Your anology while understood has a lot of holes in it. Only a fool would not have health, homeowners insurance, life insurance, automobile insurance. It aint about peace of mind it's about good judgement and common sense. So getting an extended warranty in no way correlates with buying insurance. If you think so try dying, getting into an auto accident, or getting open heart surgery and see where your extended warranty gets you.

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"What you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.”
Harmony happens whenever different parts get to form a whole by means of congruity, concord, symetry, consistency, conformity, correspondence, agreement, accord, unity, consonance…….

When you buy insurance, or buy an extended warranty, you are basically making a "bet" with the insurance company. If the cost of the insurance or warranty is X dollars, then you are betting that you will end up claiming more than X dollars worth of benefits, while the insurance company is betting that your total claims will be less than X dollars over the life of the policy or warranty. But unless the insurance company is dumb or poorly run, they will win these bets more times than not, thus making a profit - their end goal and the reason why they are in business.

The general rule is that you should only insure what you absolutely cannot afford to lose (as in your examples of life insurance, health insurance, homeowners insurance, etc). Insuring a laptop computer that costs $1000 is not a sound financial move unless you absolutely could not afford to pay to get it fixed if it was broken, because the odds say that the cost of the extended warranty will be more than whatever repair costs you will have. Most people who buy the warranty (or any kind of insurance) will pay more to the insurance company than they receive back in claims, and of course the total money paid for all claims will be less than the total money paid to the insurance company for these extended warranties.

Now if you are someone who tends to be very abusive to your laptop, and thus you expect to have more problems than the average customer, then maybe the warranty will be a good idea for you. But if you are an average user, I would say it is not a sound investment.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

Acording to CR 20% to 23% of laptop require repair, thats a very high level, therefore its worth the extra $250+/- to have coverage for 3 to 4 years.

My Thinkpad needed its cooling fan replaced in the first three years and my wife's Toshiba Laptop needs a new cooling fan however I did not buy coverage on that machine, hence the need for a new laptop.

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Loving my BMW

If you are getting a mac laptop, I would suggest getting the AppleCare ext warranty. Just a good idea. I had $1000+ repairs on my iBook the first year of use. Second year of use, with no warranty, it was $300.
I made sure to get AppleCare on my MacBook Pro.


(btw blue: MacBook and MacBook Pro are two very different machines)

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T

AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll [Add $349]

Thinkpad
3 year depot 9x5 Next Business Day [add $119.00]


Quite a difference in cost

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Loving my BMW

There you have it, buy the Thinkpad

That's correct and I'm making that bet based on the fact that I know in this day and age a certain percentage of the gear you buy WILL fail. The cost ratio of the computer i buy based on the cost of the warranty puts me way ahead. You see my computers are not abused and don't cost $1000.00 as you assume. More like 4 to 5 thousand and any cost to repair them usually exceeds the one time $250.00 bucks for the extended warranty i'll pay. My machines usually last about 5 years so if my warranty is for 3 years max that's only $83.00 a year no where near the continious life, auto, health, or other ongoing premium i might pay for other insurance. So as i said your anology dosen't hold water. I have had extended warranties on all my mac gear and one year i save over $600.00 and paid way less than that for the warrantys. In the end for me it made perfect sense.

You example for

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"What you hear in a great jazz band is the sound of democracy. “The jazz band works best when participation is shaped by intelligent communication.”
Harmony happens whenever different parts get to form a whole by means of congruity, concord, symetry, consistency, conformity, correspondence, agreement, accord, unity, consonance…….

Point/Counterpoint

10/29/2007
"Macs beat machines built and sold by Lenovo Group Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Co., Gateway Inc. and Dell Inc., according to Rescuecom Corp.'s second annual reliability report. Apple, which took the second spot last year, blew away the competition this year by posting a score of 51% higher than next-best Lenovo."

Computerworld article LINK

SG, how many Apple laptops are sold in comparison to a HP or Dell? I'd imagine far more HP's and Dells are sold, thus...far higher number of issues. Playing Devils Advocate.

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An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.