Extended Warranties: Hello Hoggers, You people always come through and I always value your opinions. I do a general consensus after and I'm usually satisfied with the results so far.

Chiroman8

Hello Hoggers,
You people always come through and I always value your opinions. I do a general consensus after and I'm usually satisfied with the results so far.
Is spending the extra money worth it for an extended warranty? The camera cost will be around $4000 or will I be better off spending that money on extra equipment ? Thank you kindly & Pax.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Chiroman8 wrote:

Hello Hoggers,
You people always come through and I always value your opinions. I do a general consensus after and I'm usually satisfied with the results so far.
Is spending the extra money worth it for an extended warranty? The camera cost will be around $4000 or will I be better off spending that money on extra equipment ? Thank you kindly & Pax.

Other than for automobiles, I have never found much value in extended warranties.

Scruples Loc: Brooklyn, New York

Chiroman8 wrote:

Hello Hoggers,
You people always come through and I always value your opinions. I do a general consensus after and I'm usually satisfied with the results so far.
Is spending the extra money worth it for an extended warranty? The camera cost will be around $4000 or will I be better off spending that money on extra equipment ? Thank you kindly & Pax.

Usually an extended warranty may seem like over kill. It all depends on how you value your camera. If it is a generic $200 knock around, I probably won’t get an extended warranty. If it is a $40,000 Hasselblad, Damn straight Skippy I’ll be getting the extended warranty. However, I don’t see a Hassie in my future. I get an extended warranty for my 5D.

BebuLamar

Chiroman8 wrote:

Hello Hoggers,
You people always come through and I always value your opinions. I do a general consensus after and I'm usually satisfied with the results so far.
Is spending the extra money worth it for an extended warranty? The camera cost will be around $4000 or will I be better off spending that money on extra equipment ? Thank you kindly & Pax.

Which camera and how much is the extended warranty and for how long? In general the extended warranty isn't worth the money. The original warranty is actually more important. Of course anything can fail at anytime but it's more likely to fail when new and then many years after that. In between it's least likely to fail.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

My rule of thumb is that an extended warranty should not cost more than 3-5% per year of extension. In addition you have to check out just what the warranty actually covers.

I once had a water heater go out. I shopped for a replacement. There were models for $300, $400, $550 with warranties of 4, 6, or 10 years. I asked a friend who was a plumber about them. He said that they were all the same water heater and you were paying for insurance.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Chiroman8 wrote:

Hello Hoggers,
You people always come through and I always value your opinions. I do a general consensus after and I'm usually satisfied with the results so far.
Is spending the extra money worth it for an extended warranty? The camera cost will be around $4000 or will I be better off spending that money on extra equipment ? Thank you kindly & Pax.

Most of the time, extended warranties serve as a retail price enhancer for the retailer. Most failures that would be covered will occur during the manufacturer's warranty period. Many potential claims end up not being honored due to relocation, loss of paperwork, or the like. And when evaluating the cost, remember that their coverage usually does not start until the original warranty ends, so what is sold as a "three year warranty" may in reality be only a two year warranty.

If you do need it, of course, it can be a really good value. I have purchased a few warranties over the years, but never made a claim against one of them. If I had all that money back and in a savings account, I'd be easily able to self-protect against failure of any item I'd be likely to buy.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Chiroman8 wrote:

Hello Hoggers,
You people always come through and I always value your opinions. I do a general consensus after and I'm usually satisfied with the results so far.
Is spending the extra money worth it for an extended warranty? The camera cost will be around $4000 or will I be better off spending that money on extra equipment ? Thank you kindly & Pax.

When extended warranty is offered in the store, I always ask how much it costs, then decline.
Once I'm home, I put exactly that amount of money in my savings account. When a few years ago, my laptop went on the blink, it would have cost more to fix it than to buy a new one. By that time I had enough money in my savings account to go to the store and buy a new laptop! Of course I was offered extended insurance again, declined and put that amount into savings as well.
It is tempting to use that money for buying other things as well, but so far I've only used it for items that needed replacement.
It's kind of being my own insurer, but instead of the insurance being for 2 or 3 years, I have decided to make it valid for the life of the item. And I will use it to replace items I bought even before I started this.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Statistically, not worth it.

Money maker for the insurance provider.

Ollieboy

Retailers usually make more on the warranty than item sold.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

My first digital camera cost around $500 (1999). The seller had an extended warranty that was within my specs so I took it. The camera quit 1.5 years later so I went back to the seller to check on the warranty. They honored the warranty but of course that model was long out of production so I got a new model with 3x more pixels. That one still worked the last time I tried it in 2017. It got lost in a move, but I had much better cameras by that time (and they cost much more).

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

DirtFarmer wrote:

My first digital camera cost around $500 (1999). The seller had an extended warranty that was within my specs so I took it. The camera quit 1.5 years later so I went back to the seller to check on the warranty. They honored the warranty but of course that model was long out of production so I got a new model with 3x more pixels. That one still worked the last time I tried it in 2017. It got lost in a move, but I had much better cameras by that time (and they cost much more).

Failures will occur, albeit low.

You're basically betting they will, the insurance company is betting they won't.
Guess who wins 90+% of the time?

wjones8637 Loc: Burleson, TX

Morning Star wrote:

When extended warranty is offered in the store, I ... (show quote)

Excellent philosophy, my wife insisted on a warranty on the refrigerator. I finally let it “accidentally “ expire. Over 11 years it would have cost about $1200. Recently a water distribution module went out and our first repair is a little over $500.

Bill

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Chiroman8 wrote:

Hello Hoggers,
You people always come through and I always value your opinions. I do a general consensus after and I'm usually satisfied with the results so far.
Is spending the extra money worth it for an extended warranty? The camera cost will be around $4000 or will I be better off spending that money on extra equipment ? Thank you kindly & Pax.

Look at it this way - with an extended warranty, you're betting the product will break, and the seller is betting that it won't. Who do you think has better information?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Chiroman8 wrote:

Hello Hoggers,
You people always come through and I always value your opinions. I do a general consensus after and I'm usually satisfied with the results so far.
Is spending the extra money worth it for an extended warranty? The camera cost will be around $4000 or will I be better off spending that money on extra equipment ? Thank you kindly & Pax.

Better off spending that money on a decent, photo industry-specific insurance policy. It will cover more than camera malfunctions. And it won't cost you $4000.

JimmyTB

Morning Star wrote:

When extended warranty is offered in the store, I ... (show quote)

I thought I was the only one who did that. I've never had to use the money on anything that failed outside of warranty. I agree with others that it is a big money maker for those selling the product. Sometimes it is as much as 30% of what you paid.