Hi,
I bought a house which is 7 years old. It has natural gas furnace and central air conditioning which I know nothing about maintain or repairing them. The Union Energy company called me to offer me a proctection plan ($15.99/month) which has some services for diagnosis and repairing parts (of course there is limit for no extra charge). I don't have any problem with my central air conditionning and my furnace now. Should I apply this plan?
Any comments are appreciated.
Helen
hi , i was just in a similar situation except the furnace system i bought is around 30 years old ... for 199 i got a tune-up and 1 year service plan (also covers parts) , to me it was worth it because i also do not know much about the system and i could not be sure of how well maintained it has been ...
the way i looked at it was that if i had one service call all winter then i would already have saved money (and 2 problems were already discovered during the tune-up which would have cost me at least 400 to repair so im ahead of the game right off the bat) and it also eliminates the stress of trying to find a service person in a rush when i have no heat , which is extremely hard in my area , you are lucky if they return your call nevermind actually show up ... with the plan i am guaranteed they will get someone here ...
just my >Hi,
There is one thing that is always true. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
They want to sell you the plan because they expect to make money on it. They either expect it to cost less than that or like the free lunch, they figure it will put you right where they want you when something not covered comes up or in the case of the free lunch, you get hungry after eating that salty food.
I would pass on it. Find a trusted local contractor and stick with them. I am lucky and I have a trusted local contractor. When dealing with Union Energy, who knows who they will send out?
I bought a mouse-pad (for $0.99) at Best Buy. At the check-out counter they asked if I wanted an extended warranty for $12.00/year.
Do what you're comfortable with.
And the salesman would have gotten $6.00 for it. How many years did you buy?
I bought a $25 cordless phone at Best Buy, they tried to sell me a extended warranty for $12! The salesman barely got a chance to say the price before I said NO! Realizing I may be missing a GREAT deal that I would be SORRY for missing, I retracted and let him give his pitch. When he got done, I asked him if he could honestly say that a $12 protection plan for a $25 phone was a good deal for me? He wouldn't answer, if fact he did not say a thing and just sold me the phone! Greg
NO! Keep in mind it covers only repairs, not any regular maintanance. You should have the equipment serviced regularly too. Pay a private dealer to come out once or twice a year to check over the equipment and you will be money a head! In my case my furace and AC would have cost me two service calls for repair in twelve years, probably less than $300 parts and labor total. The plan they are offering you would cost me $2300 in the same time. I would take my chances and pay for the repairs when they happen. Greg
When I worked for Sears (which I now call Shears) they pushed maintenance agreements really hard. Why? Cause they are big money makers for the company.
Absolutely... extended warranties are almost never a good deal for the consumer for any product. Unless you can honestly say that you are likely to need the protection, e.g. you get a warranty that covers any kind of breakage for your laptop computer, which you routinely carry with you while mountain biking, these things generally have a payback as little as 10-30%. You will have FAR better luck taking the money to a casino and playing the worst games, like slots, which have maybe 90% payback.
And definitely don't kick yourself if you happen to have a repair to your furnace (or whatever) that might have been covered (even though there are so many restrictions on these things that you're lucky if it would have been...). Think about all the money you saved *across the board* because you never bought a warranty for anything. And also remember that when you get a repair under one of these warranties you are stuck with using the repair service offered by the vendor, which could be of poor quality, timing or convenience.
Thank you all! Now I know what to do. You guys are really great!
Helen
It's pretty safe to assume that ANY service contract for ANY product is a rip-off; whether offered at time of sale, or aftermarket. They are VERY profitable items for folks to sell. Which means most of what you pay is profit / commission and little goes to providing service.
My standard response to any salesperson who tries to sell me an extended warranty is "If this product is so bad that it needs an extended warranty, I don't want to buy it at all".
About the only exception I've ever made to this rule is for very complicated electro-mechanical devices that are often subject to abuse. I got a camcorder on end of year closeout at half price: thus the 3 year warranty was also half price, $30 instead of $60. [Warranty based on purchase price, not item purchased!] The original battery needs replacement after not quite
2 years, at which point I'm money ahead.Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!
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