Service Plans - Plasma/LCD TV

[jekoda]

Just purchased a Pioneer PDP-5051HD (50 in) plasma and two Samsung LNR268W (26 in) LCD TV's from Best Buy. I also purchased a 4 year service plan for each unit ($1500 for all service plans).

My rational/justification for the service plans is to protect my investment (around $9,000) beyond the one year manufacturers warranty. Knowing the long-term durability of recent plasma and LCD technology is still somewhat unproven, I felt the service plan purchase was prudent.

What do you think?

 

[HookedOnSound]

Sounds to me you're not so sure about your decision about the service plans?

BTW, the service plans you have come to about 15% of your purchase, it's not the worst I've seen, some yrs ago, I saw some service plans as high as 20%-25% for consumer electronics/appliances, now that is pricey (IMHO)!

You're right, it is a serious investment (for alot of ppl), if it's worth piece of mind to you than I would say it's probably the best choice in your case.

Enjoy your system!

Just purchased a Pioneer PDP-5051HD (50 in) plasma and two Samsung LNR268W (26 in) LCD TV's from Best Buy. I also purchased a 4 year service plan for each unit ($1500 for all service plans).

My rational/justification for the service plans is to protect my investment (around $9,000) beyond the one year manufacturers warranty. Knowing the long-term durability of recent plasma and LCD technology is still somewhat unproven, I felt the service plan purchase was prudent.

What do you think?

 

[Duffinator]

My rational/justification for the service plans is to protect my investment (around $9,000) beyond the one year manufacturers warranty. Knowing the long-term durability of recent plasma and LCD technology is still somewhat unproven, I felt the service plan purchase was prudent.

What do you think?

Both technologies have been around for over 30 years. The only real issue, and I don't think it's much of one, is how long a plasma will last. That seems like a LOT of money to spend on warranties. I'm in the camp that you NEVER pay for an extended warranty beyond the manufacturers but that's just me.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Does that warranty include "burn in." I spoke to a manager at HHGregg today about the most recent plasmas, and he said they still suffer from burn in. That is absolutely unacceptable to me, at the prices they charge. I'm going LCD for now, but the darn technology is changing quicker than I can make up my mind. Good luck with your sets. At least you have peace of mind with your three sets. Look at it this way. You only live once, and you can't take your money with you.

 

[9f9c7z]

Duffinator is kind of inline with Consumer Reports. CR points out the cost of extended coverage is usually more than the cost of a repair, should a repair ever become necessary. An exception Consumer Reports makes is for plasma and LCD displays. CR recommends buying extended coverage beyond the factory warranty for those items.

Fwiw, most (if not all) extended coverage plans are actually insurance policies, and as such are regulated by your State’s office of insurance regulation, whatever it’s called. You should check with them (on line?). Often you can probably cancel your policy within a certain number of days (often 30-days) without penalty. Maybe you will want to, maybe you won’t.

I suggest shopping 3rd party companies online. You must buy the policy when there is at least 90-days of the original factory warranty still on your display. The extended coverage does not kick in until the factory warranty expires. $1500 seems too high for those policies. There are add’l policies available that cover the actual plasma/LCD panel itself (not the power supply, etc) against anything except malicious damage. Those are add-on policies for about 1/4 to 1/3 the price of the main policy.

Btw, the single biggest problem with plasma displays needing repair is with the power supply.

 

[MDS]

Duffinator is kind of inline with Consumer Reports. CR points out the cost of extended coverage is usually more than the cost of a repair, should a repair ever become necessary. An exception Consumer Reports makes is for plasma and LCD displays. CR recommends buying extended coverage beyond the factory warranty for those items.

That's the key for consideration of any type of insurance. What is the probability of needing a repair and if a repair is needed, how much will it cost relative to what you paid for the insurance.

Few, if any, of those policies cover the 'consumables' such as bulbs that definitely will need to be replaced. Don't listen to the salesman that says they do - you have to read the fine print and every one I've read says clearly that they DO NOT.

So they only cover major malfunctions. With most consumer electronics, if it is defective you will know sooner rather than later and it will be covered by the mfg warranty. If you get unlucky and do have a failure outside of warranty coverage and you did buy the extended coverage, then you have effectively 'prepaid' for your repair. If the malfunction occurs 3 years after you paid for the warranty, then you lost the use of the money you paid for the extended warranty for 3 years (You could have invested that cost for 3 years and been ahead of the game). If it never has a problem over the time that you own it, then the entire extended warranty cost is sunk - just like when you pay for car insurance each and every year and never have to make a claim.

So the bottom line is: Do I pay now to be covered for the low probability event that I may actually need repairs (and lose the whole cost if repairs are never needed) or do I forgo the extended warranty and pay out of my own pocket if repairs are ever needed?

My answer is skip the extended warranty, especially when they cost a huge percentage of the purchase price. They have a very low probability of paying off and from my perspective are truly a sunk cost that can never be recovered.

 

[jekoda]

Lots of great opinions . . . thanks for the replies. Most likely will cancel the plans and take my chances. Most importantly, if something "expensive" were to occur in a couple of years, then I'd have the option to repair or upgrade to the latest technology.

Thanks to all.