December 11, 2008 • 16 mins
Statistically speaking, extended product warranties aren't generally worth the money, but there are some purchases that warrant extra insurance. Find out when it's smart to buy -- and when you should say "no thanks" -- in this HowStuffWorks podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, welcome to the podcast.
How are you, Chuck? I'm good? This is take two.
If we rarely do two takes, but Josh messed up
so bad, we should should we tell them what I said? Okay,
(00:22):
because then we have to do take three? All right? Well, anyway,
this is stuff you should know. And as Chuck just said,
it's Josh here and Chuck there, and um we had
we were talking earlier about how it's getting to be
that time of year again, right, the tis the season
time to go. Cut down a perfectly healthy tree, prop
it up like some sort of corpse in the corner,
(00:43):
Hang things on it, yeah, exactly, decorate it? Yeah, decorate it. Um,
shuffle into the malls and turn out our pockets, right,
buy things for your family and friends. Have the endless
debate over whether or not Walmart Greater should say Happy
Holidays or Merry Christmas? Right, um, and just basically, you know,
celebrate another year past of surviving. Right. Um, that's what
(01:06):
we do in my house as Christmas is all about
the survival of it another year, opening soup cans with
pen knives and you know, good stuff. Yeah, so yeah,
I guess with Chuck and I are saying, it's the
holiday season, it's upon us, and um, clearly, the one
question that always comes to mind for me is should
I or should I not buy an extended product warranty?
(01:30):
And I know a lot of times our podcasts are
really interesting, um tidbits that you can share. Well, no,
this isn't interesting in that way, but I think a
lot of people don't know whether or not to purchase
them because they're faced all of a sudden at the
register and they're kind of in a panic. So yeah,
they're trying to help you exactly. This is This is
precisely why we're we're broadcasting this podcast. It is um,
(01:53):
it's it's I never knew, and um, what I found
out I was happy to know, actually sure, because yeah,
it's become like this real high pressure sales pitch and
it comes like when you're almost out the door and
all of a sudden like, oh, well, of course you
want the extended warranty, right, you're right, I don't know,
do I write It's like, do you want the apple
pie McDonald's. Yes, all of a sudden, you're thinking, I
(02:13):
don't want an apple pie, but I want an apple pie.
But I want apple pie. And I gotta say, you know,
especially back when it was fried, I always wanted an
apple pie. Now they're baked, they're still pretty good. But dude,
compared to the fried ones, like, yes, you can still
get the fried apple pies a Checkers by the way,
looking to get a warranty on the apple pie is
what I want to know. You could maybe, if you,
(02:37):
if you, if you should probably not um and and
that's actually one of the reasons. There's several. There's several.
There's no definitive answer whether should you should or shouldn't
get an extended warranty on a product. Sorry to break
it to you, we can't just say no. Um And
we'll get into some some reasons or some situations where
(02:58):
it is a good idea to maybe opt for or
not a good idea. Right, we'll do both. But if
you look at it from the law of averages um
across the board, it's a bad idea to buy an
extended warranty. Just statistically speaking, either the product you have
is going to break within the first year, which is
(03:19):
covered by the manufacturer's warranty that all items come with. Yeah, um,
or it's gonna break after you know, the the extended
warranty has lapsed. So either way, it was speaking just
on averages, you're going to have just wasted you know,
X amount of dollars for something you've never used. And
it's really just an insurance policy, which again is a
(03:41):
form of gambling. Right, um and uh. For the most part,
an extended warranty is a losing bet. But there are
some instances where you might want to stop and say,
you know what, sales jerk, I am going to buy
that extended warranty. Right, you want to give a well,
I mean, first just want to throw out, you know,
(04:02):
I'm statman, a quick stat. Americans, uh, spend sixteen billion
dollars a year on warranties, extended warranties. Yeah, that's a
lot of dough. I've got another stat for you that's
gonna pop your eyes out. Okay, eight percent of that profit. Yeah,
only of that sixteen billion spent on warranties is ever
(04:23):
shelled out and repairs their replacements, should we Just in
the podcast, there's exactly that sounds like your answer, there's
a yeah, yeah, that's pretty much the speaking by the numbers.
You're a sucker if you buy an extended warranty, but
there's some instances where you're you're not a sucker. Um.
And actually another stat for you there, Chuck. Did you
(04:44):
know that Circuit City uh one percent of its operating
income in two four, as far as securities analysts were concerned,
came exclusively from the sale of extended warrant And I
think something like, you know, they're going out of business,
stud maybe that I should tell you something. Well, the
problem is if you're not selling electronics, you're not going
to sell an extended warranty. If you're dependent that dependent
(05:07):
on extended warranties, and yeah, you're gonna go under when
the electronic sales plummet. Now when do they push it
so hard at the registry? You know, Oh yeah, it's
a big time UM and Best Buy actually they I
think in that same year fifty of their operating income
came from extended warranties. Yeah, you know, I'm not allowed
to go within a hundred feet of the Best Buy,
(05:27):
so they have everything you need. I wouldn't know. My
wife won't allow it. She's she has a complete boycott
because you don't know what you're missing. Chuck, they have everything,
it's great, But actually best Buy also has extended warranties
on absolutely everything. Uh. There is a guy who know
a gall I'm sorry, who was writing for Business Week.
(05:48):
UM wrote an article on extended warranties that came across
and she she said that best Buy sells at four
year extended warranty on a Magnifox DVD player that they
sell for thirty. That doesn't make sense. I don't know
what Adam Smith would say about it, but famous economist,
(06:11):
Oh I know, okay, he's he's one of my hairs,
as you're well aware. Right, so we got a little bit. Yeah,
we could sit here all day and punch holes in
extended warranties and call you a goon if you've ever
purchased one. Um, it's to eat his own though. That's
kind of our unofficial motto here at stuff you should know. UM,
so let's tell them from sometimes when they should right.
One reason I've got for you, Josh, is if it's
(06:33):
a high dollar item, if you're gonna spend several thousand
dollars on on an item like let's say, you know,
a big flat screen or something like that. Uh, it
may be worth a couple of hundred bucks to to
cover it a little longer. Yeah, because I mean you've
already showed out several thousand what's the what's the harm?
And um this this actually comes into play most often
(06:54):
with rear projection TVs, which you can run into several
thousands of dollars um. And apparently the typical rear projected
projections TV, the bulb used in the projector um is
rated for about five thousand hours of use, and if
you buy an extended warranty, if you're an average American,
(07:14):
you're gonna watch more than five thousand hours of on
that TV within that three year period. It is, but yeah,
I think it's just you know, speaking on averages and
statistically you're gonna watch that much in three years, so
if when that bulb finally goes out, you'll be covered.
So that's that is a specific instance where it's a
pretty good idea to go ahead and chill out an
(07:35):
extra four dollars. I know, if you have a PC
laptop or home PC might also be a good opportunity
to buy one because I think there's a thirty seven
percent chance that it's gonna need repair within that three
year period. Yeah, and actually PC's rank at the top
for the for um needing the percentage that they'll need
(07:55):
to repair in three year And it's not cheap to
get it fixed either. That's something else you have a consider. No,
and um, those things usually come with tech support, which
I think Apple, uh their tech support after uh, you
know they're manufacturers, one year warranty goes away. Those each
call goes up to like forty or forty nine dollars
and that's pretty much industry why they're expensive phone calls.
(08:18):
So yeah, well they're coming straight to India. So imagine
exactly did you know that there's a McDonald's in Massachusetts
where the drive through you're actually speaking to a call
center in Colorado. You're kidding, no, kid, you not. They
outsourced the order taking and then the people type it
in on a computer screen and then back at the
(08:40):
at the Massachusetts McDonald's, UM, your orders filled. That's what
they call tangential, right. Yeah, So okay, let's let's get
back to uh times when you should get an extended
warranty cell phones you know you mentioned was a good
one because they're easily breakable or lost. Yeah, if if
you are absent minded, if you lose stuff a lot,
(09:02):
you probably want to spring for some sort of extended warranties,
specifically with the cell phone. Right. Um, A lot of
extended warranties won't cover uh loss, theft or you know,
accidental damage. They'll usually cover you know, some sort of
manufactured defector, uh if the thing died in natural death
within this time. Um, But the cell phone warranties are
(09:23):
designed specifically for people who lose their phones. So you're
gonna pay like five bucks a month extra, and then
you're gonna be slept with the deductible when you know,
call it in. But say it's a four BlackBerry and
you're you're deductibles a D five, you're still gonna pay
less than you would forgetting that BlackBerry. Right, So it's
(09:45):
kind of up to you to do the math and
to look at yourself in the mirror and determine if
you're one of those people exactly forget some loses and breaks,
and that's our advice to you. Um, don't go into
a store to buy a cell phone or rear projection
TV or anything else. Um without doing some homework first
find out if it will break within within that time. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
(10:07):
That's very helpful site. Um, and it's actually worth the
subscription to. There's some really great information on there you
can't get unless you're a subscriber, right, Um, So no
the product, know yourself, and then when the sales guy says, oh, yes,
of course you want the extended warranty, you'll you'll know
on the spot yes or no. It's good yourself exactly,
(10:29):
and you won't have to second guess yourself if you do. Um.
If you do second guess yourself and you didn't get
an extended warranty, but you decide that you want one. Uh.
Most states, actually state law says that you've got thirty
days to purchase an extended warranty for that price, and
I believe most states also give you thirty days to
cancel it after you get it. You should probably check
(10:52):
um with your state. I have no idea what state
department would would concern themselves with that, but I'm pretty
sure if you type and extended warranties into your secretary
of state, there you go they I'll bet you that
if you type that into your Secretary of State search bar,
you're probably gonna come up with something, right, right, I would.
I would say, so, okay, So now now you know
some instances when it's a good idea, When is it
(11:14):
not a good idea? Well, no, I would say it's
a bad idea. Um. First of all, you should look
at your credit card. Most credit cards, American Express a
master card will automatically ensure your item for an extended
period of time upon purchase. The high end Visa master Cards,
the more expensive one, well ensure it. But I think
all m X cards ensure. Yeah, add an extended warranty on, right,
(11:37):
So you may be paying for something, uh that's that's
already covered. And another thing that we failed to mention
earlier is because you're automatically covered for a year from
the manufacturer, you're paying for three years. It's not three
years at the end of that one year. It's three
years from the point of purchase. So you're actually paying
for a year that's already covered anyway by the manufacturer's warranty. Right,
(11:59):
So it's a three year the scam there, it is
a three year extended warranty is actually just a two
year extension exactly on top of the warranty that you're
getting right. Uh, you also have to pay for shipping
that most times both ways. So if you're gonna ship
your cell phone to Verizon and then back, you might
be spending more money and waiting on your phone. Uh,
(12:20):
it might be worth it just to go in and
get another phone and recycle the phone. Yeah, if you are,
you know so. So basically, I guess if we were
to sum this up, we would say, if you are
caught on the spot and asked whether you want an
extended warranty, uh, and you can't make up your mind,
go with no. If you decide that you do want one,
(12:40):
actually purchase from the manufacturer. You don't want to purchase
an extended warranty UM from a retailer sorry big box
electronic stores. UM, because they basically take out insurance policies
on each warranty and pocket a substantial amount of the
money you've just given them. Um. The manufacturer's warranty should
be a lot cheaper, and you're there's no middleman for
(13:02):
you to ship too. You can just deal directly with
the manufacturers. Plus you have thirty days to consider it,
so don't jump on the spot. You know this Christmas season,
remember the reason for this season, knowing whether or not
you should purchase an extended warranty. Right, I had a
real bad experience with one recently, so let's hear it. Well,
I'll just I'll just do it quickly here. Uh. You
typically never buy them, because I think it's a little
(13:24):
bit of a sucker's bet. But I bought a kind
of a high end washer and dryer from a store.
Can I mention our producer, Jerry is saying, shaking her head, no,
so we will not. We will not mention the big
box appliant store that I bought it from. But we
bought the warranty. Uh. The washer broke and it took
seven visits, seven separate visits that I had to take
(13:44):
off time, seven times from work. Wrong parts were ordered. Basically,
the problem was the company that they had contracted to
fix it and was awful, and this big box appliance store.
Their argument was take it up with them. My argument
right back to them is since you don't give me
a choice of who to use, then they are you
(14:04):
essentially right. And they didn't see it that way and
they it's basically just quit returning my calls. I fixed
it myself and they quit returning my calls. So yeah,
so what did you do? Burn the store down? Anything? No,
I'm gonna go in and try and get my money
back on the warranty at some point, but I will
never shop there again. And I've tried to spread the
word even though I can't do it. And there you go. Listeners,
(14:25):
now you know what store to avoid, apparently, big box
electronics store. If you see one with that sign hanging
out front, stay away, but stick around because it's time
for listener mail, right, Chuck, that's right? Okay, So Chuck,
I get to read this one. This one's from a
guy named Alexander. This is complimentary, which makes me feel good.
(14:47):
It is very complimentary. Was only the highest compliment that's
ever been paid to this via email via electronic mail, right, uh,
Alex writes, soce from Edelborough, Massachusetts, and it's on the
how Prayer You in Works podcasts. Uh. Alex says that
he likes our podcast. He appreciated it knowing your love
(15:07):
for all things scientific. I thought for sure it was
going to be and it was going to be open
season on any religious topic, especially prayer healing. But the
fair and even discussion of the subject really speaks to
your dedication to truth and discovery. I appreciate your discipline
and applying the same high standards of research to this
topic despite any of your personal opinions. That's real integrity,
(15:30):
and now have an even greater respect for your work.
That's high praise Chuck. And actually he he says that
he's a Christian scientist, and he gives the extra kudos
to you for knowing their preferred method of treatment and
how the results would be different than prayer plus medical procedure.
So way to go, Chuck, Way to go to both
of us. Yeah it made me feel good. Yeah, you
(15:52):
should feel good, Chuck. We try and be fair and balance.
Forget Fox News. This is where it's fair and balance exactly. Yeah.
So if you want to let Chuck no, you know,
give him extra kudos. Let us know we're fair and balanced.
Tell us that you hate us because we are against
big box consumer electronics stores. Send us an email to
Stuff podcast at how stuff Works dot c o M
(16:19):
for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is
it how stuff works dot com? H brought to you
by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are
you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, welcome to the podcast.
How are you, Chuck? I'm good? This is take two.
If we rarely do two takes, but Josh messed up
so bad, we should should we tell them what I said? Okay,
(00:22):
because then we have to do take three? All right? Well, anyway,
this is stuff you should know. And as Chuck just said,
it's Josh here and Chuck there, and um we had
we were talking earlier about how it's getting to be
that time of year again, right, the tis the season
time to go. Cut down a perfectly healthy tree, prop
it up like some sort of corpse in the corner,
(00:43):
Hang things on it, yeah, exactly, decorate it? Yeah, decorate it. Um,
shuffle into the malls and turn out our pockets, right,
buy things for your family and friends. Have the endless
debate over whether or not Walmart Greater should say Happy
Holidays or Merry Christmas? Right, um, and just basically, you know,
celebrate another year past of surviving. Right. Um, that's what
(01:06):
we do in my house as Christmas is all about
the survival of it another year, opening soup cans with
pen knives and you know, good stuff. Yeah, so yeah,
I guess with Chuck and I are saying, it's the
holiday season, it's upon us, and um, clearly, the one
question that always comes to mind for me is should
I or should I not buy an extended product warranty?
(01:30):
And I know a lot of times our podcasts are
really interesting, um tidbits that you can share. Well, no,
this isn't interesting in that way, but I think a
lot of people don't know whether or not to purchase
them because they're faced all of a sudden at the
register and they're kind of in a panic. So yeah,
they're trying to help you exactly. This is This is
precisely why we're we're broadcasting this podcast. It is um,
(01:53):
it's it's I never knew, and um, what I found
out I was happy to know, actually sure, because yeah,
it's become like this real high pressure sales pitch and
it comes like when you're almost out the door and
all of a sudden like, oh, well, of course you
want the extended warranty, right, you're right, I don't know,
do I write It's like, do you want the apple
pie McDonald's. Yes, all of a sudden, you're thinking, I
(02:13):
don't want an apple pie, but I want an apple pie.
But I want apple pie. And I gotta say, you know,
especially back when it was fried, I always wanted an
apple pie. Now they're baked, they're still pretty good. But dude,
compared to the fried ones, like, yes, you can still
get the fried apple pies a Checkers by the way,
looking to get a warranty on the apple pie is
what I want to know. You could maybe, if you,
(02:37):
if you, if you should probably not um and and
that's actually one of the reasons. There's several. There's several.
There's no definitive answer whether should you should or shouldn't
get an extended warranty on a product. Sorry to break
it to you, we can't just say no. Um And
we'll get into some some reasons or some situations where
(02:58):
it is a good idea to maybe opt for or
not a good idea. Right, we'll do both. But if
you look at it from the law of averages um
across the board, it's a bad idea to buy an
extended warranty. Just statistically speaking, either the product you have
is going to break within the first year, which is
(03:19):
covered by the manufacturer's warranty that all items come with. Yeah, um,
or it's gonna break after you know, the the extended
warranty has lapsed. So either way, it was speaking just
on averages, you're going to have just wasted you know,
X amount of dollars for something you've never used. And
it's really just an insurance policy, which again is a
(03:41):
form of gambling. Right, um and uh. For the most part,
an extended warranty is a losing bet. But there are
some instances where you might want to stop and say,
you know what, sales jerk, I am going to buy
that extended warranty. Right, you want to give a well,
I mean, first just want to throw out, you know,
(04:02):
I'm statman, a quick stat. Americans, uh, spend sixteen billion
dollars a year on warranties, extended warranties. Yeah, that's a
lot of dough. I've got another stat for you that's
gonna pop your eyes out. Okay, eight percent of that profit. Yeah,
only of that sixteen billion spent on warranties is ever
(04:23):
shelled out and repairs their replacements, should we Just in
the podcast, there's exactly that sounds like your answer, there's
a yeah, yeah, that's pretty much the speaking by the numbers.
You're a sucker if you buy an extended warranty, but
there's some instances where you're you're not a sucker. Um.
And actually another stat for you there, Chuck. Did you
(04:44):
know that Circuit City uh one percent of its operating
income in two four, as far as securities analysts were concerned,
came exclusively from the sale of extended warrant And I
think something like, you know, they're going out of business,
stud maybe that I should tell you something. Well, the
problem is if you're not selling electronics, you're not going
to sell an extended warranty. If you're dependent that dependent
(05:07):
on extended warranties, and yeah, you're gonna go under when
the electronic sales plummet. Now when do they push it
so hard at the registry? You know, Oh yeah, it's
a big time UM and Best Buy actually they I
think in that same year fifty of their operating income
came from extended warranties. Yeah, you know, I'm not allowed
to go within a hundred feet of the Best Buy,
(05:27):
so they have everything you need. I wouldn't know. My
wife won't allow it. She's she has a complete boycott
because you don't know what you're missing. Chuck, they have everything,
it's great, But actually best Buy also has extended warranties
on absolutely everything. Uh. There is a guy who know
a gall I'm sorry, who was writing for Business Week.
(05:48):
UM wrote an article on extended warranties that came across
and she she said that best Buy sells at four
year extended warranty on a Magnifox DVD player that they
sell for thirty. That doesn't make sense. I don't know
what Adam Smith would say about it, but famous economist,
(06:11):
Oh I know, okay, he's he's one of my hairs,
as you're well aware. Right, so we got a little bit. Yeah,
we could sit here all day and punch holes in
extended warranties and call you a goon if you've ever
purchased one. Um, it's to eat his own though. That's
kind of our unofficial motto here at stuff you should know. UM,
so let's tell them from sometimes when they should right.
One reason I've got for you, Josh, is if it's
(06:33):
a high dollar item, if you're gonna spend several thousand
dollars on on an item like let's say, you know,
a big flat screen or something like that. Uh, it
may be worth a couple of hundred bucks to to
cover it a little longer. Yeah, because I mean you've
already showed out several thousand what's the what's the harm?
And um this this actually comes into play most often
(06:54):
with rear projection TVs, which you can run into several
thousands of dollars um. And apparently the typical rear projected
projections TV, the bulb used in the projector um is
rated for about five thousand hours of use, and if
you buy an extended warranty, if you're an average American,
(07:14):
you're gonna watch more than five thousand hours of on
that TV within that three year period. It is, but yeah,
I think it's just you know, speaking on averages and
statistically you're gonna watch that much in three years, so
if when that bulb finally goes out, you'll be covered.
So that's that is a specific instance where it's a
pretty good idea to go ahead and chill out an
(07:35):
extra four dollars. I know, if you have a PC
laptop or home PC might also be a good opportunity
to buy one because I think there's a thirty seven
percent chance that it's gonna need repair within that three
year period. Yeah, and actually PC's rank at the top
for the for um needing the percentage that they'll need
(07:55):
to repair in three year And it's not cheap to
get it fixed either. That's something else you have a consider. No,
and um, those things usually come with tech support, which
I think Apple, uh their tech support after uh, you
know they're manufacturers, one year warranty goes away. Those each
call goes up to like forty or forty nine dollars
and that's pretty much industry why they're expensive phone calls.
(08:18):
So yeah, well they're coming straight to India. So imagine
exactly did you know that there's a McDonald's in Massachusetts
where the drive through you're actually speaking to a call
center in Colorado. You're kidding, no, kid, you not. They
outsourced the order taking and then the people type it
in on a computer screen and then back at the
(08:40):
at the Massachusetts McDonald's, UM, your orders filled. That's what
they call tangential, right. Yeah, So okay, let's let's get
back to uh times when you should get an extended
warranty cell phones you know you mentioned was a good
one because they're easily breakable or lost. Yeah, if if
you are absent minded, if you lose stuff a lot,
(09:02):
you probably want to spring for some sort of extended warranties,
specifically with the cell phone. Right. Um, A lot of
extended warranties won't cover uh loss, theft or you know,
accidental damage. They'll usually cover you know, some sort of
manufactured defector, uh if the thing died in natural death
within this time. Um, But the cell phone warranties are
(09:23):
designed specifically for people who lose their phones. So you're
gonna pay like five bucks a month extra, and then
you're gonna be slept with the deductible when you know,
call it in. But say it's a four BlackBerry and
you're you're deductibles a D five, you're still gonna pay
less than you would forgetting that BlackBerry. Right, So it's
(09:45):
kind of up to you to do the math and
to look at yourself in the mirror and determine if
you're one of those people exactly forget some loses and breaks,
and that's our advice to you. Um, don't go into
a store to buy a cell phone or rear projection
TV or anything else. Um without doing some homework first
find out if it will break within within that time. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
(10:07):
That's very helpful site. Um, and it's actually worth the
subscription to. There's some really great information on there you
can't get unless you're a subscriber, right, Um, So no
the product, know yourself, and then when the sales guy says, oh, yes,
of course you want the extended warranty, you'll you'll know
on the spot yes or no. It's good yourself exactly,
(10:29):
and you won't have to second guess yourself if you do. Um.
If you do second guess yourself and you didn't get
an extended warranty, but you decide that you want one. Uh.
Most states, actually state law says that you've got thirty
days to purchase an extended warranty for that price, and
I believe most states also give you thirty days to
cancel it after you get it. You should probably check
(10:52):
um with your state. I have no idea what state
department would would concern themselves with that, but I'm pretty
sure if you type and extended warranties into your secretary
of state, there you go they I'll bet you that
if you type that into your Secretary of State search bar,
you're probably gonna come up with something, right, right, I would.
I would say, so, okay, So now now you know
some instances when it's a good idea, When is it
(11:14):
not a good idea? Well, no, I would say it's
a bad idea. Um. First of all, you should look
at your credit card. Most credit cards, American Express a
master card will automatically ensure your item for an extended
period of time upon purchase. The high end Visa master Cards,
the more expensive one, well ensure it. But I think
all m X cards ensure. Yeah, add an extended warranty on, right,
(11:37):
So you may be paying for something, uh that's that's
already covered. And another thing that we failed to mention
earlier is because you're automatically covered for a year from
the manufacturer, you're paying for three years. It's not three
years at the end of that one year. It's three
years from the point of purchase. So you're actually paying
for a year that's already covered anyway by the manufacturer's warranty. Right,
(11:59):
So it's a three year the scam there, it is
a three year extended warranty is actually just a two
year extension exactly on top of the warranty that you're
getting right. Uh, you also have to pay for shipping
that most times both ways. So if you're gonna ship
your cell phone to Verizon and then back, you might
be spending more money and waiting on your phone. Uh,
(12:20):
it might be worth it just to go in and
get another phone and recycle the phone. Yeah, if you are,
you know so. So basically, I guess if we were
to sum this up, we would say, if you are
caught on the spot and asked whether you want an
extended warranty, uh, and you can't make up your mind,
go with no. If you decide that you do want one,
(12:40):
actually purchase from the manufacturer. You don't want to purchase
an extended warranty UM from a retailer sorry big box
electronic stores. UM, because they basically take out insurance policies
on each warranty and pocket a substantial amount of the
money you've just given them. Um. The manufacturer's warranty should
be a lot cheaper, and you're there's no middleman for
(13:02):
you to ship too. You can just deal directly with
the manufacturers. Plus you have thirty days to consider it,
so don't jump on the spot. You know this Christmas season,
remember the reason for this season, knowing whether or not
you should purchase an extended warranty. Right, I had a
real bad experience with one recently, so let's hear it. Well,
I'll just I'll just do it quickly here. Uh. You
typically never buy them, because I think it's a little
(13:24):
bit of a sucker's bet. But I bought a kind
of a high end washer and dryer from a store.
Can I mention our producer, Jerry is saying, shaking her head, no,
so we will not. We will not mention the big
box appliant store that I bought it from. But we
bought the warranty. Uh. The washer broke and it took
seven visits, seven separate visits that I had to take
(13:44):
off time, seven times from work. Wrong parts were ordered. Basically,
the problem was the company that they had contracted to
fix it and was awful, and this big box appliance store.
Their argument was take it up with them. My argument
right back to them is since you don't give me
a choice of who to use, then they are you
(14:04):
essentially right. And they didn't see it that way and
they it's basically just quit returning my calls. I fixed
it myself and they quit returning my calls. So yeah,
so what did you do? Burn the store down? Anything? No,
I'm gonna go in and try and get my money
back on the warranty at some point, but I will
never shop there again. And I've tried to spread the
word even though I can't do it. And there you go. Listeners,
(14:25):
now you know what store to avoid, apparently, big box
electronics store. If you see one with that sign hanging
out front, stay away, but stick around because it's time
for listener mail, right, Chuck, that's right? Okay, So Chuck,
I get to read this one. This one's from a
guy named Alexander. This is complimentary, which makes me feel good.
(14:47):
It is very complimentary. Was only the highest compliment that's
ever been paid to this via email via electronic mail, right, uh,
Alex writes, soce from Edelborough, Massachusetts, and it's on the
how Prayer You in Works podcasts. Uh. Alex says that
he likes our podcast. He appreciated it knowing your love
(15:07):
for all things scientific. I thought for sure it was
going to be and it was going to be open
season on any religious topic, especially prayer healing. But the
fair and even discussion of the subject really speaks to
your dedication to truth and discovery. I appreciate your discipline
and applying the same high standards of research to this
topic despite any of your personal opinions. That's real integrity,
(15:30):
and now have an even greater respect for your work.
That's high praise Chuck. And actually he he says that
he's a Christian scientist, and he gives the extra kudos
to you for knowing their preferred method of treatment and
how the results would be different than prayer plus medical procedure.
So way to go, Chuck, Way to go to both
of us. Yeah it made me feel good. Yeah, you
(15:52):
should feel good, Chuck. We try and be fair and balance.
Forget Fox News. This is where it's fair and balance exactly. Yeah.
So if you want to let Chuck no, you know,
give him extra kudos. Let us know we're fair and balanced.
Tell us that you hate us because we are against
big box consumer electronics stores. Send us an email to
Stuff podcast at how stuff Works dot c o M
(16:19):
for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is
it how stuff works dot com? H brought to you
by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are
you
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