A REPUTABLE repair guy said the TV was dropped by a forklift in the box based on the damage he saw…otherwise it would have busted open it was so bad. I sued Sharp had to send the TV back to them for a check for the full amount.

Even though this happened I do NOT buy warranties. Will be getting a Big Screen LCD TV from Sears this week and a printer and new laptop soon. The consumer advocate on Fox says they are a bad deal and they ARE.

I showed it to my wife & explained the concept to her & she was like, “Hmmm, that makes a ton of sense. Why doesn’t everybody do that?” And I was like… exactly! :-)

Good stuff!

Like someone else mentioned, I’m not sure that I would create an entirely separate account for this purpose, but I think it’s been mentioned here before that ING’s sub-accounts are fairly easy to create.

(Hope this isn’t considered spam.)

1) I have heard to many “fraud stories” regarding extended warranty.

2) Even with all the fraud the stores make a LOT of profit on extended warranties.

Thus, extended warranties are clearly not a good deal.

Additionally, the price of electronic items is constantly DECREASING, thus, you are buying a warranty based upon what you PAID but if your product breaks during the extended warranty period, the same product will be much less than what you originally paid. Thus, the cost to replace will probably not be much higher than the warranty amount and most likely, the product will not break.

Always self insure unless the cost of not insuring is very high. For example, get a high deductible on you car. Were I used to live (moved) the savings by going from a $500 deductible to a $1,000 deductible was over $200!!!!!!

I don’t buy expensive TV’s or stereos. My TV was $400 and I’ll take care of it, so on the off chance that it breaks I can afford to replace it. When it breaks I can take the opportunity to buy a better TV because the equivalent $400 TV will be much better by then.

Same thing with desktop computers. I am good at fixing computers so if something gets fried I can replace the individual component for a good price without much effort.

Laptops, on the other hand, you usually have to replace big expensive pieces when they break like the screen or motherboard. Laptops are also harder to take care of. They are lugged around in a backpack or briefcase, could be dropped, are more likely to get something spilled on them, have an expensive battery that wears out, have power cords that are often used and can break, etc. In this case there is a good chance that I’ll need a repair within a couple or three years and that the price will be close to the price of a new laptop (like say more than 50%). Therefore if I can get an all-inclusive service plan for 20% of the price of the laptop then that’s worth it to me.

Usually I don’t like the sales tactics. The salespeople pretty much say “This thing is going to break so you should get the plan.” Pretty lame sales job. If there is no chance that the thing will last then why do I buy it in the first place? Why don’t they just sell it for cheaper and say it will only last one year?