Just bought a new dishwasher and I was offered 3 year extended warranty (in addition to the 2 year manufacturer warranty) for an extra $119.
Dishwasher amount - $700
Model - Westinghouse
WWOBD? (What Would OzBargain Do)
Cheers
Do OzBargainers Opt in for Extended Warranty Plans for Electrical Appliance/White Goods?
bargainhunter87 on 02/05/2019 - 12:50
Last edited 02/05/2019 - 12:51
Last edited 02/05/2019 - 12:51
Poll Options
- 5Yes
- 129No
- 10Depends on the amount I paid
- 6Tony Abbott should never have been Prime Minister
Comments
Don't play the game, play the man.
Salespeople are obligated to advise customers of their ACL rights prior to offering extended warranties.
Really?
That has never happened to me once.
Of course not, they don't want to spoil their chances of flogging extended warranty and making extra $$$.
Extended Warranty is of much less use when Consumer Law covers reasonable time frames of normal use which is often more than the standard factory warranty.
Unfortunately most of the time for complaints within a “reasonable time” the consumer has to argue a lot with either the retailer or manufacturer before someone will actually resolve the issue, whereas with extended warranty, they’ll just take it straight away.
(Note: I have never gotten the extended warranty)
yes consumer need to argue as legal definition of "reasonable" is not layman's term of "reasonable" here.
Think how things have changed, TV no longer just contains CRT and few radio reception, it has control board, power circuit, firmwares and 100s if not 1000s of tiny parts. Higher price does not mean it would last longer (if thats the case $10k plasma would have lasted 100 yrs), yet consumer thinks it should why?and no, extended warranty does not mean it's hassle free either, many have fine prints, terms and conditions that can exclude claims. this is where the biggest issue comes from. A company provided service such as Apple care+ coves almost all conditions (even self claimed mistake/damage). Now if your kids throw a ball to your bland new LED TV?
Try to buy it with a credit card that provides you extended warranty
Thanks - don't keep my credit cards long enough.
Depends on what and which brand.
I got extended warranty on a Sony TV, was iffy about Sony LCDs at the time but it was cheap so took a punt but I bought extended 48 warranty. 3 months before that ran out the TV dies, and so did a friend's TV who bought the same model. He had to bin his, I got $1.5K back (TV cost me $1.6K).
I put that towards a QLED TV, which I bought a refurb and got extended warranty on that too. So if that dies, another subsidized upgrade.
Had a $1.6K TV died on me within 2 years, if I didn't get a repair or replacement, I would get a refund.
Should the retailer get a bit antzy, I would get a very public refund.
No, you are paying for rights that you already have and what's more those rights grant you a warranty for longer than three years …
Most extended warranties cover a period shorter than what you'd normally be able to argue under ACL. Complete waste of money. Know your rights.
Thanks
Only difference would be - Under ACL this often requires convincing to the salesman because your rights are implied under Statute. The store often says "no, we cannot help you because you are outside the warranty period" - which would then commence an argument about consumer rights. With extended warranty you have explicit rights and arguably more chance of recourse in case something was to go wrong.
Yeah a bit like having third party insurance only when hit by an uninsured driver - technically the at fault person should cough up but they could be a massive pain to wring any money out of which is where comprehensive comes in - peace of mind that they'll do the chasing and you'll get your car fixed.
I personally find it a lot more convenient to go to the manufacturer for fixes. Generally it’s quicker as the store would be a middle man otherwise, and also manufacturers I’ve found never put up a fight once you quote the magic words, “consumer law”.
Unless you have on the spot in-store replacement of defective goods - which they generally won’t offer for big ticket items anyway.
I would if it was ever really cheap, like I'd maybe pay $50 on top of the price of a dishwasher just to avoid having to argue statutory rights in the even that it breaks just outside warranty period, but $120 for a $700 item seems dodgy. Most appliances and electronics seem to either break in the first year, or last 10 years.
The only time I have ever gotten extended warranty (2 year extended product care) was when I was getting a pixel 3 (from the Optus plan), some screen protectors, a case, and wireless earphones from Harvey Norman.
They only charged me $9 for it though so why not considering how I spent over $300.
Not when buying for myself.
I'll get it when buying for someone else. Don't want to see it break down for them it would be just a hassele. And I don't know how frequently they'll use it.
I only buy extended warranty for Dash cams.
I get extended warranty only from the good guys.
as you receive $180 in credits so you can make the money back
OZB stand at the pearly gates and ask for bids before making a decision one way or the other as they say you go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company!
I have extended warranty on a Samsung fridge through Harvey Norman. Base of fridge lining has a huge crack in it and they are refusing to do anything about it, as they say that it doesn't affect the fridge. So no, I wouldn't be inclined to take extended warranty out again
An extended warranty is a complete rip off, of course there will be examples (As some of these answers suggest) where there was an exception.
There is only one reason for extended warranties and it is not for the consumer, it is additional (sometimes the only) profit for sellers, therefore they need to make more from offering the warranty than consumers are ever likely to claim and not just a little more but a lot more otherwise its not worth the training costs, marketing, offering sales incentives etc etc.
Anyone can pull up the one example (two if you are really unlucky) where you saved big by having it, it is not a fair and accurate record though, no different to the gambler who wins big and therefore continues to gamble….
I have never purchased an extended warranty and I have spent 100s of thousands (over my life) on appliances and gadgets, the number of times an extended warranty may (because there are many exceptions to their coverage) have helped me is less than 3, (smashed Apple Watch, bent iPhone and they got replaced free anyway).
Don’t get me started on Novated leases (for most people)!
Thanks mate. Appreciate the passion.
Most of these things are basically 3rd party insurance policies (sometimes owned by the store tangentially, yay hiding legal liability!) that you get store credit if the device fails within the insured period, or for items over a certain cost threshold they'll get quotes on fixing it & then it really sucks service wise as it takes forever - so it depends on the 3rd party mob & the price of the item.
Over a decade ago now, so hopefully things have changed for the better, I used to work at computer places that got the extended warranty work from Hardly Normal etc for brand name PC towers & laptops. It was a tedious process of quoting the 3rd party "warranty" cough insurer & waiting for them to decide to fix it or write it off, so they took a bajillion times longer than real manufacturer warranties, extended or otherwise, so pretty much every "extended warranty" customer was pissed off.
We tried to push the genuine Toshiba or Acer extended warranties on stuff we sold or stuff that came in under the initial 1yr manufacturers warranty (that's who the two mobs I'd worked for were warranty agents & resellers for) as they worked just like the initial 1yr factory warranty - just order the parts & then we get paid labour by the OEM & the customer gets their stuff back as fast as we can diagnose it, plus overnight express shipping, plus part fitting & testing - so like best case 48hrs, worst case double that if we got a DOA part or had a backlog of jobs etc - as opposed to the extended warranty/insurance that was always a month unless it was an obvious total write off, then it might have been "just" a week.
Mind you, I've had good luck with JB HiFi & The Good Guy's insurance type ones lately - but only for stuff under the repair threshold where they just give you your money back as store credit.
JB HiFi replaced two faulty pairs of BT NC headphones (JBL Everest Elite 700) just out of manufacturer warranty when I bought the originals on a 1/2 price email voucher ($400rrp, $200 + the warranty). First one they tracked down identical headphones at another store & straight swapped me, second gave me the $200 back as a gift voucher that I put towards QC35 IIs (cause they were out of stock of 1000-WH3s) - both times ring their warranty number, answer the basic questions, quick confirmation of fault in store, then I was looked after really well.
The most recent Good Guys one was for my Wife's phone, a Moto G4 Plus that from memory had its digitiser go funky mid way through the extended warranty period. We'd bought on a special & the original items were unoptainium apart from eBay or Kogan by then, so replaced it with a G5S Plus with another $50 to cover the price difference + the price of the new extended warranty.
The other Good Guys one was for an Electrolux sensor dryer that shit itself totally, we took the original cash back & upgraded to the same unit one weight class up (from 5kg to 6kg) & paid the difference - it was almost 5yrs old at that point, so we effectively paid like $100 for a new upgraded dryer after the old 5yo one died.
So yeah, when the stuff is out of production and you get your money back from buying really good specials it sucks a bit if the replacement newer model isn't on special and you need it right now, but overall better than a kick in the nuts.
Kinda ironic that it works much better for items under a grand and awful for items over a grand, in my experience anyway.
TL;DR - extended manufacturer genuine warranties are good, but harder to find/get.
Those 3rd party store based ones are often the devil, but can sometimes pretty good - have to do your research/read the fine print etc. Can even be hit and miss even with the same store eg: this store X across town is great & will hunt down the identical item in another store for you, but the same store X closer to home is shit & gives you store credit & goes the up-sell cause yours is discontinued etc.Most importantly - you have to think of them as very limited insurance policies & not as actual warranties, and then make your own judgement can on how viable they are for your needs.
Not affiliated with any of these mobs any more. As mentioned used to work for Toshiba & Acer warranty agents that sold to business/govt, not general consumer retail, but got general consumer warranty & non-warranty repairs.
I don't opt in for the extended warranty. Who knows how long Gerry will survive.
What I do is assess my purchase options with the duration of the manufacturer's warranty as one of the considerations.