A little humor is always a good thing. Gene Weingarten offers a little in his weekly "Below the Beltway" column today. Though it's focused on having to use a laundromat while his washing machine broke down, he makes a useful serious point too:
Extended Warranties.
Nearly every consumer advice column and magazine will tell you, "DON'T take the extended warranty." (There are one or two exceptions, like for laptop computers, where they'll sometimes suggest you take one.) By and large, though, they are traps for the unwary, and pure profit for the companies that sell them. Odds are you'll never need repairs on most products; if you do, they'll be in the early life of the product; and if they come later, the cost of your repairs will often be less than the accrued cost of the warranty. These are the facts.
Gene points out another useful lesson in his column, though:
We had been rendered temporarily insane, having been without a home washing machine for two months and three days, trapped in the Catch-22 of having an "extended warranty." This meant that after the old washing machine broke, we couldn't buy a new one until we'd given the company essentially unlimited opportunities to repair the original. They kept sending over the same mechanic, who would arrive each time with a different part and a can-do attitude, only to emerge from the basement 40 minutes later, stammering and weasel-eyed. He'd never come right out and say he'd failed, but I'd know it, because he always began, "Okay, here's where we're at. ..."
Yes, a second drawback of the extended warranty is that the company will do almost anything to avoid honoring it. (Sort of like some insurance companies with their health policies.) And as Weingarten's experience shows, that can lead to serious frustration and cost you time and money.
When I encounter a salesman pushing an extended warranty too avidly, I ask if the product is so poorly made that I'll need that extra guarantee. They seldom want to say "yes" to that. Let's hope there won't come a time when they start to make the products that poorly, just in order to peddle the profitable warranties!