Recent Comments:
Poll: Extended warranties, necessity or shakedown? {Engadget}
Dec 6th 2007 11:56PM Qsat, If you look closer at your visa, mastercard,amex that double warranty police depends on the card you have and the benefits of that card, also it depends on the bank the card is drawn from, citibank for example will flat out tell you your screwed 90% of the time unless you have a select plan. Chase is another one that will double your warranty (the shortest part of the warranty, so if its 90 days labor they double that to 180) and they exclude consumer electronics from that policy. As for retailers coverage of the projector bulb, in the us sears will cover that item once, as for bestbuy, circuit city and the rest i am unsure of that. In the end, look at the terms of the policy and read it over. If your in question about it ask for a salaried member of management to explain that coverage terms or ask to speak to someone who works in there service depot (if the coverage is in-house and not sold to a 3rd party)
Poll: Extended warranties, necessity or shakedown? {Engadget}
Dec 6th 2007 11:49PM I work for one of the larger retailers in the US, one that happens to have the largest service organization in America. Along with many years in retail (along with many years in IT)
I can honestly say that depending on the item you are purchasing and who owns the warranty they can go from a complete waste of money ie: some of the office supply companies who contract to warrantech and/or ge home services. Others who own the service plan themselves like Sears, who keeps everything in house, can be a great advantage to the consumer. Most of the warranties out there are just that, an extended warranty. Some offer yearly/biyearly service on the item, many times in-home. If you look at the cost of this service in home, example a tv, its almost $190 dollars for that service that the plan would cover for free. Consider that the average service call for a $1500-$2500 item is $440, $440 that could be out of pocket, warranty can look like a great deal. Also if the consumer reads the terms of the plan they almost always can get a full refund of the price of the plan with in the items original warranty period, with out any penalties. That means you might be out of pocket $350 for a 3 year plan for say a $1800-$2000 dollar tv, but with almost all retailers offering 0% financing for xxx months your not really spending anything out of pocket, taking the full advantage of that service and still getting a full refund or a pro-rated refund if your out side of the oem's warranty period. I spend 50% of my day with the 30% of the population that skips the warranty, just to tell them there outside of the manufactures warranty and out side of the stores return policy (in most consumer electronics stores that time is anywhere from 14 days (staples, office depot etc) to 30 days sears, lowes, home depot, costco (for electronics)).
Apple not just refusing cash, also refusing Apple Gift Cards for iPhones {Engadget}
Oct 29th 2007 2:03AM actually if a business offers a gift card, no matter the form of payment they cannot refuse to accept it as payment, they sold the gift card to the customer under the promise, and legal obligation of that card being acceptable payment. Under gift card laws they are required that the gift card have no expiration and no fees with the exception of the card exceeding a 24 month inactivity period or a balance of less then $5, then the fee cannot exceed $1/month. Also in New Jersey ALL other restictions must be printed on the card.
Bioshock Tuesday: win an Xbox 360 and a copy of Bioshock {Engadget}
Aug 21st 2007 11:34PM My current favorite games are Guitar Hero 2 and mario 64 ds
Win a super rare signed 300-Edition Xbox 360 Elite and 300 HD DVD! {Engadget}
Aug 1st 2007 2:31AM I'm still going to buy the movie but this would be way sweeter.
Giveaway: have an iPhone on us! {Engadget}
Jun 30th 2007 1:13AM I'm looking forward to getting an iphone for the email and web surfing features, with wifi at work i'll never have to wait to check my mail on our old computers again!
The beginning of the end for analog TV {Engadget HD}
Mar 3rd 2007 12:11AM "Just go into any of the big box stores and see if they're all stocked up on new sets; chances are most of the employees haven't even heard about this changeover, or even possess the knowledge to direct you to the proper equipment."
Chances are that your wrong there, Sears and many other retailers have been advocating the change to ATSC and/or HD sets for atleast the last 4 years that I know of.
And cable subscribers are affected, around 70 channels of "basic" cable are analog and will be migrated to a digital signal on or before feb 17th of 2009.
http://www.dtv.gov/ has a ton of great info for this topic.
