Few of these store or extended warranty policies are worth anything other than as profit to the company and to the store. Lenses rarely break unless you damage them, and damage of that sort is never covered.
If you want extended warranty protection, check your credit cards and see if any offer it as a service. I always buy with a card that at least doubles the manufacturers' warranty. Some cards also offer loss or damage reimbursement for a period of time ... American Express reimbursed the $900+ it cost to fix a camera that was flung from my hands when a small child ran into me while I was taking a photo from a stone bridge while in Italy. I'd only just purchased the camera two weeks before, while in the UK. Paul mentioned AppleCare (Apple Protection Plan). In the course of my time at Apple Computer, I worked extensively with the group defining that program to make it as good a value to the customers as possible. It's still a huge profit center for Apple ... but I feel good enough about my work there to the extent that I buy it for my systems and recommend it for my clients when they are looking to buy new Apple systems. It has paid off and proved a major savings for both myself and for several clients over the years. A necessary evil? well, I question the necessary part, but it has certainly done good for me. G On Jun 22, 2008, at 7:33 AM, Bruce Walker wrote: > I'm interested in comments on what PDMLers think about extending the > Pentax factory warranty (2 years in Canada) with an extended warranty. > My impression is that Pentax lenses, especially such as the Limited > ones, are very rugged and reliable and so an extended warranty is a > waste of money. > > Background: I purchased a new SMC DA 2.8 35mm Macro Limited on > Saturday. > This was my first purchase from a particular large Canadian photo > chain > (Henry's). I was taken aback by how aggressively the sales guy was > pushing Henry's extended warranties on stuff, even on the UV filter! > The lens was $449 Ca, and they want $79 for a warranty that will push > total coverage out to 5 years. I'm always leery of 3rd-party extended > warranties on products that are generally solidly built and > expected to > last for a very long time, so I declined it. My take is that stores > like this don't feel they're making enough on the bare products so > they > want to load the purchase with useless add-ons. (I know that many > feel > that UV filters themselves are useless add-ons.) > > So, would you have taken the warranty on this lens? Am I leaving > myself > open to an expensive repair bill 3 years from now, or did I shrewdly > avoid a "store tax"? > > Cheers! > > -bmw > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above > and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
