Extended Warranties - Yes or No???

[Cracker]

In 2005 I replaced the Penquin Reverse Cycle A/C unit on my 2000 Excella, along with the required Thermostat controls. It is my sincere belief that the previous Owner (---I bought the trailer in 2003) probably caused the early demise of the A/C by running it on low voltage. That said, I am not normally a proponent of extended warranties, however the replacement unit cost me about $1,150.00 at Jackson Center (---in 2005) and I'm trying to figure out whether or not the extended warranty would be a good investment. For the record, the original Penquin A/C on the 2000 Airstream Excella was a reverse cycle unit - rather than the more common straight A/C unit - which goes for around $650.00. The current third year warranty on the unit is for "parts only." By accepting the offer for a "3-year" extended warranty this third year will include labor, and the extended 3-year "parts and labor" warranty will commence in September, 2008. The cost is about $157.00 - and the warranty is transferable if I ever decided to sell the trailer before 2011. This is the second RV A/C I've had to replace (---including one on an old Winnebago motorhome that was probably 10 years old) - so I'm a tad gun shy! Any thoughts on this dilemma???

[skyvalley]

I never buy extended warranties..oops I did once and I sold the unit even before the original warranty expired!

But never again, on anything. And I have not been sorry so far...

My 2 Cents.

John

[Silvertwinkie]

It really depends. As you said the prev owner may have fried it out with low voltages. I would think that unless the compressor went south, the price of the extended might not allow you to break even. If it were a whole RV exteneded, I might feel differently.

My personal exp with extended warranties has been that the money I paid for them was more or less pretty close to what I would have paid for repairs. Pretty close to being a wash. Of course, it only takes one or two good repairs that can pay for themselves......in the end it's all about risk and your risk threshold. Me, for the A/C I didn't do it.

[overlander63]

Extended warranties are really insurance policies that are written by what are basically insurance companies. Chances are, if you read the fine print, the only things covered by the extended warranty are the things that won't normally break, or there may be charges for gaining access to covered parts.
This is my experience from many years dealing with extended warranty companies. If it were me, I would put that $150 in an interest bearing account, and wait for the day it may need repairs. Byt the time it needs anything, the money you put in the bank, plus the money you would probably have to pay for the tech to get to the warranty covered part, would very likely pay for the repair.

[Cracker]

I'm pretty much in agreement with the preceding comments. I just needed a bit of reinforcement. The only time I can remember where an extended warranty paid off was with a Mercury (1989?) that my wife had when we got married. If it hadn't been for the extended warranty that piece of junk would have cost us over $3,500 before we got rid of it!

[vswingfield]

Originally Posted by overlander63

Extended warranties are really insurance policies that are written by what are basically insurance companies. Chances are, if you read the fine print, the only things covered by the extended warranty are the things that won't normally break, or there may be charges for gaining access to covered parts.
This is my experience from many years dealing with extended warranty companies. If it were me, I would put that $150 in an interest bearing account, and wait for the day it may need repairs. Byt the time it needs anything, the money you put in the bank, plus the money you would probably have to pay for the tech to get to the warranty covered part, would very likely pay for the repair.

Good call on time value of money, Terry my finance professors would be proud. I bought a 12v color TV in Utah in the late 80s for about $170 (still works, though a power surge required replacing a fuse.) GE called me for months wanting to sell me an extended warranty for color TVs for $250! They couldn't see the irony in trying to sell me a warranty for more than the cost of the product.

Vaughan

[flyfisher]

Cracker -

We once had a family home on a lake in upstate NY. The guy who owned the home next door to us owned a company (or two) that sold extended warranties.

His "housekeeper"/mistress tended to this house while his wife (we were told) lived at another of his homes back in Ohio, and he also had other homes in the Bahamas, Florida, Arizona, and a couple others I've forgotten.

One of my boys got a kick out of his Italian and German cars that lined the driveway, and even told him once or twice when it began raining and he'd forgotten to put the tops up.

I never went out on one of his several boats, because we had our own, and I'm not really much into the parties that it looked like he had on those sunset cruises -- I'd rather be out fishing myself.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I'm sure he could explain to you in lots of detail why extended warranties make perfect sense.........

......for him!

Carry on.

John

[Cracker]

I threw the paperwork in the trash can! The only thing that had me even considering it was the fact that I had to replace the original 5-year old A/C. On the other hand, knowing the qualifications of the previous P.O., I'm sure that he probably ran the A/C on a cheap extension cord, plugged into a temporarty power outlet, while he built his waterfront home.

[Jaxon]

This is a late reply... Consumer Reports does a fairly regular review on extened warranties of all types. Bottom line is Don't Bother!

Also, in Trailer Life & Motorhome mags, you read the regular pleas for help with an extended warranty company that refuses to pay for the repairs... That fine print is indeed fine, for the warranty company (as in John's neighbor); get's 'em out of paying everytime! Sure, you'll hear the occasional good luck story but those burned by them far outnumber those helped.

[moosetags]

I've done two extended warranties in my life. One was on a new car, and the other was on an expensive television. When it was all said and done, I lost my butt on both. I'd say NO!

[TBRich]

I'm definitely with the majority here. We naively bought an extended warantee on our small motor home when we bought it. The dealer pushed us toward it... becasue they make $ on them as well as the underwriter. We owned the motor home for less than 3 years on a 7-year extended watantee...

A major problem with these things is getting the underwriter to honor a claim...you literally have to drag it out of them. Our microwave went out and we had a heck of a time getting it fixed on their dime (well, not really their dime, since we paid big bucks for the extended warantee). I'd rather pay for any repairs that need to happen... Chances are very good I will be further ahead in the pocket book area when it's all said and done...and be far less hassled by it all.

We have since sold the motorhome in favor of our new AS...before the end of the warantee. We chose to cancel the extended warantee rather than transfer it to the new owners (also a huge hassle with tons of paper work and a transfer fee). Two-plus months later and we are still waiting to get our refund on the unused portion of the extended warantee (which, by the way, is computed to the underwriter's advantage, I can assure you)... We will get it...I will make sure of that...but why should we have to wait so long? (Answer=because they want to hold onto thier...er, your...$ as long as humanly possible.) You are really at their mercy, of which they have very little.

Do I sound unhappy with my extended warantee experience...or what!?

Don't do it,
TB