AVS › AVS Forum › Gaming & Content Streaming › Home Theater Gaming › Xbox Extended Warranty
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Xbox Extended Warranty  

post #1 of 47
11/19/04 at 1:55pm
Thread Starter 
I've been reading a lot about bad dvd and hard drives, so was wondering on the general concensus here on splurging for an extended warranty...for those who don't mod your boxes of course! Is it worth it?

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 47
11/19/04 at 2:22pm
i got the EB games warranty, 1 year if anything happens. i think it was $16 or something. well worth it i think. especially after hearing about all of the bad dvd drives.
post #3 of 47
11/19/04 at 2:36pm
Yeah I got the one from Best Buy. Around $20 for a two year direct replacement warranty.
post #4 of 47
11/20/04 at 12:45am
Thread Starter 
Pretty much what I was thinking....thanks for the input
post #5 of 47
11/20/04 at 10:27pm
i say replacement warranties are good on anything disc based over $100.
post #6 of 47
11/21/04 at 12:33am
I would say that depends on the amount. Twenty percent or more is just too much for a protection plan.
post #7 of 47
11/21/04 at 2:40am
I would never get an extended warranty on anything. If you think you need an extended warranty it would be because:

a. You think there's a high likelyhood that it will break, so why buy it in the first place; or

b. You can't afford the replacement cost of the product, so you really can't afford the item in the first place. If you can't afford $150 you don't need to be playing video games--you need to be working!

ps, My Xbox has been working for two years without a hitch.
post #8 of 47
11/21/04 at 6:33am
Quote:
Originally posted by roreman
I've been reading a lot about bad dvd and hard drives, so was wondering on the general concensus here on splurging for an extended warranty...for those who don't mod your boxes of course! Is it worth it?
I purchased the $14.99 Replacement Plan from Best Buy about 18-months ago. About 3-4 months ago lightning struck my neighbor's house across the street and kill my X-Box, two TiVo units, a router, etc.

I brought the Replacement Plan and X-Box into BB and they replaced it on the spot. The replacement did not continue the original RP so I bought a new one, which is now $19.99.
post #9 of 47
11/21/04 at 10:12am
Quote:
Originally posted by chris5977
I would never get an extended warranty on anything. If you think you need an extended warranty it would be because:

a. You think there's a high likelyhood that it will break, so why buy it in the first place; or

b. You can't afford the replacement cost of the product, so you really can't afford the item in the first place. If you can't afford $150 you don't need to be playing video games--you need to be working!

ps, My Xbox has been working for two years without a hitch.

That is a really f***ed up attitude to have. Who are you to judge what people can afford just because they buy an extended warranty. I would much rather pay $20 now and chance nothing happening than to not pay it and end up with a bad unit that dies out of warranty. I'm not rich but I can afford $150 for a new one if need be, but I would much rather have that $130 to use on something else if it needs replacing.

Oh and no matter how good a product is and how long the majority of them will last, there is always going to be some bad ones in the bunch. They might not die right away though.
post #10 of 47
11/21/04 at 11:26am
Thread Starter 
Chris: If you're buying a warranty that costs 20% of the price of the product, say, then you're saying that you think that there's a one in five chance of the product breaking down. Given the current class-action suits launched against MS over the xbox, one could speculate that this is not unreasonable. Personally, I can afford the xbox and the warranty AND another xbox if the first breaks down. The warranty is insurance.

So Chris, if you can't afford to buy a replacement house (or any other thing you could buy that has a likelihood of breaking), should you not buy one? Should you not buy insurance just because it might break, or some accident (like lightning) might happen? Sorry, flawed logic to me.

Fact is that the xbox is a flawed product that has broken for many. So you're saying that no one should buy it? Sorry, I bought one and I know that it might break. In a perfect world it wouldn't break, but surprise, surprise, it isn't a perfect world!

And, I would argue that those who can't afford to buy a second box are the ones who should most consider getting a warranty, particularly if the warranty is a reasonable price. If the box breaks and they have no warranty, then they have nothing.

Ferret: good story...food for thought.

Dean: Yeah, I agree. The warranty where I bought my box is 20%. I could have bought it elsewhere with a cheaper warranty, but the place I bought it threw in a free game that I wanted. Thus my dilemma on the warranty.
post #11 of 47
11/21/04 at 3:56pm
So I'm the only person that thinks $150 is not a lot of money? You can only buy three games with this amount.

So how cheap does an item have to be for you NOT to buy insurance on it? $100, $50, $5???
post #12 of 47
11/21/04 at 4:27pm
Thread Starter 
For me it's not how "cheap" the product is, except if you're talking about "cheap" in terms of build quality, or on the likelihood that it will break based on use or reputation. For example, Rat Shack offered me a 2-year warranty for a $25 optical cable. They charged me $1.30, and said if the cable stops working for "any" reason, they will replace it, including if the fiber is broken due to the cable being crimped or stepped on. Since it's the cable I use on my xbox, it might get a lot of abuse when I take the box to a friend's place, or even to another room in the house. With animals and clumsy kids around, it seems to me that $1.30 was a good deal, so I splurged the $1.30.

Incidently, I've never spent $50 on an xbox game, although I may buy Halo2 before the price drops or I can buy it 2nd hand.

Maybe I'm just cheap, but I prefer to get the most out of my money. Just a difference in approach I guess.
post #13 of 47
11/21/04 at 5:49pm
Quote:
Originally posted by chris5977
So I'm the only person that thinks $150 is not a lot of money? You can only buy three games with this amount.

So how cheap does an item have to be for you NOT to buy insurance on it? $100, $50, $5???

It's not alot but it isn't pocket change either. It's not like I have an extra $150 to blow every week. Maybe if I made 6 figures it would be a different story.

And it isn't really a limit on what I would buy it on. It is more the cost of the warranty compared to the price of the actual product. And also what the warranty covers.
post #14 of 47
11/21/04 at 7:56pm
i BOUGHT A NEW CONTROLLER AT BB and they tried to sell me a protection pla for it, lol.
post #15 of 47
11/21/04 at 8:12pm
Quote:
Originally posted by chris5977
I would never get an extended warranty on anything. If you think you need an extended warranty it would be because:

a. You think there's a high likelyhood that it will break, so why buy it in the first place; or

b. You can't afford the replacement cost of the product, so you really can't afford the item in the first place. If you can't afford $150 you don't need to be playing video games--you need to be working!

ps, My Xbox has been working for two years without a hitch.
I had a BB warranty on my RPTV for 4 years. Not for any of the above reasons though. I simply knew that I'd want it tuned more than once.

I checked and found the closest Audio/Video shop charged $150 to calibrate a set. So I paid BB $200 and called support at least once a year and said "Looks like too much red to me". They then dispatched the same A/V shops tech to spend 2 hours with my RPTV until it looked like new. Odds are they charge more than $200 when last I had it tuned (day before the warranty ran out in Aug) but near as I can tell I paid no more than $40 a visit.

I also bought a warranty on my second XBox just in case the modding did nt work out.
post #16 of 47
11/21/04 at 8:13pm
Well, when I bought the X-Box it was $179 or $199--cannot honestly remember, but $14.99 is less than 10% I simply played the odds. Keep in mind that this wasn't the limit of the 'plan' either. There was an agreement between microsoft and BB that if during the plan duration (2-years, IIRC) a new x-box came out I was to call an 800# on the back of the plan and get a certificate from one of the two.

Now, the certificate afforded me the ability to trade in my original x-box for the new generation unit for what I originally paid for the original unit. This meant that if a new x-box came out and it was $299 and I had paid $199 for it I could trade-up for $100. So, the benefit was two-fold, but it just happen that lightning got there first.
post #17 of 47
11/21/04 at 9:23pm
Thread Starter 
Ferret: Sweet. Yep, that's a warranty that I'd sign up for!
post #18 of 47
11/22/04 at 5:12am
This is my take on warrantees:

Businesses are in the buisness of making money. Thus, if they can charge a warranty for $15 bucks, then on average they are going to make money on this deal. A base warranty is just to protect the end user from productline glitches and is thus acceptable. I would only purchase an extended warranty if I know said produc will be abused or in a rough area. The only optional warranty I have ever purchased is for my laptop as I carry it around and lord knows what strange things could happen.

So, as such, I do not have any warranty other than a manufacturer's on my x-box.
post #19 of 47
11/22/04 at 5:16am
Let them make their $15 on me. I saved at least $135 when I got a brand new X-Box out of the store regular inventory. Of course, I am what BB refers to as one of their evil customers. :D
post #20 of 47
11/22/04 at 6:02am
TheFerret show me where in your paperwork it says you'll get a next gen Xbox from the replacement plan. It doesn't matter what the people at the store told you, let's see them actually honor it when it comes down to it. They won't. It's not true. I won't say the person lied to you, but I will say he fibbed.
post #21 of 47
11/22/04 at 6:50am
nothru22, when the person handed me the brochure, he pointed to the 800# on the back. Admittedly, the person at the time could have been wrong, could have lied, etc. but considering the 800# was on the brochure, that I had a cell phone handy, it would have been a difficult situation for that floor manager to misrepresent himself.

But, I agree with you. Let me go dig that thing up. I honestly haven't looked at the new place that I purchased at the time my defective original X-Box was being replace, so there could have been a change. Still, its worth looking into.
post #22 of 47
11/22/04 at 7:17am
I just bought a pre-played xbox and halo 2 last monday. By Wednesday evening it was already broken. Now, I bought it at EB, and knowing how awful xbox dvd drives are, I purchased the 6 month extended warranty for $11. The total was $131 (120 +11). EB automatically gives you 2 week coverage, so I didn't need to exercise my extended warranty. Now that was after only 2 days and maybe 5 hours of use. What if I bought that as a birthday gift for someone, and didn't give it to them for 3 weeks? By Chris5977's logic I should just say "No big deal" and drop another $120 on the counter of EB and walk out with another P.O.S. XBOX that will eventually break. And my opinion is that ALL xbox's will eventually break. I love the system, but its a cheap piece of garbage. You know how some people are still playing their ATARI 2600 and their NES 20 years later? I don't think there will be a working XBOX in 20 years. I am half kidding, but only half.
post #23 of 47
11/22/04 at 7:39am
Quote:
And my opinion is that ALL xbox's will eventually break. I love the system, but its a cheap piece of garbage. You know how some people are still playing their ATARI 2600 and their NES 20 years later? I don't think there will be a working XBOX in 20 years. I am half kidding, but only half
Everything breaks eventually but the newer systems have more moving parts. Even the old systems had issues, especially with failing power supplys. The NES was seriously prone to debri build up on the cartridge input. You always had to blow on it or clean it to get games to make a good connection.
Getting back to the Xbox, some of the initial units had the bad drive and I would bet a large number of people traded theirs in and if the game store only tries one or two games they may not even realize there is a problem.

These systems are only 150 now so I would buy new and not used.
post #24 of 47
11/22/04 at 7:53am
My reasoning for buying used and not new was this ... I know a lot of people who purchased new xboxes, only to have them break somewhere between 1 hour and 3 months of use. Usually this was after they had modded them, thus no warranty. I started recommending that people buy used ones, hoping that they had already withstood the test of time. This logic didn't apply to my situation, but it was so ingrained in my head that its what I automatically did.
post #25 of 47
11/22/04 at 9:48am
Ferrett, I know you hope it's true, but it's just not. Call the number. I am not being insulting or condescending in any way. I work in Best Buy on the weekends for LG and I worked for them for 2 years and Circuit for 2 years. I know the plan. That would be suicide. That's just like the guys at Circuit City telling everyone the big screen plan covered cleaning. It just doesn't (but if you get them out there for some other reason, you can usually finagle a quick wipe down.)
post #26 of 47
11/22/04 at 11:46am
I'm not going to cry over it. Its served one of two purposes and saved me money already. Had I not gotten the replacement plan, I would have bought another X-Box as the result of the lightning was not the console's fault at all. Just bad/dumb luck. So, I think I won. And considering that lightning is much more previlent at my current geographic location than when I lived in Florida (which is just wierd, considering Florida is the lightning capital of the world), I have had both TiVo's replace as well as my HD satellite receiver replaced due to different strikes as well--under the DirecTV Protection Plan).

Hopefully the wife can tell me were she is storing such paperwork and I will then scan it--maybe even call that number for follow-up.
post #27 of 47
11/22/04 at 12:16pm
Failing your warranty, home owners probably covered the lightning strike.
post #28 of 47
11/22/04 at 12:37pm
There is no way I would file a claim against my homeowner's insurance for an X-Box. The lightning strike was on my house, but the neighbor's house. A voltage spike must have travelled the POTS because everything else is protected--or so they say.
post #29 of 47
11/22/04 at 12:48pm
Quote:
Originally posted by emr131
Failing your warranty, home owners probably covered the lightning strike.
With a deductible that more than likely is more than 2 new XBOX's.
post #30 of 47
11/22/04 at 3:10pm
Quote:
Originally posted by emr131
This is my take on warrantees:

Businesses are in the buisness of making money. Thus, if they can charge a warranty for $15 bucks, then on average they are going to make money on this deal. A base warranty is just to protect the end user from productline glitches and is thus acceptable. I would only purchase an extended warranty if I know said produc will be abused or in a rough area. The only optional warranty I have ever purchased is for my laptop as I carry it around and lord knows what strange things could happen.

So, as such, I do not have any warranty other than a manufacturer's on my x-box.

I never get an extented warnty on anything I buy... Just another way for the store to make more money off me.

Think about it... Stores wouldn't offer them if they didn't make money on them.
For every one person that used their extended warranty and had their xbox replaced there are probably 15 more people who purchased the extended warranty and never had a problem .
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Home Theater Gaming
This thread is locked  

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Gaming & Content Streaming › Home Theater Gaming › Xbox Extended Warranty