It’s bad enough every time you’re at Best Buy or RadioShack they try to sell you a $5 warranty on a $20 purchase, but now, even Dick’s Sporting Goods are selling them on sneakers. Dick’s has a “No Sweat” policy that will cover your sneakers from sweat and discoloration. I know some of the things I say here are funny; this is not one of them. It’s sad. I watched a woman purchase it at checkout because the cashier said it would even cover discoloration from mowing your lawn. No, sorry, that’s wear and tear. She’s gonna try and return those sneakers in 8 months only to find that kid lied to her.
Store warranties are a bigger scam than Nicolas Cage movies. When a sales associate tries to sell it all I hear is: “This product is a piece of shit.” If I buy a TV and it stops working I’ll be bringing it back with or without a dumb store warranty. And if they refuse to give me a refund…well apparently they haven’t met our family Terminator: my Aunt Mary. She could return a used car tire to Barnes & Noble. They don’t even sell tires at Barnes & Noble. It’s a book store.
Do mankind a favor: don’t buy a store warranty. Ever. In most cases it’s a 3rd party who offers the warranty and the stores are just pedaling them. They’re taking advantage of you. For example, take a DVD player that sells for $75. A warranty company knows that 1 in 100 DVD players break (outside coverage of a manufacturer’s warranty). If they sell a $3 warranty to just half of those 100 they’ll take in $150. When that 1 DVD player breaks they’ll replace it for $50 (their cost) and profit $100.
Essentially, store warranties are a tax for stupid people. Of course that 1 person who had their DVD player break and replaced would disagree with me, naturally. After all they saved $72. But the other 49 people lost $147 collectively. It’s a numbers game and it’s meant to take advantage of consumers.
I’ve never purchased an additional warranty. A manufacturer’s warranty (included with the purchase) is usually sufficient to catch the odd defect. I love when store employees try to sell them through “what if” scenarios. Buying a laptop once at Best Buy the employee said “What if your little sister spills her orange juice all over the keyboard?” “I’ll tell you what if…” I told him “I will punch her in the God damn face and then return it.”
I once washed my iPod Mini and returned it to the Apple store pretending it mysteriously died. It was nearly 3 years old without a warranty and they still replaced it. Do you know why? It’s good customer service. Since then I’ve purchased a Nano and 2 Shuffle’s. If they didn’t replace my Mini I would’ve probably bought Zunes. I definitely wouldn’t still be talking about my positive experience. I’m paying it forward.
If you Google “Best Buy warranty” every result on the first page includes the word scam. (I would Bing it of course except I’m protesting. When you Bing “Jason Parmele” my site doesn’t even come up.) It’s fun to read other people’s horror stories regarding warranties because I know how pushy they are at Best Buy. After refusing the warranty on the laptop I mentioned earlier, to multiple employees, I eventually asked one of them if I was on a hidden camera show. I just couldn’t believe how stupid they were.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re 4th on Bing when I search for you, and moving up the list with each click.
I wrote that while I was in the states. They hadn’t index me then. I’m back baby!
you are also first on bing for your facebook lol
warranties? i’m reviewing this crap for MS and it’s a mess as well. we give out replacements for all sorts of reasons which costs us a packet. and btw geocities gave me a giggle. completely forgotten about them.
is there a correlation – drawing quality up; content down? only messing…
” I know some of the things I say here are funny”
Getting a bot of an opinion about ourselves are we?
Wow, all 3 of you are named Dave. That’s The Situation right here. I’m just glad 1 in 3 Dave’s think my drawing quality has improved.
I was just telling that Best buy story to Scott! I can’t believe how many people fall for that warranty scam. You should have mentioned insurance on cell phones too, but that’s a whole other blog. Love the drawings, your getting good.
Hmmmm….are you telling me the $1 warranty I just bought for my $2 milk was a scam?
And although I don’t want to make you feel like your God or anything, but I just love reading your blogs, they’re my entertainment for the day! If it weren’t for little Cameron, I’d have more time and could read this on a more regular basis….sorry Parm…oh, and your drawings from 2nd grade are awesome (or did you make them in 3rd grade? Ha).