Wednesday, February 14, 2007

#11 High Tech Warranties

So your high tech gadget broke. Just stopped working. As you look around for your invoice and owner info, you get this sinking feeling. Didn't I just buy that...um ooops 1 year ago? Yes, when you find all the paper work, chances are, the gadget is over one year old and out of warranty.

My philosophy on warranties is if it isn't easily fixed, get the extended warranty. Desktop PCs can be fixed pretty easily so a 1 year warranty is usually fine. Monitors come with 3 year warranties (at least the ones PCSS Sells!) so that's another non starter. Laptops on the other hand are expensive and hard to fix. I always up the warranty from the standard 1 year to 3 years. I buy a new laptop every 3 years and I've only had one laptop to not need the warranty service. Buyer beware!

I usually sign up for 2 years of cell phone service and that generally includes 2 years of maintenance on the cell phone. Though lately cell phone providers don't warranty the batteries on Cell Phones (see my Battery blog for why). My Palm Pilots last till I lose them, but they only have 1 year warranty and I haven't found any extension available.

Printers are big source of maintenance problems. Lots of moving parts, rollers, guides, ink, toner issues. Cheap inkjet printers come with 90 day warranties, the better ones 1 year. HP will sell extended warranties for LaserJet printers and multifunction machines. If you depend on your printer an extended warranty may make sense.

Toodles...

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