended warranty is less than the cost of a single repair visit, and most computers have been repaired at least once, and most twice outside of the warranty period.


$600 for an extended warranty on a $4k TV?

Not in my book. If you get past the DOA problems, bulb failure is the only major cost to expect during the next few years.

 

[trader]

Thanks again

Thanks again to everyone who has weighed in. The set actually cost me 3300, from Circuit City (if that's relevant to anyone who might know how they respond to claims), thus making my % investment that much more if I stick with the policy.

 

[howie85]

My .02 worth. Keep the warranty. If you need it you will be thankful you have it. You will most likely get at least one bulb out of the deal. In 4 years you will probably never miss the money but if you need service you will definately miss the warranty. My reasons for this are I have a Sony40xbr800 which was their "top of the line" crt at the time and came with 2 years factory warrany. I am currently fighting with sony on a known problem with this tv that will not go away and stay away. If I could pay 600 for a warranty instead of 4-6k on a new television which would be a better deal?? Hope that helps. Curt