Best buy has a decent looking laptop right now on sale.
It is a toshiba wuth intel centrino duo.
$599.
Service plan is $150.
Is it worth it?
This laptop would just be used to browse the internet when away from home. Not planning on using it as a replacement for my desktop
As I have a job fixing computers at my school, I can say that Toshibas are the most problematic of all the computers.
Secondly, how long is the service plan for? The number one biggest issue with laptops is dead hard drives. They happen all the time. That service plan might be worth it just for the hard drive, if you don’t know how to install one. Other problems are much less likely.
$150 for 3 yrs.
I’ve heard good things from toshibas. Heard from some the service plan i a rip. Doesnt cover many of the things that mostly go wrong with laptops
Absolutely.
I’ve got a 2003 Dell laptop and have the extra 4 year warranty that ends in 2007. (1 year warranty came free).
I’ve already made use of the free repairs two times, and it is looking likely that I will need to call them in a THIRD time.
All of these problems happened after the one-year warranty had ended, but who knows how much it would’ve cost if I hadn’t bought the extra 4 year warranty.
If it doesn’t cover the screen, I wouldn’t get it. If it covers the cpu and motherboard, it’s probably ok. But a $600 laptop is relatively cheap, so $150 for a $600 laptop for 3 years… meh.
Laptops have the highest repair rate of consumer electronics, it’s something like 20%. Personally, I wouldn’t go for it, but it’s worth considering.
That warranty is about 1/4 the cost of the laptop.
I don’t know how comfortable I’d feel paying 1/4 of the cost of something I bought, for a warranty.
-First the laptopn has to break before the warranty is up.
-Second the repairs have to add up to over 150.
-Third you’ll probably want a replacement before the warranty even expires
I think so my Toshiba Satellite needed a new motherboard a month before the three year warranty expired.
Glad I bought it.
I fix laptops for a living everyday and what the guy said above is true. Hard drives die by far the most often with the LCD being second. I also have experience with Best Buy,s service plans for a Sony Mavica camera we bought several years back.
If my experience is representative they will find every excuse possible for not honoring that plan. We paid 90 bucks for a 3 year extended service plan and had the floppy drive in the camera go bad. I could not get the brain dead retard at the service desk to understand what a corrupt file was or that fact they have nothing to with focusing the damn camera.
They finally took it after I spent a little while walking around outside for fear I would pound this punk and wind up in jail.
They told us 3 days. We called back and they said they were working on it and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. After the 5th or 6th call and 2 weeks of them telling us the same thing I went there and talked to the manager with my service plan in hand and demanded that it be sent to Sony. I was assured it was going out that day. Normally I would just fix most things myself, but I couldn’t find a place to get those proprietary drives from.
After a week of nothing they told us they hadn’t heard back from Sony. I finally called Sony who had never heard of us or the camera arriving anywhere for service. They looked up the serial number and it showed still under warranty so she said if we brought it to their service center which is about 5 miles from my house they would fix it.
I drove back up to Best Buy, walked straight back into their repair area, found the camera sitting there which hadn’t even been packaged for shipping and dared them to make a problem out of me taking it.
We took it to Sony who fixed it correctly and shipped it back to us same day express free of charge.
Maybe this is isolated, but it’s my experience with Best Buy and their extended service plans.
I’ve purchased two laptops from Best Buy and a service plan both times. The first plan was used to replace the hard drive (as mentioned above) and get a new battery. I’ve had the new laptop for about 4 months and so far I’ve just used the tech support at the store, no major repairs thus far.
I would say that as long as you plan to keep the laptop for three years the plan is worth it. That’s just my experience.
NFSC
Remember guys and gals, best buy is a discout retailer. All they offer is a low price. I would never ever purchase a service agreement from them. They dont offer service. They will do the absoloute minimum they can for as long as they can.
The only way youll get a repair out of them is to threaten and fight.
A guy I know is a BB district manager. He says they make virtually all their profit on service plans, almost nothing on the actual product. That said, Consumer Reports, who generally hates service plans recommends them on laptops due to the rough handling they get and the reasons above. The price sound high though, I’d shop around.
I just returned a 3/4 dead ipod back to best buy 3 days from the 2 year service plan expiration. The 1st gen ones had a habit of the battery dying early, and I just happened to find the warranty paperwork that was given to me with the ipod. I called just for shits and giggles and wasnt really expecting to get anything out of it as the ipod wasnt really defective at all. But they emailed me a return shipping label right away, no questions asked and now I have a $200 something dollar voucher coming back to me.
also, I paid for an extended warranty on my xbox 360, and have also needed to take advantage of it as well. I would go for it.
I bought my laptop from Circuit City because I liked their accidental coverage better - I tote my laptop around quite a bit. It’s been my experience too that laptops are about the only thing that it’s worth to cover.
I’m really happy with my service plan through Circuit City. I never actually thought it would be of any use until last year when a little accident necessitated the replacement of my harddrive. There were also some other issues after that – I’d say I probably had it sent out 2 or 3 times.
Each time, they paid for the shipping and it usually reached it’s destination in about 4 days or so. So I figure I probably made my money back just through the shipping, forget the actual work that was done on the machine.
I believe I also paid around 150 for 3 years – in my experience, definitely a good investment.
[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
I fix laptops for a living everyday and what the guy said above is true. Hard drives die by far the most often with the LCD being second. I also have experience with Best Buy,s service plans for a Sony Mavica camera we bought several years back.
If my experience is representative they will find every excuse possible for not honoring that plan. We paid 90 bucks for a 3 year extended service plan and had the floppy drive in the camera go bad. I could not get the brain dead retard at the service desk to understand what a corrupt file was or that fact they have nothing to with focusing the damn camera.
They finally took it after I spent a little while walking around outside for fear I would pound this punk and wind up in jail.
They told us 3 days. We called back and they said they were working on it and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. After the 5th or 6th call and 2 weeks of them telling us the same thing I went there and talked to the manager with my service plan in hand and demanded that it be sent to Sony. I was assured it was going out that day. Normally I would just fix most things myself, but I couldn’t find a place to get those proprietary drives from.
After a week of nothing they told us they hadn’t heard back from Sony. I finally called Sony who had never heard of us or the camera arriving anywhere for service. They looked up the serial number and it showed still under warranty so she said if we brought it to their service center which is about 5 miles from my house they would fix it.
I drove back up to Best Buy, walked straight back into their repair area, found the camera sitting there which hadn’t even been packaged for shipping and dared them to make a problem out of me taking it.
We took it to Sony who fixed it correctly and shipped it back to us same day express free of charge.
Maybe this is isolated, but it’s my experience with Best Buy and their extended service plans.[/quote]
Not a unique experience.
I had a similar experience with Best Buy. While they often have good deals, I try not to ask the employees for help, or need to their help other than paying for my merchandise which is usually blank DVDs.
The guy above that said 1. laptop has to break, 2. has to cost more than $150.00 to repair, had it nailed on the head.
Add to that post that the laptop has to break AFTER the manufacturer warranty is over and the odds begin to stack against this warranty plan. I would not get it.
[quote]HoratioSandoval wrote:
I bought my laptop from Circuit City because I liked their accidental coverage better - I tote my laptop around quite a bit. It’s been my experience too that laptops are about the only thing that it’s worth to cover.[/quote]
I also got one on a hard drive MP3 player for my kid who tends to be rough on things. Battery went out and we got the $250. Note though it is an in-store credit, can’t even use it on Best Buy’s website.
[quote]john2009 wrote:
HoratioSandoval wrote:
I bought my laptop from Circuit City because I liked their accidental coverage better - I tote my laptop around quite a bit. It’s been my experience too that laptops are about the only thing that it’s worth to cover.
I also got one on a hard drive MP3 player for my kid who tends to be rough on things. Battery went out and we got the $250. Note though it is an in-store credit, can’t even use it on Best Buy’s website.[/quote]
Yeah, I’d get a plan on a hard drive MP3 player too. Kind of a mini-laptop…
In my experience with futureshop extended warranties (same company as bestbuy), i was either blatantly lied to by the salesman, or by the customer service rep after i tried to bring it back when it was broken. Its all a scam and have heard nothing but bad from anyone ive talked to.
“D-Fence Uh Uh D-Fence” . . well thats pretty dumb, but . . .“Extended Warranty? How can I lose?” . . . perfect.