extended warranty or no?

[SlagJones]

Getting ready to pull the trigger on a Epi Les Paul Studio. Do I get an extra year warranty for $25 or don't bother?

[jcwillow777]

Depends, are you gonna do any modifications? I have modified every Epi I have, so the warranty goes right out the window. But even if I didn't modify them I wouldn't get it.

[Whitmore Willy]

Slag,

 

If you're asking that question to yourself then I vote yes. $25 is cheep for a good nights sleep....but...

I know you have been around enough to know what buing a new guitar is about. (not being a wise guy here)

If there is anything wrong with that guitar you will probably know it in the first couple days.

JC is right about the mods. You can, however, keep original parts around if you do need warranty work. (incase you were to mod).

I guess, for me, it would depend on the warranty.

If I could use the guitar as a hood ornament and got in a accident and they still took it back...Yea

If the question were bothering me that much...yes

Do I think it is worth it?....you decide

[Nic]

There is only one worthwhile rule to a successful life. Never buy an extended warranty ever, for anything, at any price, from no one. The extended warranty market is set up to make big money by taking your money.

 

If a product is inherently bad it will go bad in the first year and the manufacturers warranty will apply. If it is a decent product and survives the first year it will most likely last several more years, far beyond the effectiveness of the warranty. This si the case for any product.

 

Think about it, what is going to wrong with a guitar after the first year, but before the end of the warranty? Nothing that wouldn't be your own fault.

[OhioSlashFan]

I got an extended warranty that is for 10yrs through Guitar Center.

[Bill V]

Never buy an extended warranty. They are pure profit for the retailer.

 

I'm embarrassed to tell this story, but, I bought an extended warranty, for a big screen TV I purchased from a large home appliance chain on Long Island back in 1990. I paid an additional $500 bucks for the extended warranty.

 

To make a long story short, the company went out of business in late 1991 as a result of the recession of the early nineties. There went my $500.

 

BTW, The TV operated without a problem until 1997. Never again.

[theDeuce]

Getting ready to pull the trigger on a Epi Les Paul Studio. Do I get an extra year warranty for $25 or don't bother?

 

Check your credit card terms, many automatically extend the warranty, free.

[snookelputz]

Retail markup on extended warranty is at least 100% over cost. It is the single most profitable sale that can be made. Warranty company carries all the risk, using actuarial type stuff to set pricing. It is THE reason you will see a Circuit City (or other) employee work so hard to get it added into the sale - often going so far as to discount the sold item for the identical amount of the extended warranty. Salespeople make 1-15% commission most places, on every sale. Except extended warranty. It ranges from 10-25% commission. He makes more money on a single extended warranty sale than on all the rest of his sales for the whole day. Most car dealers pay service advisors 6-8% commission on repairs, but usually 25% on extended warranty sales -- unfortunately, the extended warranty company requires the repair to be performed at set prices, so the dealership loses money on any repairs made under the extended warranty they sold. The dealership takes that out of the employee's commissions and bonuses. Now you know why everyone wants to sell one, and nobody wants to repair them.

[Dave]

Generally, I don't buy the extended warranty. On the two that I have purchased on new autos, neither paid for anything that went wrong after the manufacturer's warranty. I did recently buy a $14.99 two year warranty on a bluetooth headset since I have been through three of them due to perspiration in the last two years. At $40 a pop from Newegg, $14.99 was a good deal, since I expect failure to occur. This was a Plantronics Voyager 510, the best headset on the market for my money...just a little fragile.

 

On a guitar, defects are usually related to neck warpage or electronics intermittent problems and rear their head early on. I wouldn't buy an extended warranty on a guitar, especially since we all perform extensive mods on the ones we own.

[layboomo]

Extended Warranties are designed to do one thing only.......Pad the sale by how ever much money they can charge for it! Absolutely do not ever buy an extended warranty! All of the add ons after the initial item are where sales people really make their money! They may only make a few points on the high ticket item,but if they can get you to buy an extended warranty or that rediculously over priced cable or whatever their commission goes way up. Keep your guard up and say no thankyou!

[Red 333]

Getting ready to pull the trigger on a Epi Les Paul Studio. Do I get an extra year warranty for $25 or don't bother?

 

Epiphones have a LIFETIME warranty. Why would you need ANOTHER warranty?

[captmidnight]

 

Epiphones have a LIFETIME warranty. Why would you need ANOTHER warranty?

 

I got to go along with Red here..why buy more when they are covered with a limited life time warranty?

The other guys are right also, extended warranties are one of the biggest rip-offs out there.

Capt

[Notes_Norton]

I've never bought an extended warranty, therefore saving many thousands of dollars.

 

The dealers/manufacturers are not selling extended warranties to save you, they are doing it to make money. If they weren't making much more money than they send out in claims, they wouldn't do it.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

[Suho]

Generally I agree, but I make an exception for higher end electronics. I bought a Sony Vaio desktop and monitor for around $2500 back in 2001. I paid for Best Buy's extended 3 yr warranty, and sure enough the hard drive died about a month before the third year ended. Guy came to my house to replace it. It ended up being worth the money. I don't really trust expensive circuits that can get fried or go screwy, and I can't just tinker with them.

 

As far as the guitar goes, don't do it.

[zdude]

The dealers/manufacturers are not selling extended warranties to save you' date=' they are doing it to make money. If they weren't making much more money than they send out in claims, they wouldn't do it.[/quote']

 

Very true, they are in it to make money - that's the insurance business, which is what an extended warranty really is, but.....

 

Are you saying that if you own your house outright, you wouldn't pay for homeowner's insurance for the sole reason that the insurance agent and the underwriter will probably make a profit off you (God willing, you don't have a devastating situation occur)? Because statistically, you are also better off not to spend the money on these types of insurance policies.

 

But there is risk involved (and sometimes law, such as liability for vehicles, and sometimes contractual, such as when you have a mortgage, etc.), and then if you're number comes up

 

When I had lasik surgery years ago, the opthamologist told me the astronomical odds of something going wrong and me ending up blind in an eye. Let's say he said it was 1 in 1 million. If I end up blind, then it's 100% for me, and I don't care about the other 999,999 people! I'm not saying extra warr on a guitar is or isn't worth it, because that's a personal decision driven by emotion (risk aversion), not purely economics.

[SlagJones]

Well the Epi LP Studio should be on it's way. No extended warranty. Thanks for all the responses. I can't wait for it to arrive!

[layboomo]

"Very true, they are in it to make money - that's the insurance business, which is what an extended warranty really is, but....."

 

Actually that's not entirely correct........insurance policies don't sell you something that already exists the way many extended warranty plans do. I know of a family member that bought an extended warranty on an expensive camera from one of those mega grey goods NY dealers and guess what? Not only is the extended warranty a complete scam,but being grey goods they are not even covered by the original manufacturers warranty. Morale of the story....always buy from an authorized dealer!