Compaq's warranty vs Best Buy's warranty

[beherenow]

Any opinions on whether the warranty upgrade on a Presario notebooks is going to be better if I get Best Buy's own plan, or Compaq's? Both Compaq and Best Buy seem equally horrible to deal with; the good thing about BB is I can just bring in the computer and talk to a person, without going through phone hell, right?

Differences between Best Buy's 3-year ($250) and Compaq's 3-year ($170):
- BB covers failures due to normal wear & tear AND power surges; Compaq metions neither.
- BB covers normal battery 'fatigue'
- BB has 3-repair 'No Lemon' clause
- Compaq has 24/7 phone tech support; BB apparently has none. But I'm not an idiot and can't imagine a problem coming up after Compaq's standard,included year of phone support that could be solved just over the phone anyway.
- neither covers accidental (Compaq also has a $350 plan covering accidents and power surges.)

(I'd rather just not have to get a laptop, but that's what I need...)

Thanks much.

 

[JimStapleton]

Best Buy, read my post in the thread below this on how horrible compaq is...

Athlon XP 1600+, MSI K7T PRO2 RU (POS), 2x256 MB CRUCIAL PC2100 CL2.5 memory, Asus V6800 DDR Delux (GF 256) video card, 6.4GB+27GB WD HD, 40GB IBM HD (all 7200RPM). My computer is an acronym

 

[dhlucke]

I find the wait times of these warranties to be horrible. Allthough it looks like the BB warranty prices have risen, consider this....

Last I checked if you have the in home warranty you are not allowed to bring it into the store. So you have to call best buy and arrange for them to come to your house.

If you have the instore warranty, then you have to stand in line and deal with the people in the store. The lines are generally out of control unless you come during YOUR work hours. If you're lucky they won't be too dumb. Generally the techs are knowledgable, but they still have to abide by the stupid rules at best buy and this means that you'll have to leave the computer for testing and then they'll have to probably order parts. If there's a problem or a backlog in parts, it could take a very very long time. Months! Maybe they've gotten better, but I used to hate dealing with someone who was getting the run around and hadn't seen their computer for 5 months out of the 12 they owned it. It would be MUCH BETTER to just save yourself the money on the warranty to go spend $30 at a local mom and pop tech, plus whatever part might die. Most computer manufacturers offer a year warranty anyways.

The thing I like is the no-lemon policy but getting this to fly is hard. You need to have the same problem 3 times. I saw it happen only 2 or 3 times in over a period of a year and half. Granted, they then got to buy a computer TODAY for the same PRICE they bought theirs up to 3 years ago. $2000 3 years ago bought you very little compared to what it buys you today. It's a huge upgrade, but at the expense of probably never having used the computer you originally bought. I don't see the point in that.

The battery fatigue warranty is nice. I don't know if it's worth it for a laptop, but I used it 10 times for my cell phone.

<font color=red>
<A HREF="http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?dhlucke" target="_new">The French are being described as cheese-eating surrender monkeys.</A></font color=red>

 

[Lonemagi]

Build it yourself. Its cheaper.

"Apple is more like the French army. They have great style and class, they often get praised for their valor, and they do everything except win."-<A HREF="http://www.overclockers.com" target="_new">Ed Stroligo</A>

 

[Zoron]

Does Best Buy have Compaq authorized service techs there? If not, your laptop will like being going out to Compaq... which will not necessarily cost you money; but you will have to wait longer to get your laptop. Ordering parts from Compaq is very easy and usually very fast. (All done online). However, if BB isn't Compaq (HP rather) authorized, they won't be able to order the parts that quickly.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>

 

[LancerEvolution7]

They probably are certified techs, just not by compaq(I think). Just get the best buy warrenty. If they can't fix it then they have to give you a new computer equal to the old computers original price. So if a year later they can't fix it, you get a brand new computer.

 

[dhlucke]

Yeah, that's a year without a computer though. Why buy a computer that you can't use?

It's easy for you to say now, but people get very aggravated and are not happy to have to wait months and months to get their PC fixed under warranty.

<font color=red>
<A HREF="http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?dhlucke" target="_new">The French are being described as cheese-eating surrender monkeys.</A></font color=red>