Should You Buy Extended Warranty Insurance?
April 15th, 2009
Often, people ask about the extended warranty for their products. All manufacturers’ products will come with 1 or 2 year parts and labour warranty. This factory warranty tends to run out very quickly and we hear regularly that appliances have died or started to fail in some way just after the manufacturers warranty finishes.
Occasionally, you hear rumours that manufacturers design their machines to break right after the warranty period so that the customers need to replace them more quickly. I am not so sure about that because if I had a machine from brand A which broke right after the warranty period, I know I wouldn’t be buying another brand A machine to replace it. This would not be smart business and is not the case however there are plenty of times that this does occur and can be very frustrating as a customer.
Consider the amount your new machine has cost you to purchase. At today’s price for a service call, most company’s charge $110.00 call out fee and $35.00 for every 15 minutes taken to repair your machine plus the cost of the parts. Keeping in mind that in many cases they do not have the parts to repair the machine on the first call out.
Let’s take the average front load washer. Up to $1000 in value, the price for the extended warranty is about $109.00. This covers you for an extra 3 years on all parts and labour on top of the factory warranty (if 2 years) giving you a full 5 year warranty.
Buying an extended warranty is basically taking out a small insurance plan on your washing machine. You know that after you have paid for a new machine, you won’t have to put any money towards it for at least the next 5 years. The only reason I wouldn’t recommend an extended warranty is if you were not planning to own it for the next 4 or 5 years.
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