It's crunch time! I get a get warranty through Square Trade for 3 years, including coverage for drops and spills, for about $110. Then again, I can get extended coverage to two years from RIM, including coverage for spills and over the phone technical support for $129. Or nothing? What to do....what to do....
for $129 you could almost get a brand new playbook.
I went with the $129 from RIM. It was worth it, since I needed their help getting a VPN connection running.
Not worth it.
You know - I was thinking the same thing myself.
Extending warrantees are rarely worth it, and certainly not here, where the PB has dropped to $199.
refurb 32gb is $169 (when they are in stock at worst buy)
Don't pay for a warranty, get it free on any number of credit cards that will double the warranty!!!
I did this myself on my PB, with TD Visa Classic (free card). Doubled the warranty up to one more year, that means 2 years total for free :-)
GLWP
Warranty Plans for anything under $500 in the U.S. is for not b/c basically warranties, and insurances are merely betting against youself in that the decision you made in that your figuring out the likely hood if the product you purchased will stand the test of time. No manufacturer would never want to make a product that doesnt hold up to expectations.
If it did it never would have a successful product let alone a following of loyal customer which translates to goodwill in form of word of mouth etc. These types of warranties and/or insurances tend to pray on the FUD principles FUD being fear, uncertainty and doubt. Anything over $500 comes with an implied warranty and manufacturers have to take back the product by law.
Having known this for years I never bet against myself when it comes to these types of FUD appeals. I had plenty of electronics and never had a problem with that and if they are going to break or whatever it usually happens after the one year window most guarantee by default.
Finally, if you have homeowners and/or renters insurance why would you buy additional insurance and give someone more money for nothing? Every year I rent a beac house at the shore and my agent told me many years ago if I pack up my electronics and the beach house gets robbed or something breaks my homeowner covers it.
What I usually tell friends is give me a hundred dollars and should something happen to your product I will replace for a year heck I'd do two, but if nothing does Ii keep the money. Most say no way! Why? Not because they dont think I wont replaced it, but because they just bought something they wanted and will by default take care of it.
Even if something happened with it...these types of insurances simultaneous with manufacturers warranties so if your product say stops working in the first 6 months they will simply send it to RIM under their warranty and not the person who you bought it from...so why again would you want to pay an extra hundred bucks for something you could do yourself.
If you asked these people that sell these types of vehicles of FUD show me actual number of claims you had for spillage vs. the number of people that bought insurance you'd find the numbers to be very low...but they will never tell you that b/c they are there to take your money and sell you on the piece of mind crap using what? Fear, uncertainty. and doubt.
With all the claims that the BB PB being a great piece of hardware why would you want to give someone your hard earned money for something your regular home renters and/or car insurance might cover. If they dont then maybe you want to get insurance that does when you shop for insurance when doing comparisons. I do and never had a problem knowing my regular insurance covers me.
If I spill something on it then I just chalk it up for being an but thats me talking about myself and no one reading this post. Hope this helps you. Merry Christmas! :)
Thanks for the input, all! I guess I will save my hard earned bucks. Good advice!
well if it covers drops/spills you can get that 3yr one that way in 3yrs just drop it and get a new one for 'free'
This is a good point if your PB cost $200 versus $129 for the warranty.. then it is difficult to justify buying warranty
On the flip side, if you need any operational assistance on your PB, technical questions etc, then you will be on your own after the first 90 days of free support lapses. After first 90 days of free support, any support call to RIM will cost you $30 per incident.... even before they trouble shoot
I bought my $129 extended warranty because I paid $699 for my 64G
It works well for me because I can call into RIM tech support anytime I want and ask as many tech questions as I need to for the next 2 years.
Each time I call RIM support, I need not have to pay $30 bucks. Hopefully after 2 years, I will be more well versed with most operational/technical aspects of the playbook
If I bought the warranty from the retailer etc for about the same price, I would not be able to take advantage of RIM tech support for two years....