Monday, August 29, 2016

Lucking Out on Extended Warranties

In this one respect at least, Sue and I have had a lucky year.

Last summer, our air conditioner broke down on a very hot day. The service people came that night; it turned out to be the compressor. It was replaced at no charge, including what would have been a horrendous off-hours service charge. Why? Because we had purchased the extended warranty almost ten years previously. The compressor broke down just in time for us to reap the benefit of that purchase and should be good for another ten years.

This summer the AC system also broke down on a similarly hot day, and the problem was found to be in the furnace with the fan not turning. It turned out that the $1000 computer control board for the furnace had given up the ghost due to a power outage just the day before. This was a problem with this model; usually the board would short-out within a year or so, but ours lasted for many years, fortunately frying before the extended warranty was up rather than a year later because it was bound to happen. The extended warranty more than paid for itself. (Note: we now have the new and improved 3rd generation model of that control board, which is not so susceptible to breakdowns from power outages.)

A few weeks later, the emissions warning light in the car came on. I would tighten the gas cap, and it would go off ... for a while anyway. Then, I bought a new gas cap, which didn't help. So, we took it into the dealer who discovered that it was the catalytic converter that had run afoul. The assessment alone would have cost $120, the part $1200, and who knows about the extra hardware required as well as the labour to replace the part. We beat the extended warranty deadline by 4 months. Phew! Once again, the cost of the warranty more than paid for itself.

For minor items or even modestly major items such as my newish camera or lens and such, I usually don't bother. Based on my experience with cameras, I take my chance on it lasting for at least three years rather than forking out $300 for a 3 year warranty, but it has worked out in these three big ticket instances. In these cases, it turned out to be a good thing that we worked the extra cost of the extended warranty into the purchase price rather than having to find the emergency funds, particularly twice this summer, when other expenses are ripping our wallet apart.

But let us hope that we can catch a break from these breakdowns as I am getting nervous.

9 comments:

Marie Smith said...

Misfortunes comes in threes apparently. Lol. You've had yours now!

We never buy extended warranties. Maybe we should.

With the heat there this year you sure needed the air conditioner. Ours is still the cheapest available, screened and open windows and doors. The breeze, often gale, is great!

Mara said...

The only time I ever paid extra for anything was when driving in Ireland. I felt they were very bad drivers on very bad roads, so didn't want to have to fork out for any problem. Which turned out was a wise move, since we clipped the side mirror. Without the extra insurance it would have cost us about ten times more than the insurance did!

Ginger said...

Wow. We never buy the extended warranties, but you're making me think again about that.

Linda Kay said...

What a relief to not have to dig out your wallet on those expensive repairs. We don't usually buy extended warranties beyond a year. Knock on wood!

DDD said...

We never buy the extended warranties. We had a grand am once, it would make sense had we bought the extended
What model car do you have?

Kailani said...

We don't have an extended warranty on any single appliance, but we HAVE maintained the home warranty policy that covers the majority of things inside. And this nearly 30 year old A/C is due to go soon. It's worth $400 a year, I tell you!

The Geezers said...

Hmmm. May have to rethink my lifelong refusal to buy extended warranties....

I do, though, subscribe to a monthly appliance/furnace/AC warranty through one of our utility providers, and THAT has saved us thousands.

Tabor said...

i rarely pay for extended warranties, and we always end up paying for repairs.

Kay said...

You were really lucky. We've had our things break down just a few months or even days after the thing expired. I'll have to think about this next time we buy something.