Is the IBM Thinkpad protection service worth the money?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

>I am buying an IBM ThinkPad T42 and am wondering if the Thinkpad Protection
>Service worth the money.

Yes, if you plan to keep the T42 beyond the original warranty period.
Replacing either the LCD or Motherboard would pay for the warranty.
IIRC, you can wait and decide to purchase the additional warranty any
time that the original coverage is still in effect.

My personal experience with IBM warranty service since 1997 has
been very satisfactory.

Regards ... John

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

jeshoemaker@aol.comNOSPAM (John) writes:
> >I am buying an IBM ThinkPad T42 and am wondering if the Thinkpad Protection
> >Service worth the money.
>
> Yes, if you plan to keep the T42 beyond the original warranty period.

You mean TPS is available past the 3 years of the original warranty?
Could I have gotten that for my A20p? Damn.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Paul Rubin <http://phr.cx@NOSPAM.invalid> wrote:
> jeshoemaker@aol.comNOSPAM (John) writes:
>>> I am buying an IBM ThinkPad T42 and am wondering if the Thinkpad
>>> Protection Service worth the money.
>>
>> Yes, if you plan to keep the T42 beyond the original warranty period.
>
> You mean TPS is available past the 3 years of the original warranty?
> Could I have gotten that for my A20p? Damn.

You guys are confusing yourselves with facts! ;-)

The Thinkpad Protection Service (TPS) covers accidental damage to your
laptop regardless of cause for a specific period of time, usually 1, 3 or 5
years.

The TPS _MUST_ be purchased from IBM at the same time as the computer.

Conversely, the standard warranty on your Thinkpad can be extended at _ANY_
time during the term of the original warranty. E.g., if your Thinkpad came
with a one year warranty, you can extend it at any time during that year. If
your Thinkpad came with a three year warranty, you can extend it at any time
before it expires.

Sorry Paul, but to confuse the issue even more, you can purchase a Service
Pac warranty from IBM for machines that are already OUT of warranty, like
your A20p!

http://www-132.ibm.com/content/hom [...] cepac.html

Meeting the requirement of business use can be overcome by being an author!

--
Regards,

James

Checkout the NEW Thinkpad Forums: http://forum.thinkpads.com

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

xanthinine@yahoo.com (G Tom) writes:
> > I don't travel much with laptops, but I use them heavily at home.
> > I've owned over a dozen of them (mostly Toshiba and IBM, supposedly
> > good brands) and I've had close to a 100% failure rate with them by
> > the time the warranty runs out.
>
> Do you mean a failure of the catastrophic type? 100% sounds like a
> lot! I've had my A20m for 4 years (well past the orginal 1 yr
> warranty!). I did have to replace the LCD, but I managed to do that
> myself with a screen from eBay.

Dunno about catastrophic. I'd say some catastrophic (hard drive
crashes), some gradual failures (770 screen slowly got dimmer until
unreadable), some reliability problems (755cx crashes at random when
you touch it, probably a bad circuit board trace), some failures that
leave the machine useable (A20p hinge busted and screen won't close
properly unless you carefully hold the broken part in place, and also
the speakers intermittently don't work). Laptops basically push the
limits of technology and they don't hold up that well under extended
use.