Extended Warranty for a laptop? Yes/No?

[Pieceofsand]

Basically I'm looking at purchasing a new laptop for around $700, maybe $750 with tax. It comes with a one year warranty. My question is should I get the extended 2 year warranty for additional $80? Or the extended 3 year warranty for $100?

This is going to be my first laptop. I will take very good care of it of course, but that doesn't mean I can promise that nothing will happen to my laptop.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Rugger]

No. A laptop should be expected to last 3 years and they generally do.

 

[Shoe City Thinker]

Either you buy a enterprise-grade laptop that doesn't fall apart or you buy an extended warranty. Consumer-grade laptops are so cheaply made, you either expect to keep it for a year or buy the extended warranty.

 

[dragon8]

No. Computers are generally outdated within 3 years.

 

[mm84321]

Save a couple more hundred bucks and get a mac.

 

[Godot]

The laptop is covered for the first year. By the end of the first year, your laptop will begin to be outdated and it's 2nd hand. It's value will have dropped dropped from $700 to say $300. Does it make sense to insure something worth $300 for $80? It's a really bad bet for the consumer, but a money maker for the PC company. That's why they push it.
By the end of the 3rd year, there will be so many bells and whistles on the new models, yours is going to seem like a dinosaur and will have a value of $100 if that.

Good news that if the current trends in cell phones-calculators-and computers continues, in 3 years, new laptops will be better and dirt cheap.

Example: my first calculator was the size of 1/2 a brick and wholesale cost me $60. Today they are the size of a playing card and are given away at trade shows or you can pick one up at a dollar store.

I'd pass on the extended warranty.

 

[Harold falcon]

No.

If you're buying from a place like Best Buy then the answer is Hell No! Extended warranties on consumer electronics are a notorious rip off there.

http://consumerist.com/2008/03/leaks...re-a-myth.html

http://consumerist.com/2009/07/watch...arranties.html

 

[imschatz]

Originally Posted by dragon8

No. Computers are generally outdated within 3 years.
Yes, but 95% of major hardware issues on laptops are so expensive to fix after 3 years, most "extended warranty" options will give you a new laptop. I say yes, but don't get it through a retailer's warranty (ie: Best Buy's warranty is garbage). Go with the manufacturer's extended warranty options. I haven't sold laptops in 3-4 years, but when I did .. HP and Dell both had really awesome warranty options. That even included physical damage. They also had various price options, so if you didn't want to spend $500 on the best warranty, they had something cheaper that still covered you for 3+ years .. which typically doesn't exist through your retailers. As for desktops .. **** no, don't get the warranty. Same goes for printers. Generally, laptop warranties aren't that bad of an investment. Especially if don't take extremely good care of the thing. From personal experience: I worked at best buy when I bought a Toshiba laptop, had it for almost 2 years. Screen hinge's crapped out, so I sent it in under the warranty I bought (which is half price for employee's). 2 weeks later, they gave me a $1200 in-store gift card because they couldn't fix my laptop. So I got a new HP. *** not to mention, anything that "moves" on a laptop typically has a 90 day warranty. Charger, hinge's, keyboard, trackpad, harddrive, etc.

 

[Mr. White]

Wow! For some reason, your laptop BIOS died during flashing. Guess it was a power failure or something. Good thing it happened two months before the stock warranty expired. But then, the cat and the keyboard had problems too, so it's a good thing you're sending it in for replacement. Right?