BestBuy vs. Circuit City

Does anybody have real life experience using BestBuy or Circuit City extended warranties? I am about to buy a digital camera from one and am wondering which warranty plan is more comprehensive and customer oriented.

Thanks in advance!--Patrick Lacson
http://lacson.org

My advise is not to buy the store's extened warranty. It's nothing but a profit cow for them. The cameras come with a warranty from the manufacturer.

Regards,

Dan

Patrick Lacson said:

Does anybody have real life experience using BestBuy or Circuit
City extended warranties? I am about to buy a digital camera from
one and am wondering which warranty plan is more comprehensive and
customer oriented.

Thanks in advance!
--
Patrick Lacson
http://lacson.org

Click to expand...

I've purchased exactly one extended warrenty in my life and it was at Circuit City for a window air conditioner. It quit after almost 3 years of heavy use so I was going to trash it, when I accidently stumbled across the forgotten warrenty. On the warrenty's LAST day, I took it in and they took full charge, with no questions asked. They repaired it, but would have replaced it if it had not been economically feasible. I was pretty happy.

Good luck. Bill--Oly C-2100 UZ, C-210

Patrick Lacson said:

Does anybody have real life experience using BestBuy or Circuit
City extended warranties? I am about to buy a digital camera from
one and am wondering which warranty plan is more comprehensive and
customer oriented.

Thanks in advance!
--
Patrick Lacson
http://lacson.org

Click to expand...

Use a credit card that doubles the mfg warranty. Both my AMEX and VISA do that. My general experience with Circuit City is excellant--RonA

RonA said:

Patrick Lacson said:

Does anybody have real life experience using BestBuy or Circuit
City extended warranties? I am about to buy a digital camera from
one and am wondering which warranty plan is more comprehensive and
customer oriented.

Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I bought a computer from CC 3 yrs ago and their 4yr warrant, recently the motherboard went out I called the warranty number they put me in touch with their local service company and they replaced it within a week. So far the cost of the warranty vs the motherboard was about a wash. But i still have a year left, I think it was a good decision to get the warrany, it does give a certain bit of piece of mind.
--Opie

Patrick Lacson said:

Does anybody have real life experience using BestBuy or Circuit
City extended warranties? I am about to buy a digital camera from
one and am wondering which warranty plan is more comprehensive and
customer oriented.

Thanks in advance!
--
Patrick Lacson
http://lacson.org

Click to expand...

Although the clerks are dumb, they do sell good stuff. I believe that some of these clowns, that have problems with these stores, are problem customers to begin with. You know the type, returning things until they field test every model. It's no wonder they have restocking fees.
--SPUDDon't bend over in the garden Granny. Remember them taters have eyes.

RonA said:

Use a credit card that doubles the mfg warranty. Both my AMEX and
VISA do that. My general experience with Circuit City is excellant

Click to expand...

First off I am expectionally pleased with American Express Card Services. Though Last time I checked they do not double the warranty. They will not extend most warranties more than one year.(so it is the lesser of double base warranty or one year more) SO it could be a doubling in some cases.

Now I do not have every Visa card, but they tend to offer the same one year extension.(requires normally a gold or platinum card) Normally though I still prefer to make all important purchases with Amex I just enjoy dealing with them compared to most other Merchant Banks/credit card firms.

Patrick Lacson said:

Does anybody have real life experience using BestBuy or Circuit
City extended warranties? I am about to buy a digital camera from
one and am wondering which warranty plan is more comprehensive and
customer oriented.

Thanks in advance!
--
Patrick Lacson
http://lacson.org

Click to expand...

I recently bought an extended warranty on a digital camer from Circuit City. It is backed by GE (General Electric), which given Circuit City's financial situation a few years ago, made me feel a little better.

I don't know about Best Buy's but I do know about Circuit City's.

Being that you don't mention which camerayour going to buy,
lets look at it this way.

With camera models being discontinued faster than Carl Lewis
running the 100m dash an extende warranty could pay-off big
time for you.

Why?

Simple, if Circuit City can't repair it they will replace with the same or a better camera. Lets say 2 years from now you have to use the warranty and they can't fix it they will replace it with another camera. The odds are your camera will not still be manufactured by the company. So you'll get another camera for free.

CompUSA's extended warranty works the same way.
I bought a laptop and it cost too much to be repaired so I got
a brand new laptop instead. What I was able to do was use the credit
and apply it to a more powerful laptop.

I walked out with a heck of a machine for $800 out of pocket but
I could have easily walked out with a new machine for FREE.
I just wanted a better one so I apid for it.

jb

Patrick Lacson said:

Does anybody have real life experience using BestBuy or Circuit
City extended warranties? I am about to buy a digital camera from
one and am wondering which warranty plan is more comprehensive and
customer oriented.

Thanks in advance!
--
Patrick Lacson
http://lacson.org

Click to expand...

Patrick,

Most consumer groups advise against buying the extended warranty. When I worked in a similiar retail enviroment in my former life, it was almost more important to sell an extended warranty than the product! They are a big profit item for both the store and the salesman.

When we sold microwave ovens, we sold an extended warranty on the "Magnatron Tube" and used phrases like "It's the most expensive part in the oven" and "It's the 'heart' of the microwave." Both true, but I susspect we also forgot to say that the timer was the mostly likely thing to break first and the warranty did not cover that!

From recent visits to both stores in my area, I get the impression that the Best Buy salespeople are not on commission while the Circuit City guys are. That's not a big deal, but it might color the advise you get from the CC salespeople.

Best bet is to get a copy of each extended warranty and sit down and read them in their entirety. (Won't that be a fun evening!) Don't go on the verbal committments made by the salesperson. Is there a cost difference between them? What do they cover? What don't they cover.

If you think it's a good value and will provide you with 'Peace of Mind' then add it to the bill. If you think your camera will get by on it's own warranty then put the money towards an accessory.

Good luck.

Paul

I once bought a store warantee on a cd player after the salesman dropped its price to near nothing; but the store closed up before the manufacturer's warantee ran out, so shame on me.
I wouldn't say that either of those 2 chains are very stable in my area.

Patrick Lacson said:

Does anybody have real life experience using BestBuy or Circuit
City extended warranties? I am about to buy a digital camera from
one and am wondering which warranty plan is more comprehensive and
customer oriented.

Thanks in advance!
--
Patrick Lacson
http://lacson.org

Click to expand...

Much luck to you if you get the extended warranty. I purchased two warranties at Fry's Electronics for laptop computers. All I needed was a rubber gromet that came loose and a button that fell off. I returned two different times for each of the items and everything seemed to fall under "normal wear and tear". Needless to say I was pretty upset that I paid a few hundred dollars for the warranty and they didn't have the courtesy to replace 25 cents worth of plastic!

From then on I refused to purchase extended warranties anywhere!

If you do choose to purchase the warranty though, I'd read the fine print well. Unfortunately, most of the time the document is written in legal mumbo-jumbo the sales person doesn't even understand...

Good luck!

Patrick Lacson said:

Does anybody have real life experience using BestBuy or Circuit
City extended warranties? I am about to buy a digital camera from
one and am wondering which warranty plan is more comprehensive and
customer oriented.

Thanks in advance!
--
Patrick Lacson
http://lacson.org

Click to expand...

--Funky Fat Rat

My only experience is with a computer at Best Buy. They couldn't fix it so I got a free upgrade to anothetr machine, I was blown away. CC is probably the same.

I usually don't spend the money on the store warranties because it is cash cow for them. I think they make more on the warranties than the products they sell. Most of the stuff is priced as throwaway anyway. You have to try and decide what the risk of failure after the manufacturers warranty is and the real cost to repair or replace. Computers are high risk. TVs probably are not. VCRs are throw away. I think cameras will fail in the original warranty period or not before you replace them anyway.

Good Guessing!
Gary M

Gary Marsh said:

My only experience is with a computer at Best Buy. They couldn't
fix it so I got a free upgrade to anothetr machine, I was blown
away. CC is probably the same.

I usually don't spend the money on the store warranties because it
is cash cow for them. I think they make more on the warranties than
the products they sell. Most of the stuff is priced as throwaway
anyway. You have to try and decide what the risk of failure after
the manufacturers warranty is and the real cost to repair or
replace. Computers are high risk. TVs probably are not. VCRs are
throw away. I think cameras will fail in the original warranty
period or not before you replace them anyway.

Click to expand...

Nowadays VCRs are cheap enough they might be considered throwaways, however unlike TVs, they have plenty of moving parts, and therefore subject to break down. Before Lechmere's went under, our VCRs had extended warranties from them, and we used it several times to get the VCR repaired. Similarly for computer equipment, I've probably had 5 disks replaced under the normal 5 year warranty for scsi drives, and 4 DAT tape drives.

My rule of thumb is stuff that is subject to physical movement and is fairly expensive, I will consider the extended warranty on. However, on the one digicam I bought, I did not get the extended warranty.

My personal experience is that circuit city tried to put the wood to me every chance they got. Their salespeople are a bunch of blood-suckers who are driven by thier commision.

I have had nothing but satisfying experiences at best buy. I bought a ton of stuff there. Their salespeople also do their best to scare the $hit out of you so you will buy the long warranty.

Allow me to tell the truth about all this:

I am employed as an eletronic technician in the service dept of a large medical equipment manufacturer. We are held to a very, very high quality standard.

Things do break, but the failures are classified in different ways. Here is some data:

OBF, (ut-of-box-failure) is the most common.
Failure within first 30 days is next
Failure within warranty period (one year) but after initial 30 days: seldom

Truth is, if a product perfprms without failure for the first month you are almost guaranteed to have a product that will not fail for a long, long time.

This is accepted as gospel by the manufacturers. The distributors know this. They make a TON of money on the extended warranty. I would hazard a guess and say that they keep over 95% of the money they collect.

Moral: the factory warranty is more than enough. If something breaks it usually happens quickly. I have never, ever went for the extended warranty, and I have yet to pay for it. I aint scared.

--rich'We learn by doing' - James T. Kirk http://www.pbase.com/iceninevt

iceninevt said:

Truth is, if a product perfprms without failure for the first month
you are almost guaranteed to have a product that will not fail for
a long, long time.

Click to expand...

True enough for electronic gear that does not have heat or other environmental problems. However, I would argue that mechanical things do break down with use (VCRs for example). Again, I'm not saying blindly go for the extended warranty, but it becomes more of a cost/benefit calculation. For example, if you were to routinely take your camera into places where it is likely to get knocked around, rained upon, etc. and you were able to get a no questions asked warranty (ie, none of this normal use only) from an outfit likely to remain solvent, an extended warranty might be useful.

Evil Eggplant said:

This is accepted as gospel by the manufacturers. The distributors
know this. They make a TON of money on the extended warranty. I
would hazard a guess and say that they keep over 95% of the money
they collect.

Click to expand...

I do agree that in general you don't want to go with the standard extended warranty, as it is a cash cow for the store.

Evil Eggplant said:

Moral: the factory warranty is more than enough. If something
breaks it usually happens quickly. I have never, ever went for the
extended warranty, and I have yet to pay for it. I aint scared.

Click to expand...

This assumes something breaks due to being improperly made. I am arguing that it could break due to wearing out. Now, in the world of computers and cameras, things change from year to year, that companies would like us to be on an infinite upgrade cycle.

If I had followed this advice, I would have been out not only a $1000 camera, but also a $2000 camera.

My $50 extended warranty saved both purchases and made my transactions worry free.

The first camera died within days of the Mfg's warrany expiring. Having the extended allowed me to return to the store for resolution.

I counter that with a item such as a digital camera, an extended warranty is a must have purchase.

Dan USA said:

My advise is not to buy the store's extened warranty. It's nothing
but a profit cow for them. The cameras come with a warranty from
the manufacturer.

Regards,

Dan

Click to expand...

--TonyK

Michael Meissner said:

iceninevt said:

Truth is, if a product perfprms without failure for the first month
you are almost guaranteed to have a product that will not fail for
a long, long time.

Click to expand...

True enough for electronic gear that does not have heat or other
environmental problems. However, I would argue that mechanical
things do break down with use (VCRs for example). Again, I'm not
saying blindly go for the extended warranty, but it becomes more of
a cost/benefit calculation. For example, if you were to routinely
take your camera into places where it is likely to get knocked
around, rained upon, etc. and you were able to get a no questions
asked warranty (ie, none of this normal use only) from an outfit
likely to remain solvent, an extended warranty might be useful.

Michael Meissner said:

This is accepted as gospel by the manufacturers. The distributors
know this. They make a TON of money on the extended warranty. I
would hazard a guess and say that they keep over 95% of the money
they collect.

Click to expand...

I do agree that in general you don't want to go with the standard
extended warranty, as it is a cash cow for the store.

Michael Meissner said:

Moral: the factory warranty is more than enough. If something
breaks it usually happens quickly. I have never, ever went for the
extended warranty, and I have yet to pay for it. I aint scared.

Click to expand...

This assumes something breaks due to being improperly made. I am
arguing that it could break due to wearing out. Now, in the world
of computers and cameras, things change from year to year, that
companies would like us to be on an infinite upgrade cycle.

Click to expand...

I don't know about other manufacturers but Olympus has a two year extended warrenty, that can be purchased, at a number of different sites. I purchased mine thru ecost, for approx. $62. Well worth worth the cost.--3020.2100Victor T

Some aspects of warranties are the same, no matter what type of product you might be buying. What you generally should ask yourself is, "If it breaks, can I afford to replace it?"

Some of the previous posts in this thread have discussed the possibilities of various types of products failing. You don't have to make this analysys, as the warranty company has already done it for you. You can be assured that the company offering the warranty has researched a great deal of data regarding the liklihood of having to pay claims under the warranty. After determining the expected cost of claims for a particular warranty, they price the warranty at that expected per warranty claim cost, plus the commission to the seller or their agent, plus their other costs of providing the warranty, plus their desired profit. Therefore, the warranty will always cost more than the average product owners likely repair cost.

In buying a warranty, you are making a bet. If your product performs on average or better than others of its ilk, you lose. If it performs worse than average, you may win. When making this bet, however, remember that just like betting at a casino, the odds always favor the house, because they get to set those odds.

So do you want to be the house or the bettor? If you can afford to replace the camera, if it breaks, don't buy the warranty. This way you are the house, and the odds are in your favor. If it would be financially difficult for you to replace the camera if it breaks, accept that the odds are against you, but purchase the warranty (assuming of course that the warranty price is not unreasonable).

I also cannot help but wonder, however, that if one is not a professional photographer, should that person be buying a camera that is beyond his financial ability to replace? Just more grist for the mill.

Victor T said:

Michael Meissner said:

iceninevt said:

Truth is, if a product perfprms without failure for the first month
you are almost guaranteed to have a product that will not fail for
a long, long time.

Click to expand...

True enough for electronic gear that does not have heat or other
environmental problems. However, I would argue that mechanical
things do break down with use (VCRs for example). Again, I'm not
saying blindly go for the extended warranty, but it becomes more of
a cost/benefit calculation. For example, if you were to routinely
take your camera into places where it is likely to get knocked
around, rained upon, etc. and you were able to get a no questions
asked warranty (ie, none of this normal use only) from an outfit
likely to remain solvent, an extended warranty might be useful.

Victor T said:

This is accepted as gospel by the manufacturers. The distributors
know this. They make a TON of money on the extended warranty. I
would hazard a guess and say that they keep over 95% of the money
they collect.

Click to expand...

I do agree that in general you don't want to go with the standard
extended warranty, as it is a cash cow for the store.

Victor T said:

Moral: the factory warranty is more than enough. If something
breaks it usually happens quickly. I have never, ever went for the
extended warranty, and I have yet to pay for it. I aint scared.

Click to expand...

This assumes something breaks due to being improperly made. I am
arguing that it could break due to wearing out. Now, in the world
of computers and cameras, things change from year to year, that
companies would like us to be on an infinite upgrade cycle.

Click to expand...

I don't know about other manufacturers but Olympus has a two year
extended warrenty, that can be purchased, at a number of different
sites. I purchased mine thru ecost, for approx. $62. Well worth
worth the cost.
--
3020.2100
Victor T

Click to expand...

Hello Victor,

Sales clerks are salespeople that earn their salary via. sales commissions. I know a young fella that worked at the Wiz. One half of the price of a extended guarantee that he sold went towards his salary. ( ex. A three year extended guarantee on a newly purchased camcorder costs $200.00,
$100.00 of which went Tony's salary ).

Most ( Not all, but most ) salespeople don't know much more about the product you're looking at than you do. They learn to say what they thing you want to hear so they can make a sale ! Of course there are exceptions...But most just want to makes sales. Try testing 3 stores your self....Each time lean towards a different model camera, and listen to the results!

Every once in a while I'll hear a story about how a extended guarantee saved the day, but you can't count how many people never used theirs'. When you buy one of these, you're betting that your item breaks, and the store is betting that it doesn't. If it breaks , you win , and they have to pay. How do insurance companies operate ....the same way. They are the richest companies in the world....Why ?....Because they are playing with the odds....House always wins....Just look at Casino's....A multi billion dollar industry....House always wins....I knew a used car dealer that sold a 1 year extended plan on vehicles that he sold. Cost was $500.00 per car. The first year he had pay for 1 engine, and 2 transmissions. However, because he sold over 160 of his plans, It turned into a money maker ! He did so good with them that the second year he dropped the price $75.00 to sell more of them!

Maybe I'm not the norm, but I have not purchased 1 item yet that malfunctioned after the manufacturers warranty ran out....Excluding items like my 12 year old dishwasher, or 15 year old TV.
Good Luck!.... Ron