dave@infopro.UUCP (David Fiedler) (04/30/84)
<chomp!>
I finally got a VCR and the salesman was telling me all kinds of
horror stories about how often they have to be fixed, aligned, cleaned,
etc. He talked me into buying an Extended Service Agreement under which
they will clean it and fix everything that goes wrong, even provide a
loaner, for $130 for 2 years. On reflection I was wondering whether this
was worth it, compared to the possibility of a huge repair bill over a
similar period. So, netlanders, what is your experience with this stuff?
Do these things break a lot or what? I can still get my $$ back if necessary.
If brand is important it's a Fisher FVH-530. Please reply to the net, I am
sure the results will be interesting to others. Thanks in advance...
--
"That's the biz, sweetheart..."
Dave Fiedler
{harpo,astrovax,philabs}!infopro!davelute@abnjh.UUCP (J. Collymore) (04/30/84)
I was also given the sales pitch about an extended warranty for my VCR (a GE 4-head that I bought in January). I turned it down. The primary scare tactic they used on me was head cleaning costs. I posted queries to net.video and the concensus was that you don't have to clean the heads every 40 hours of play (as the salesman probably told you). You have them cleaned when you have a NEED to have them cleaned (i.e. when there is NOTICEABLE degradation in picture quality). Therefore, I felt why should I get the extended warranty (knock on wood)? Since there IS a 90-day warranty, I did take one precaution against early parts failure, I used it A LOT for the first 60 days. If anything was going to go wrong, I wanted it to happen during the warranty period, and I wanted to know what the VCR's weaknesses might be. So far everything seems fine. (Knock on wood, again.) Jim Collymore
werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (05/01/84)
<Lauren reported this bug fixed - well, it was a GOOD bug ...> I had VCR's since '77, Sony Beta and now Panasonic VHS - never had a problem. get your money back is my advice, unless you have a brand and model which is having lots of problems - in which case you should return the machine also and get a reliable one ... and talk to the store owner/manager and ask why he is selling such 'unreliable' merchandise .... and take your business elsewhere ..... I smell a rat .... werner @ ut-ngp
barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Barry Gold) (05/01/84)
We've owned an RCA piano key VCR for five years now. We've needed
"repairs" twice to replace a light bulb without which the thing won't work.
The first such repair cost $90. Then we located a place that charged
less per hour--and was willing to charge by the quarter hour instead of
in hour quanta. I think they charged $30-40 to change the lightbulb (that's
including $10 for the silly light bulb). We get the thing overhauled once
a year on general principles (cleaned, belts and other replaceable parts
replaced) for about $45. Depending on what's covered, a service contract
for the first two years for $120 I think you said is probably a reasonable
piece of insurance.
--
Barry Gold/Lee Gold
usenet: {decvax!allegra|ihnp4}!sdcrdcf!ucla-s!lcc!barry
Arpanet: barry@BNLfish@ihu1g.UUCP (Bob Fishell) (05/02/84)
My experience has been that extended warranties on consumer
electronics are a ripoff. First of all, most electronic
components will fail within the normal warranty period, if
they are not to last the normal long lifespan of semiconductor
devices. Secondly, the likelihood that you will need enough
service on the device within its extended warranty period
to make up for the cost of the warranty is very low. What
will probably happen is the unit will not fail at all during
the coverage period, and you're out the bucks.
My ideas on insurance -- that's basically what it is -- are that
if you don't HAVE to have it, don't get it It's a gamble, and in
this case, the odds are definitely with the house.
--
Bob Fishell
ihnp4!ihu1g!fishrhaynes@sunfun.DEC (Rae Haynes) (05/02/84)
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Personally, we've never had a lick of trouble with our GE VCR. But my mother has a Fisher VCR, and it has spent a good deal of time at the shop being repaired, and re-repaired, etc. She has spent well over $130 fixing her VCR. I would that $130 is a reasonable price to pay for this type of "insurance policy". Rae Haynes ....!decwrl!rhea!sunfun!rhaynes
holzwort@ittral.UUCP (Paul Holzworth) (05/03/84)
I have always enjoyed doing the following when someon tries to sell me an extended warranty. Ask the salesperson why you should buy something from him if it is obviously such a piece of junk that you need an extended warranty. They usually come back with the response that if it should break then you won't have to shell out big bucks. You can then ask them if they are willing out of the goodness of their hearts to lose money on the service contract since the odds are obviously very high that they are going to have to pay out a lot of money to get it fixed for you. They usually give up. Reliability studies indicate that there are two major failure periods in the life of a product. There is a time right after a unit is produced that it dies due to defects in manufacturing or materials. (This is the thing that 90 day warranties take care of. Then there is a time at which the product just plain wears out. In between these times the incidence of failures is much, much lower. So if you are buying a product from a reputable manufacturer it almost never pays to buy an extended warranty. (If it did, why would they be so interested in selling you one.)