Sony extended contract or CC?

Andrew Boyer

I live very close to a Circuit City which carries my TV of choice (Sony Bravia KDL-40W3000). I have had good success with CC's new purchase support of LCDs in the past... but not with their extended support. Their 5 year contract is $400 where Sony offers one for $250. I am torn between spending $150 for the luxury of not having to worry about shipping an item and cutting costs wherever possible.

Does anyone have experience with one or the other that may influence a decision?? Thanks!

Andy

rhite04

I would tell cc that sony has extended support for 250 they may drop the price.

Scottnot

Dumb question - if you buy the Sony set, can't you then go directly to Sony and purchase their service contract??

cheezz

Yes you can....and a helluva lot cheaper too.

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Andrew Boyer

Thats a good idea...thx

Andrew Boyer

The real question is, is the Sony contract good or a pain to deal with compared to driving 5m to CC for service? $150 isnt that much compared to good/quick/easy service.

Scottnot

I would guess that the Sony is "in home" and they will send a service tech to your home.
Also would guess that if he can't fix it in your home, he gets to lug it away and return it.

Which then would be better would depend on the failure, availability of parts, time to repair, and a host of other unknowns.
I vote for saving a few $$ and going with the Sony warranty.

Potsyboy

I was wondering the same thing earlier today and get this:

As per a conversation I had they do offer "in-home" service just like GE or any other nationally know brand (last time I had an issue with my GE appliance they sent a Sears tech). What I asked and what they failed to metion is something surrounding the lemon law( all states are different) in NY 3 times of repair on the same item in on a new product usually a car and it must be replaced. Sony has the same warranty verbage accept it also states the same component however to to the complexity of the high-tech TV's if there is, e.g., an issue with cloudiness of the screen, 'know issue', they can (will?) try and fix several other components that may not be causing the problem all together b/c they much rather, I guess, come back again & again than replace the TV. Let's put it another way, if you blow a tranny ummm (rephrase), transmission in a new car it would be like replacing the radiator the first time, fuel lines the next, water pump the third...see where I'm going. So rather than having to replacing the cause of the problem like a car dealership, at least the ones me and my friends have gone to, would do they rather waste time trying to repair parts that won't solve the problem. I told this to the warranty guy at Sony and he said "yeah that's pretty much right" Are they kidding? I rather deal with people I can see, hear and hit, sorry I shouldn't say I would like to hear them that's a lie. Please call yourselves to see if I'm incorrect in my statements. I'd love to be wrong on this considering the lower cost of the warranty for Sony.
# is 866-374-0134. Hope I can post #'s here.

Good To Go KC

I am not a big fan of extended warranties; they are usually nothing but pure profit for the people you buy them from. Here is what Consumer Reports has to say about them:

This holiday season, shoppers are expected to spend over a billion dollars on extended warranties for laptops, flat-screen TVs, other electronics, and appliances. And almost all of it will be money down the drain.

Retailers are pushing hard to get you to buy extended warranties, or service plans, because they're cash cows. Stores keep 50 percent or more of what they charge for warranties. That's much more than they can make selling actual products. For the consumer, extended warranties are notoriously bad deals because:

• Some repairs are covered by the standard manufacturer warranty that comes with the product.
  
• Products seldom break within the extended-warranty window--after the standard warranty has expired but within the typical two to three years of purchase--our data show.
  
• When electronics and appliances do break, the repairs, on average, cost about the same as an extended warranty.

We have long advised against extended warranties. In fact, we feel so strongly that consumers are being misled about them that last year we took out a full-page ad in USA Today (see below) to warn shoppers.

In general, we have found extended warranties to be a bad deal for the customer. The most cautious consumers might want to consider an extended warranty for a repair-prone brand, provided that the warranty is both inexpensive and comprehensive and the cost of repairs tends to be high.

In years past, we’ve said that rear-projection microdisplay TVs might be one of those products for which a warranty is advisable, but even for these products, an extended warranty looks like a poor investment for most consumers, judging by new data. Even though these sets have been three times more likely to need repairs than other types of TVs, our data show that most rear-projection TVs have been trouble-free for their first few years. Most of those that did need repairs were covered by a standard warranty. That suggests there’s less than a 1-in-10 chance you’ll have to pay for a repair on a new projection set. If you do have to pay for a repair, the experience of consumers responding to our survey suggests it won’t cost much more than a warranty would. Respondents who paid for any repairs out of pocket spent about $300 on average.

If you insist, consider an extended warranty on a rear-projection TV if:

• You buy a TV from a more repair-prone brand because it is very low-priced. (Brand repair history data on some leading brands is available to ConsumerReports.org subscribers.)
  
• You’ll use the TV for 5,000 hours (the claimed life of many bulbs) within the time covered by an extended warranty, and the warranty covers bulb replacement.
  
• The warranty costs no more than $200 to $300, the cost of most bulbs.

There’s mounting evidence that flat-panel LCD and plasma TVs have been highly reliable products requiring few repairs during their first three years of use. The overall repair rate for the 10 brands covered in our survey was 3 percent, with little difference between LCD and plasma sets. (Brand repair history data is available to ConsumerReports.org subscribers.) Even if your LCD or plasma set does need to be repaired, it will probably cost you less than you're likely to pay for an extended warranty.

Of the small percentage of sets with problems, most repairs were free, presumably because they were covered by the standard manufacturer’s warranty. The few respondents who paid out of pocket for repairs spent an average of $264 on LCD sets and $395 on plasma.

Given the pricey repairs for these TVs, you may want to buy an extended warranty, especially for a microdisplay rear-projection model. It should cost no more than 20 percent of the purchase price.

An extended warranty for a plasma set costs $300 to $1,000 depending of the cost of the TV and the length of the warranty. But Consumer Reports suggests that buying one may be prudent. After the manufacturer’s usual one-year warranty runs out, a service center will charge several hundred to several thousand dollars for repairs.

Before saying yes to any extended warranty, Consumer Reports recommends checking to see whether the credit card used for purchase provides similar coverage. Typically found with gold and platinum cards, these plans can extend the original warranty by up to one year. MasterCard holders can check the fine print for the words “extended warranty,” and Visa calls its program Warranty Manager Service.