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Originally Posted by DoubleF
Most electronics extended warranties not provided by the manufacturer are junk IMO. Things like PSPs or in store warranty often suck. The only two places that seem not to give you the run around for these things is Costco, London Drugs and Staples. Applecare is also good, but I consider that manufacturer warranty. Everywhere else, it's not worth the hassle IMO. I think I recall chatting with Bestbuy and Futureshop employees back in the day, that they said if you bring in a laptop for any reason, it supposedly uses up your PSP/extended warranty. So if you have two issues, you're SOL on the second one. They suggested that if it's a small issue, fix it yourself so you don't use up the store warranty. I don't know how much of this was true or boldly lie to make the store warranty seem worth it (since they get commissions on tacking those things on IIRC).
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It could have changed, but back in my day, early 90's. Career wise you went nowhere if you didn't sell warranty. You couldn't get into training programs unless at least 8% of your sales had grease (warranty). It was also really tough to make good money.
For example, if I sold a Super P1 $2000.00 computer which had 20% margin. I would make $40.00 in commissions (2000.00x20% = $400.00 then 10% commission. Now lets say that I sold the $500.00 3 year CSP. It basically had 0 costs, and I made I think about 20% of that, so I would make $100.00 on warranty and $40.00 on the hardware. Plus, I've sold 25% CSP basically for that day.
The difference between a good day and a really good day was the warranty that you sold.
Personally, I hated selling it, but sold it anyways, because I wanted to be promoted, wanted to make more money, plus I liked beating all of the other people that I worked with.
I remember, when I went to Winnipeg to help them out, and they wanted me because I usually ran 20% warranty. So I got off the plane and went to the store, and being Future Shop, the manager put a CSP challenge out for the day.
So I was tired, and hung over, so I approached a customer who was looking at a $2000.00 laser printer, and I convinced him to buy the $1000.00 I think 5 year warranty, so I basically had a 33% warranty. I had also in the span of 10 minutes made $300.00 on the printer because the profit margin was ludicris, and there was a $200.00 spiff on the printer, and I made $200.00 on the warranty. So because I wanted to win, I spent the rest of the day hanging out in the paper section selling $2.00 packages of paper.
There was no limit in the amount of usage, however, when we did the replacement, they had to get the warranty on the new replacement product, but that was easy because it usually cost them nothing on replacement.
So why did I hate selling warranty. Because while there was some value at the time on big screen TV's which were hugely expensive and failed constantly, and computers before they became disposabile.
But we had to really work the client over, if we didn't sell it we had to get the manager to come over and approve the non sale of warranty and he would second approach the client.
You're career path would also end if you couldn't climb past that 8% warrant. You could sell a ton of stuff, but you would always be on the floor if you didn't sell the grease.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DoubleF
Consider also checking to see if your credit card used to purchase the laptop (if one was used) has a warranty extension thing. I found out the other day my VISA can essentially add a year to the basic warranty, not that I've ever needed it.
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Yeah, its an extension on the manufactures warranty which covers things like defects in manufacture. Usually if your product survives the first 30 days, you will never use the manufactures warranty. In the extended part of a manufactures warranty, 90% of the time it won't be covered because it won't be a defect.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DoubleF
(EDIT: Never mind, you have to call in before any work begins on the item).
If you know the exact issue, then bring that info with you when you go to Visions and get them to: 1. Prove this isn't the issue. 2. Document the actual issue that violates the extended warranty as to why they cannot honor the warranty (ie: water damage whatever). Going forward, suggest extended warranty not be purchased unless it is known honoring the warranty won't be a big issue.
Consider also involving intel in the process if you hit a road block. Say it's this intel you've found and the store you bought it from refuses to honor warranty. (I think many extended warranties don't cover defect.) See if you can squeeze something out of intel or get intel to help out?
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Extended warranties do and don't exceed the manufacturers warranty.
Usually with a manufacturers warranty there is no exchange, its fix only, and with a lot of technology stuff, its a send in and wait two weeks. With an extended warranty they usually have a replacement program if it can't be fixed in a reasonable period of time.
The manufacturer's warranty will cover you for defect, bad manufacturing/ bad product. An extended warranty will cover whatever they want it to cover. When you buy an extended warranty its crucial that you see what is and isn't covered in writing or you open your self to a good swift screwing.