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Warranties – Boon or Bane?

Warranties sound so good. You buy a product and if it ever breaks, they fix it. But do they? Is your product warranty worth the extra money you paid for it?

Computer warranties Vs. Appliance Warranties Vs. Auto Warranties – these are all different in the sense of the cost of repairing a failure, and how much of an outage can be tolerated. My experience with warranties lately has been most frustrating. Then again I am sure you all have at least one warranty horror story to tell.

Computer warranties are not very cost effective. In my case since I fix computers I never buy them. Computers are generally quite reliable, but there are bad models of PCs and bad components (both lemons so to speak). Every manufacturer can go through a bad patch. Most PC parts can be replaced. However, laptops have many special components that you can only get from the manufacturer. In that case you are a manufacturer captive and it is cheaper to buy a new PC than to pay the outrageous price for the repair part from the manufacturer.

When you contact the manufacturer for warranty service, you often go through a diagnostic procedure that is a written script followed by an entry level technician (a geek but never a knowledgeable nerd) on the other end of the phone. This easily results in mis-diagnosis of the problem. When the manufacturer is faced with repairing your PC, the goal is to return you a PC that is in the operating state in which it was when it left the factory. If you have important data on the PC, that is toast. Viruses, Internet connectivity issues, and operator errors are not covered. So to me these extended warranties are no bargain.

Appliance warranties seem like a better deal. Well they may be and may not be. I bought a dishwasher from the local S-store made by the M-manufacturer. Bad model, bad components, bad warranty. The dishwasher failed. The controls refused to function. Scheduled a repair which had the technician arrive in two weeks. The technician said two parts were needed and ordered them. When the parts came in we were supposed to call and reschedule the technician to complete the repairs. One part came with in two weeks, one was back ordered with no definite time of delivery. This is now our fourth week. So we request repair service and two weeks later the technician arrives and installs the only part we have. The dishwasher starts working. The missing part arrives two weeks later with the dishwasher still working. Soon it quits again, and service is requested only to be scheduled in two weeks. This tale of woe is ongoing.

BG&E and GE warranties are much better. They have more prompt service – several days but not two weeks. Also a failure like my present failure in a GE supported appliance resulted in them buying a new appliance. Appliance warranties for some appliances are essential because of the cost of replacement or repair. But you want a company that is prompt and has the replacement parts readily available.

Auto warranties are also essential especially with todays high tech hybrid and exotic (BMW, Mercedes, Cadillac, Saab, Volvo, and more) cars. Repair parts for them are so expensive that extended warranties are worth the money. My Cadillac lasted until the warranty expired and a $2,400 transmission repair was needed. This resulted in new high mileage Saturn.


Link to FTC Warranties

P. D. Moulton and Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server computer support, and virus & spyware removal. Dial-A-Nerd repairs PC (s), computers, networks, removes viruses & spyware and upgrades slow computers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. DialANerd provides immediate remote access as well as fixed price computer repair, network repair, virus & spyware removal services at its local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair shop. Repair completion is typically 24-hours to 48-hours. Dial A Nerd recovers hard disk data and saves your data. Each hard disk is tested for errors for free. Dial A Nerd makes a fixed disk image, recovers and saves your data for about a 90% of the desktop computer, laptop computer, and netbook PC (s) serviced. Dial A Nerd, a local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) repair business provides fast PC repair, computer repair, desktop computer repair, laptop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, and virus & spyware removal services with a warranty. Dial A Nerd works on many PCs including Sony computers, Gateway computers, Hewlett Packard computers, Compaq computers, Toshiba computers, Emachines computers, Clone PCs, and Dell computers in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD). The Dial A Nerd mission is delivering the best quality, affordable cost effective PC repair, computer repair, laptop computer repair, desktop computer repair, Wi-Fi network and wired LAN network configuration & repair, Windows XP repair, Windows Vista repair, Windows 7 repair, network server support, virus & spyware removal, home PC repair, printer configuration, PC - desktop computer - laptop computer - netbook computer performance optimization & speed up service. Homes and small businesses with limited IT service and IT support budgets in the local Columbia, Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland(MD) hire Dial A Nerd.


© 2000-2013 P. D. Moulton
DialANerd
7146 Rivers Edge Road Columbia, MD 21044 US
Phone: 410-531-5890 Website: dialanerd.com