[PLUG] Laptops and warranties

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Mon Aug 7 13:24:24 UTC 2006


On Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 11:25:57AM -0700, Dwight Hubbard wrote:
> Honestly, I would much rather put the money I would spend on the warranty
> into a decent investment when I buy the laptop.  I do this for three
> reasons:
> 1. Depreciation - By the time the manufacturers warranty is up often times
> the computer is worth about the same or just slightly more than the amount
> spent for the extedded warranty.
> 2. If I get a lemon laptop that keeps requiring repairs, use the money I put
> aside to buy a different brand or model of laptop, extedded manufacturer
> warranties effectively lock you into that model of laptop.
> 3. None of the money is getting wasted to pay people who's job it is to find
> some reason the repair isn't covered.
> 4. The money can be used to replace the battery
> 5. I can use the money in the investment to upgrade to a new laptop if I
> don't use it for repairs.
> 
> Like you said the warranty is a bet.  Just like in Vegas the companies
> offering the warranty have done the math and made sure they will on average
> make more money off of you than they pay out.

There is nothing wrong with companies making money, IF they provide
value.  Keep in mind that part of their warranty calculation involves
keeping you as a customer rather than losing you to the competition
(worth $), and part of it involves stocking spares, keeping technicians
trained, etc.  The high prices charged for out-of-warranty repairs are
indicative of the high costs associated with unpredictable repair
demands.  It is a bet, but it is not Las Vegas, more like commodities
futures.  A warranty provides assurance to both parties.

In my case, I started with a very good laptop (a Thinkpad T30) with 
features I like a lot (trackpoint, decent speed, good quality).  It
is not a "lemon" per se, but it has needed quite a few repairs, mostly
due to getting a LOT of use.  I prefer its feature set to many of the
follow-on models,  and migrating to a new laptop ranges from annoying
to painful.  The relatively high price for used T30s on Ebay, years
after they stopped making them, indicates that others think the T30
is a good machine, too.  I'd buy a new one if they still made them.

Junking 2 year old laptops is not virtuous - if the hardware still
meets the need, it should be maintained.  So, assuming that I keep
it (earning 2x its depreciated market price per week), and that it
will need repairs from time to time,  what is the best way to do so? 
Warranty is a bargain, for me and for the manufacturer.  

Yes, there are bad warranties out there.  The IBM->Levono->Selectron
warranty is trending towards suckiness (and many manufacturers have
outsourced their repair to Selectron).  I am considering alternatives,
but I still may buy Levono next time, if that turns out to be the best
warranty available.  I consider a good warranty an important product
feature, and an comprehensive warranty indicates the manufacturer's
confidence in the quality of their product.  

You say bad warranty service is not worth it - I agree.  But that
does not mean that good warranty service is also worthless.  If you
have ever had excellent repair service, such as I have had in the 
past from IBM for my laptops, or in other domains (for cars from
State Farm / Heitzmann, for example), you would be less enamored
of the "disposable crap" approach to life.  There are still people
that take pride in quality, and I enjoy basking in their sunshine.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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