Gadget Replacement Insurance - The Empirical Manifesto

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Gadget Replacement Insurance

Posted on 2013.02.11 at 00:00

Its good being familiar enough with one's own trends to know why purchasing additional coverage on tech gadgets is non-essential when asked. I enjoy having the opportunity to enumerate them to unsuspecting sales people at checkout.

Having purchased items and their subsequent replacement items over the last 15 years:

One place went out of business before the warranty expired

I've had thermal receipts fade to the point of being unreadable

I've forgotten which big box store I've purchased items from

In-house databases have lost purchase records during software upgrades

Change of address and forgotten phone numbers have rendered me ineligible

90% of my purchases which break down do so after extended warranty expiration anyway

The remaining which fail do so within the manufacture's coverage

Replacement items have been discontinued

And online repositories are unable to merge two or more existing accounts!

Did I miss anything?

19 comments

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Comments:

michelle1963 at 2013-02-11 06:18 (UTC) (Link)

I don't know if you've missed anything. I have never bought gadget insurances, and never wished I had. I have not had an occasion where I needed it.

Usually, the issue that renders a piece of equipment unusable is not that it no longer works, but that it's so outdated, it can't function with newer equipment. I need upgrade insurance! (But I probably wouldn't buy it either. :p )

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celtmanx at 2013-02-12 03:26 (UTC) (Link)

Normally I never get an extended but I made an exception when I purchased my RCA F38310 38-Inch CRT HDTV from Fry's in the Fall of 2002 for $1,500 I did purchase insurance for an extra $300. Two years into the three year warranty the power unit broke and strangely they couldn't repair it so Fry's replaced it with a 40-Inch Samsung LCD HDTV that sold for $2,000. It still works today.

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ehowton at 2013-02-12 03:56 (UTC) (Link)

Well done, sir!

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celtmanx at 2013-02-12 03:59 (UTC) (Link)

Did you watch the new Battlestar Galactica?

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ehowton at 2013-02-12 04:00 (UTC) (Link)

What new Battlestar Galactica? (I guess my question answered yours...)

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celtmanx at 2013-02-12 04:05 (UTC) (Link)

Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome aired last night on the Syfy channel. I guess they got tired of airing wrestling and decided to put some sci-fi on.

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ehowton at 2013-02-12 04:06 (UTC) (Link)

Sweet. No, but I had it queued up on my YouTube playlist.

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celtmanx at 2013-02-12 04:11 (UTC) (Link)

Do you know about Starcraft II: Heart Of The Swarm?

Edited at 2013-02-12 04:12 am (UTC)

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ehowton at 2013-02-14 01:31 (UTC) (Link)

Saw it advertised at Game Stop but assumed it was just an add-on.

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(Deleted comment)

celtmanx at 2013-02-12 23:03 (UTC) (Link)

Re: Продаю акки Twitter.com+Аватар и многое другое.

Adulation for

ehowton from mother Russia!!!

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ehowton at 2013-02-14 01:30 (UTC) (Link)

Re: Продаю акки Twitter.com+Аватар и многое другое.

Sorry! Didn't see that you had replied when I started deleting a week's worth of SPAM.

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schpydurx at 2013-02-12 06:57 (UTC) (Link)

I would point out that Apple stands behind its warranties and with over $100 billion in the bank, they aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Consider: is it worth peace of mind to spend an extra $100-$200 to know that if anything happens to your device, you don't have to repurchase it at retail but instead can swap it for a new device?

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ehowton at 2013-02-14 01:29 (UTC) (Link)

No. My iPhone is replaced free-of-charge through Corporate.

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schpydurx at 2013-02-14 01:33 (UTC) (Link)

I-dont-have-a-corporate-to-replace-my-phone.

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ehowton at 2013-02-14 01:37 (UTC) (Link)

In the last 15-years I have never lost, nor damaged any of my devices.

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schpydurx at 2013-02-14 01:59 (UTC) (Link)

My iPhone bricked on me when I handed it to my Android-lovin' buddy. I was able to get a new handset within minutes at no additional out-of-pocket expense. To this day, neither one of us know what caused the device to brick.

On the other hand, when I purchased the Mac Mini and the MacBook, I didn't purchase an extended warranty. I was very nervous without it, mainly because I didn't have a good backup routine and cloud storage wasn't what it is today. By contrast, when I bought the iMac and the Retina MacBook Pro, I bought the extended warranties. $150 to replace a $2200 or a $3500 was valuable enough for me to NOT forgo the price of the extended warranty.

I know where you're coming from and if I were in your position, I would likely make the same choices. If what the company gives me doesn't work, fuck it, they'll just replace it. But when you're paying out of pocket and have extremely limited resources, it pays to have some insurance.

There's a fantastic quote from Heavens Fall about insurance. Sadly, it's not online. I'll have to pop the DVD in when I get home and transcribe it for you.

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codekitten at 2013-02-13 18:13 (UTC) (Link)

i never buy it either.

similar to your last bullet, did you know Evite can't merge accounts (nor can you just update your original email address!). i have been using it for close to 15 years and they *still* don't support it!

why evite must you drive me batshit by forcing me to log in with my first email address i've ever created?!?!?

yeah yeah, i know, first world problems.

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ehowton at 2013-02-14 01:30 (UTC) (Link)

First World problems require nothing more than First World solutions!

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codekitten at 2013-03-17 10:54 (UTC) (Link)

ha! you know, i almost want to ask them for their ERD so i can modify it and send it back to them to fix this. i'll even throw in the conversion scripts.

IT CAN'T BE THAT HARD PEOPLE!

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