Extended warranties – an interesting concept.  It’s like buying insurance as it does offer peace of mind – however, it does have its premiums.  There are many extended warranties available and many electronics stores offer them.  With these warranties there are different levels of coverage with some covering even accidental types of damages like spills, drops, and more.  The question today is, would you buy and extended warranty?  Why or why not?  In my case, I would say it depends on the purchase and the exact wording of the warranty.  For those that offer a dollar for dollar value type, personally I feel that it does have its advantages if you use the product very heavily.  When it does break (ex. a hard drive), they’ll usually reimburse you for the price of the hard drive you paid minus the cost of the warranty.  In such cases, this is a win win situation as usually by the time it fails and falls outside of the manufacturer’s original warranty, for the same price you can get a new and better product.  It’s like leasing it for just the cost of the warranty.  For computers, however, it is an odd situation considering that most problems these days are caused by software which is not covered by a warranty.  So if you send that virus infested PC into a service department, chances are you will be charged the diagnostic fee and your problem will not be fixed under the warranty.  On the flip side, when and if a computer’s hardware does fail, for many, it would mean the death and replacement of the computer if they didn’t have a warranty as it would cost anywhere from  $160 to $410 to just fix and get the computer (desktop in this case) running again with it’s original OS and a backup of your files. For laptops, things get worse as all parts of a laptop are proprietary and usually flat rate fees apply that can cost anywhere from $400 to $600 to repair.  In short, warranties do have their uses and certainly they can and will benefit some people.  But before getting yourself into one, be sure to read ALL parts of the written contract for yourself so that you can make an informed choice.

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