Are Extended Service Plans for Electronics Ever Worth It?

[XXXNoahXXX]

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I think the regular extended warranties aren't worth it, but I recently bought a new laptop and bought the best buy 3 year accidental protection plan. It covers stupid things like if I spill something on it, drop it down the stairs. Pretty much anything that could happen to it, they will fix/replace it as long as it doesn't look like it was intentional (like I hit it with a hammer - sales guys example). I carry mine everywhere and beat the hell out of it. So 2 days and 11 months from the purchase date, I might happen to eat breakfast and accidentally spill my orange juice on it while its on.

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On two occasions I have witnessed Dell laptops meet there timely demise just before the warranty was up.

If something breaks on a Dell, you send it in and they keep trying to stick reconfigured parts and whatnot in it, hoping to patch it up long enough for the warranty to run out. If it gets run over by a car, however, you usually get a new one, or at least a completely refurbished one.

So if something goes wrong near the end of the warranty, you either can take their [censored] patch up job and pray it works, or you can leave your laptop on the roof of your car and then forget about it and driver away, back up over it, and then get a new one.

Tough choice.