Extended appliance warranties and so-called service plans may sound like a good idea when the salesperson is pitching them to you, but are they really a sound investment? The answer usually depends on whom you ask. Manufacturers’ warranties provide a reasonable level of protection, and extended plans can often be an unwise and expensive investment. Before you agree to buy a protection plan, you may want to do a little fact-checking of your own.
Investigate the Product’s Included Warranty Coverage
New appliances almost always come with a manufacturer’s warranty. In most cases, the item is covered for one year of normal, residential use, as long as the appliance was installed and set up according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Although the manufacturer’s warranty technically covers only defective materials and workmanship, it’s unlikely that anything else will go wrong. Kitchen appliances are considered to be durable, reliable goods with a low incidence of failure. The arguments you are likely to hear in favor of buying extended protection at the time of purchase are that today’s appliances have more complicated technology, higher failure rates and lesser quality manufacturing processes. While some of that may be true, protection plans are not necessarily the answer.
What Service Plans, Protection Agreements and Extended Warranties Offer
Most extended warranties promise to fix those parts that wear out or fail during the course of normal use, but in many cases, each service call requires that you pay a deductible or service call fee. Most are administered by a third-party service that contracts with local repair companies rather than having a staff of their own technicians. Consequently, you never know what you’ll get in terms of service quality and responsiveness. Most plans have a long list of non-covered repairs, but the protection agreement may offer you a generous 10 percent discount on those services they don’t cover. Charges for service plans can be high, with some programs costing half the price of the appliance itself for a three-to-five-year coverage term.
What You May Not Know about Extended Warranties
Appliance retailers set slim profit margins on major appliances to remain competitive in the marketplace. Service plans are the real cash cows, usually returning a 50 percent (or more) profit to the retailer. For this reason, many use the scare tactic approach to convince you to buy. For the cost of a single service plan on a new refrigerator, you can purchase a full home warranty that offers similar protection on all your home’s appliances, services and systems. If you purchased the item with a major credit card, you may have protection through the credit card company as well. Or, you could schedule your own trusted appliance repair technician to perform annual maintenance for not much more than your trade call fee under most warranty plans.
Complete Appliance Repair of Salt Lake City, Utah, specializes in keeping customers’ costly home appliances in good working order. Their prompt, professional service technicians and fair and honest pricing policies will ensure that you never have to worry about any surprises. With Complete Appliance at your service, you need not bother with expensive extended appliance warranties.