I came to the conclusion a while ago that optional warrenties offered by stores like Dixons, PC World, Comet, Curry’s and similar high street stores for electrical goods are at best a waste of time. I have also decided, more recently, that opting not to go for the additional warrenty is a blessing in disguise.
While i was working during my A-Levels at Comet, I remember the meetings at the beginning of the day in which the managers would persuade members of staff to offer these additional 1 year, 3 year or 5 year warrenties. Most of the time the product doesnt go wrong, and the rest of the time the product is most likely to go wrong just after the additional warrenty ends or during the first 12 months. The first 12 months is covered by the manufacturers guarentee, and so a replacement due to faulty manufacturing or faulty parts is pretty standard and doesn’t cost any extra. So that just leaves the problem of an item breaking down well into the product lifecycle.
So i figure, don’t get the warrenty. When the product breaks, replace it. Don’t just replace it because it’s broken but because of the hidden meanings in this reality. The product has probably broken for a reason, maybe it doesn’t suit your needs or you are using it for something which it shouldn’t be used for. Maybe the product was cheap, so don’t just go out and buy a cheap replacement but invest in a trustworthy brand name with solid customer service and quality control within their product lifecycle.
Alternatively, here are a few pointers for when choosing a brand new electrical product for purchase.
- Go for a trustworthy and reputable brand name
- Don’t follow your intuition, go with the product which is the best
- Take a little advice from representitives within the stores, but remember, they are getting more comission for some products than others
- Think about the idea on which the product is based. Does this make sense, and is it’s primary function better in this product than other products?
- Check out online reviews of the products you like, then test drive them in-store.
- You don’t have to buy a product in a store. If you don’t like their attitude, walk away!
I just want to leave this post by sharing an example of possibly why many high street stores fail. They employ sales people to sell their products, instead of people who understand why the product has been made in the first place. I was with my father and brother in a well known local retailer *cough* comet *cough* and we were looking into purchasing a Hi-fi system for my mother as a Christmas present from my father. Between the three of us we have owned and talked about music systems to know a little bit about them, and as a designer i can see the clear advantages and disadvantages of certain systems as well as their visual impact. So, looking at various systems around the £150 mark, we were greeted by a sales person (sales person being the worst description ever). He proceeded to try and help us by asking us how much we were looking to spend, and then suggested one of the rather ugly models and said “Why not go for this one because you can take the covers off of the speakers”… SOLD!
I’m not really sure why speaker covers were made for the front of speakers or what functional criteria they meet. Now I have realised that they were just added onto micro-systems so phony sales persons could add this feature to their memorised list of things to use whilst advising customers. Other things within this list probably include: “Look, it has a plug so you can plug it in anywhere”, “Check out this clear plastic on the front, you can see the CD spinning around”, “This fridge is great, it cools your food and stuff”.
So who’s going to educate these “Sales People”? Is it the job of the designer, the manufacturer, the marketing department, the stores themselves, engineers, companies who train staff to sell products? I’m not sure, but it is clear that we are in a consumer led society. Very often the consumer knows much more about the products they are buying than the people who are actually selling the products. This is most likely because the consumer will research a specific few products, whereas the sales staff are tasked with retaining knowledge about a whole range of products which rapidly change throughout the course of their daily work.
So, the moral of this story is - Do your own research, and if you are confident in your decision then you won’t need the advice of the sales staff, or the optional extra waste of money they call a warrenty.
Enjoy!
