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hart · Jun 5, 2003, 06:01 AM

(sorry if this isn't the right spot for this post)

I was taking a look at the 17" powerbook yesterday in CompUSA yesterday and evesdropped on a salesman selling someone a new ipod.

Now, I have to say that this CompUSA has a nice Apple area and it seemed that the regular Apple guy was out to lunch so in that light the salesguy seemed to know more than expected.

The selling the ipod part was fine, although the customer, who had an imac of some sort wasn't clear on firewire which he'd never used and the salesman was equally unclear on the accessory, dock/cable/case business as it relates to size of ipod. Plus, they had the boxes locked up downstairs so the customer couldn't actually look at it when he wanted to.

My ears started to perk up when the salesman started to promote the CompUSA extended warrant. Anyway, the upshot is that he told the guy that the ipod was "fragile" so he better get the warranty and as he said it over and over in the salespitch I started to feel that perhaps this wasn't making the product sound so good.

The other thing he said is the battery is only good for 500 charges. (The warranty has a battery replacement thing in it altho it wasn't precisely clear how it works.) I wasn't aware that battery life was so definitive. This also didn't make it sound so great. I know there's issues about battery life but should a salesperson be telling someone that after 500 charges his $$$ ipod will die?

In any case, it gave me pause to hear the ipod sold in about 5 minutes of sales and then denigrated for another 15 in an attempt to sell a store extended warranty.

icruise · 07:14 AM

Yeah, I've heard similar things from places like Best Buy and Circuit City that make a fair amount of money on their extended warrantees. I always thought it was ironic that they would get done selling you on how wonderful the product you were buying was, and then go ahead and tell you that it could break at any moment, etc.

djjava · Jun 5, 2003, 07:24 AM

Originally posted by Icruise:
Yeah, I've heard similar things from places like Best Buy and Circuit City that make a fair amount of money on their extended warrantees. I always thought it was ironic that they would get done selling you on how wonderful the product you were buying was, and then go ahead and tell you that it could break at any moment, etc.

whenever they try to sell me, or anyone i am with that extended warranty crap... i tell them to get lost... everyone should. Especially for "cheap" items. The PB17, yeah, you get the Apple warranty. But to spend an extra 30% of the item cost to get the warranty, forget it! Most items come with a 1-2 year warranty anyway, all best buy/compusa etc does it make it as simple as brigint it to the store and exchanging. And who knows, they may pull some garbage on you and say, oh, well that isn't covered... sorry.

PowerBub · Jun 5, 2003, 09:50 AM

i grabbed this from ipodlounge.com -- it seems relevent

The iPod's Sony Lithium polymer battery (model# UP325385 A4H in the June 2001 Catalog) is rated for more than 500 charging cycles - one charging cycle consisting of draining the battery, than recharging it to a full charge. Therefore, the life span you should expect from your iPod's battery will depend on how often you have to fully recharge the battery. Worse case, assuming consistent, very heavy daily use, you might need to fully recharge the battery every 1 or 2 days. This would result in an expected battery life span of 2 - 3 years. A lighter, probably more typical usage pattern might result in a full recharge once a week on average. This should equate to an expected battery life span of 9 - 10 years.

Please bear in mind that these are estimates and are based on 500 recharge cycles - which is the minimum number of recharge cycles for which the battery is rated. Also, since the iPod has been around for less than a year, no one has any real world experience to back up these estimates.

Finally, please remember it is recommended to never allow your iPod's battery to completely discharge since it is never turned totally off (it instead just sleeps - this is what provides iPod's instant on capability). You should recharge it to full charge regularly, before it has an opportunity to fully discharge (Lithium polymer batteries do not have a "memory"). In fact, some experienced iPod users try to never let their iPod's battery indicator get below 2 bars. Also, many experienced owners always recharge using the AC adapter as opposed to recharging from the FireWire port on their computers. In certain situations, the iPod's HDD will spin continually when connected to a computer, causing excess wear on the drive & power drain. This can be avoided if you "eject" iPod in iTunes and Finder, making the FireWire port a "charge only" port. Or, you can opt to always recharge your iPod using the AC adapter (or a car recharger).

-Q- · Jun 5, 2003, 10:01 AM

Originally posted by djjava:
Most items come with a 1-2 year warranty anyway, all best buy/compusa etc does it make it as simple as brigint it to the store and exchanging. And who knows, they may pull some garbage on you and say, oh, well that isn't covered... sorry.

Plus, if you pay with a credit card, most offer to extend your warranty another year on top of the manufacturers so you're getting another free year. Extended warranties are rarely ever worth it...

hart · Jun 5, 2003, 10:05 AM

An ipod salesperson says "good for at least 500 charges" and a CompUSA warranty salesperson says "only good for 500 charges".

hmmm.

Thanks for the good info. it seems this 500 number is not just completely imaginary whether it's "up to 500" or "at least 500".

bilingual · Jun 5, 2003, 12:07 PM

The Compusa warranty is very well worth it. I am at my third iPod right now (30GB). The first two (5 and 20) were all bought at Compusa with an extended warranty. Whenever a new iPod would come out, I would wait a couple of weeks till the Compusa has them in stock, go there, and say that the battery is not holding charge anymore as it used to (which is always true). Compusa would either give me a giftcard for the amount I paid initially or just give me a breand new unit. The trick is to wait till they are depleted of the stock of old units. So, if you want to stay up-to-date with your iPod, get it from Compusa. I did.

all2ofme · Jun 5, 2003, 04:12 PM

I thought this too, but was told by my credit card company (post purchase) that mp3 players weren't covered by this. "No moving parts" they said. I protested, but got nowhere.

They also said that they don't do plasma screens because they had a limited life. I didn't tell them that the 20" LCD I was registering with them for the extra year was of similar ilk.

If that's the case with your card company then great for you. I'm jealous

People get shafted every which way these days.

Originally posted by -Q-:
Plus, if you pay with a credit card, most offer to extend your warranty another year on top of the manufacturers so you're getting another free year. Extended warranties are rarely ever worth it...

d0ubled0wn · Jun 5, 2003, 05:39 PM

For something like an iPod, I wouldn't buy one without an extended warranty. If the battery craps out before 2 years (the most likely occurrence), or any kind of hardware failure, I just take it back to Best Buy and if they can't fix it on the spot (and I'd be very surprised if their techies even knew how to perform a reset) they will usually allow an exchange for a new one with no hassle. If I'm willing to drop $300 for a product, an extra $50 or so is no problem for a little peace of mind.

Reminds me of the time I bought an HP CD writer for my PC with an extended warranty. What a POS... I spent a couple weeks going 'round with HP support trying to get 8x burning to produce readable discs on other CD readers. They told me to only use HP media (which still didn't work.) Then they said it was most likely a problem with the CD reader, not the HP writer. I gave up on it, took it back to BB, and they gave me an exchange for a Yamaha unit no questions asked. I'm willing to pay extra cash for that kind of insurance.

d0ubled0wn · Jun 5, 2003, 05:48 PM

Originally posted by bilingual:
Whenever a new iPod would come out, I would wait a couple of weeks till the Compusa has them in stock, go there, and say that the battery is not holding charge anymore as it used to (which is always true). Compusa would either give me a giftcard for the amount I paid initially or just give me a breand new unit.

You are an evil genius

. I don't think I could do that on a good conscience though.

::maroma:: · Jun 20, 2003, 04:47 PM

Originally posted by bilingual:
The Compusa warranty is very well worth it. I am at my third iPod right now (30GB). The first two (5 and 20) were all bought at Compusa with an extended warranty. Whenever a new iPod would come out, I would wait a couple of weeks till the Compusa has them in stock, go there, and say that the battery is not holding charge anymore as it used to (which is always true). Compusa would either give me a giftcard for the amount I paid initially or just give me a breand new unit. The trick is to wait till they are depleted of the stock of old units. So, if you want to stay up-to-date with your iPod, get it from Compusa. I did.

This is true. I have a friend who works in the Apple section of CompUSA and he tells me to get the ext. warranty. He said that I could basically go swimming with my iPod, bring it in, and they'd give me a new unit. Of course, waiting for the new versions is best.

tooki · Jun 22, 2003, 12:04 PM

...and that's the reason that pretty much every kind of insurance has a deductible, to keep you from burning your house down every couple of years so you can get a new house and new furniture.

The thing is, if everyone abuses these extended warranties (and it seems that there is widespread abuse), they will either rise significantly in price, or they'll stop offering them.

tooki

yoyoman · Jun 23, 2003, 12:40 AM

Originally posted by bilingual:
The Compusa warranty is very well worth it. I am at my third iPod right now (30GB). The first two (5 and 20) were all bought at Compusa with an extended warranty. Whenever a new iPod would come out, I would wait a couple of weeks till the Compusa has them in stock, go there, and say that the battery is not holding charge anymore as it used to (which is always true). Compusa would either give me a giftcard for the amount I paid initially or just give me a breand new unit. The trick is to wait till they are depleted of the stock of old units. So, if you want to stay up-to-date with your iPod, get it from Compusa. I did.

sales pitch! Ahhhhh. warrantys are not worth it. It is a wast of money and by the time your battery dies a new iPod will be out any way most likely.

Mac Zealot · Jun 25, 2003, 01:57 PM

Aw yes, but then again I find the warranties VERY handy sometimes.

When I bought my G4 I bought a warranty for my printer, 3 year replacement thing and what do ya know, the 'violent paper feeder' in my lexmark finally did something you'd think a violent paper feeder would do!

It ate the whole stack of paper, I went to the compusa, they told me to come back in a week, and when I did a nice amount of money was waiting for me

I actually feel bad I didn't get a compusa warranty for my g4/cinema display.. they certaintly seem to be more attent then applecare.

See once you give an employee commision on something like this, they'll be your friend

dettociao · Jun 25, 2003, 06:05 PM

Originally posted by bilingual:
The Compusa warranty is very well worth it. I am at my third iPod right now (30GB). The first two (5 and 20) were all bought at Compusa with an extended warranty. Whenever a new iPod would come out, I would wait a couple of weeks till the Compusa has them in stock, go there, and say that the battery is not holding charge anymore as it used to (which is always true). Compusa would either give me a giftcard for the amount I paid initially or just give me a breand new unit. The trick is to wait till they are depleted of the stock of old units. So, if you want to stay up-to-date with your iPod, get it from Compusa. I did.

That's disturbingly unethical.

jrome · Jun 28, 2003, 04:44 PM

Are extended warranties (in general) a good purchase? Well, ask yourself this: why do you think they give salesman such a high commission for selling the warranty-- it's because the profits are large. CompUSA makes FAR more money selling the $50 warranty than they do by selling the $300 iPod, and it's not even close. Sure, if you're going to commit fraud over there like Superfan #99, you can make them work. And yeah, on a $3500 laptop, it seems like a fair price for piece of mind.

But honestly, if you're spending $300 on an iPod, do this: take the $50 & put it in a drawer. Continue with all consumer electronics purchase under $1k. Check back in two years. My guess is, what you'll save by skipping the extended warranty will more than pay for any item that broke. Everyone loves telling their story about how the extended warranty always saves them. Well, guess what-- those who don't use it feel stupid for spending $50 on a piece of paper that did nothing, and don't wanna talk about it.

Not only that, the salesmen lie when they sell 'em. Ask 'em if it covers something, and they'll say yes. Ask them why that occurence is specifically excluded, and they'll cloud the issue. Brng it in for repair, and watch them leave as you walk out the door w/ your tail between your legs.

Save the money, skip the warranty.