Best Buy Warrenties
 

I have just purchased a The Sony Home Theater Model#HD-5100D
My question is DO you think I need to purchase the extended warrnty fo this. It's 100.00 for 4 years. Is it worth it? Does ?anyone out there know of any problems with this particular model?
Thanks

What was the cost of the home theater system.

My advice would be no. If something does not fail quickly odds are that it will not. Also, you may want to change/upgrade the equipment sooner than four years.

It cost 700 plus tax... So your saying that if it has any problems it will usually occur right away. Have you heard of any problems with that model?

No I have not.

Generally speaking any piece of electronic equipment that does not fail within a short period of time should last a long while.

...not to mention that if an individual component goes out (sub, satellite speaker, amplifier) you can replace with a superior device for not much more than the price of the extended service contract.

These contracts are big profit centers for retailers. Basically, they say to themselves, "well, models similar to unit #___ on average require $23.59 in repairs when we looked at 5,000 units in service over 5 years. So, if we charge people $100 for the service contract we will make money over the long run."

These contracts work like insurance policies for your equipment. Unless the equipment is very expensive to repair you should generally not buy such a policy - the odds are against you.

The only time I feel such a contract is a good idea is with expensive loudspeakers and you will be driving them very hard. This way, if you blow a driver you will be taken care of.

Thanks for the reply Gomez-You really shed some light on this subject.
You are correct for the cost of the warrenty I could just upgrade the component that is damaged.

Well, allow me to retort :D
While I'm not going to try and defend Best Buy in their shameless attempts to sell you extended warranties on <i>everything</i> (I saw them try to sell one to a guy buying a $10 Walkman lol), I will say that I did it, and it was money well spent.
I bought my current RPTV there a few years back, and bought the ex warranty which was like $200+ (it was a $2000 TV).
While having the set serviced to have the guns aligned, the repair shop scratched the exterior of the cabinet all over the place and the screen actually had dirt on it when it came back. (not to mention they didn't fix the problem)
I took the set back to Best Buy and walked out with a brand new set within an hour.
So while the item in question may not fail or break down, you are covered if it is damaged while being serviced by an authorized tech (at least it was in my case).
Just my .02.

I hope you found a new service tech:)

Well, that's one of the hazards of country living. There was only one Toshiba authorized repair center in town, and it was some one-man operation that didn't work on RPTVs. I go to the next closest authorized repair center, and they work on RPTVs...but they don't do in-home repairs (or in my case calibration). It was a fiasco from the get-go, when the 'crew' that arrived to pick up my set was one guy and a truck (to load up a tv that was 300+ plus) and he didn't appear to have a clue as to what I was talking about. *sigh*
Anyway, I did find an ISF certified tech within an hour of me, but haven't used him yet as a new widescreen set is on the horizon and I'd hate to dump the money into a set I'm selling.

I would only get the extended warranty on big ticket items such as a RPTV. Usually if electronics do not fail within the first couple months, they will last as long as you want them to or they become obsolete.

It cracked me up the other day at Best Buy though when some clueless soccer mom was buying a calculator for her kid. She held up the line buying the extended warranty for about 8 bucks on a 15 dollar calculator. Of course she then had to pay with a check book holding up the line even longer. I swear women are the only ones who still use check books to make purchases.

J

I would only buy ext. warranties for the "big ticket" items. It's been my experience that electronics will usually fail sooner than later. I had a cc employee try to sell me a $200 ext. warranty on a $350 vcr one time.....i told him i'd use the $200 to buy a new vcr if that one broke down.

I personally buy the extended warranty on anything over $500. just to play it safe. It has paid off on my $1500 computer (went bad after a year and they replaced it without thinking about it) my $700 digital camera (LCD went bad and they replaced the camera with no hassles) I didn't buy the extended warranty for most of my home theater equipment (even though everything I have is Sony and is also more than 2 years old and I have had no problems) I recently upgraded to a new receiver and I only had to pay 49 dolars on a 600 dollar reciever, which IMHO is worth it.

You're also covered if purchased with certain credit cards, though the plans may not be as long.

the service plan is only 34.99 for receivers at best buy so i did get one for my $250 receiver. i'll probably never use it, but for 34 bucks why not?