Pushy Sales Clerks Demanding Extended Warranties

[Rich Riddle]

I purchased a Kenmore refrigerator yesterday and knew about the model prior to purchase. It makes the eighth one folks in our family have. We have two of that model in our home and this one is for a rental unit. They sales clerk would not give up about being super pushy on selling an extended warranty. She nearly demanded a purchase of one from every customer she approached. At check out, she ask me a half dozen times to purchase one. Then she asked how I wanted to pay for the extended warranty after continually telling her no. She indicated how foolish it is to not purchase one, how low-quality appliances are made, how I could get more money if it broke since it was a scratch/dent, how much it cost to repair appliances. Her diatribe never ceased. I am guessing they get a commission on the sale of warranties.

Sears wanted $189 for a three year warranty, or two additional years for a scratch and dent $519 refrigerator. I checked at the Home Depot and they would charge $65 for an extended warranty at the same price point. American Express doubles the warranty on appliances for free, so in reality the warranty would only offer one extra year. About this time every year some news agency does a story on how worthless extended warranties are to consumers but in November & December people will spend 1.2 Billion dollars on extended warranties.

As far as appliances go, you typically see a "bathtub" curve on break downs. You either typically see them immediately upon purchase or just before they bite the dust for good. Not so many problems in the middle. Research has shown this for quite some time.

[Bruce Page]

I was trying to buy a washer & dryer at Best Buy and walked out because of a pushy salesman that wouldn't take NO! for an answer. The look on his face was priceless.

[Erik Loza]

I was a retail manager for almost ten years. The thing to remember is that the sales associates you are dealing with at all these big-box retail places are entry-level and not really skilled sales people. It's probably their first real job. Hiring for big-box retail outlets like Best Buy is what we called "turn-and-burn". They are also under a lot of pressure from their managers (who, themselves, are under a lot of pressure from district) to push the value-added items like extended warranties and so on. So, you have these kids who just entered the work force, trying hard not to blow it and ergo, being overly pushy on the sales floor. It's like when you first started asking girls out and every girl said no to you because you probably came across as a pushy jerk rather than a sincere guy. We all were, that's how it goes.

Personally, I expect those types of questions and have never been offended by being asked and likewise, have never had an associate push back at me. Maybe it's my demeanor, but I only say no once and am never rude about it, but they know that I am not interested. Just my 2-cents.

Erik

[Pat Barry]

...As far as appliances go, you typically see a "bathtub" curve on break downs. You either typically see them immediately upon purchase or just before they bite the dust for good. Not so many problems in the middle. Research has shown this for quite some time.

This is a highly overused explanation. Its descriptive but really not insightful. In fact, this model is rarely used for reliability anymore. Bathtubs don't fail right away, ever, unless they were improperly installed, after that, its more likely consumer induced damage than wear-out. When does a bathtub ever really 'bite the dust'? LOL.

[Mike Henderson]

On many items I feel the extended warrantee is not a good deal. As you point out, Rich, most things like refrigerators either fail immediately or at the end of life. And most items come with a warranty that covers the early failures.

Another issue is whether they will really live up to the warrantee. This is a bit different but when we bought our house, it came with a homeowner's warrantee. I had an issue with the stove and called the warrantee company. They refer to a local company. So when I go the name of the local company, I did some research on them on the Internet. There were a lot of reviews that said the same thing - that the company showed up, collected the money you had to pay (maybe $20) and then told you they had to order a part. Then, you never heard from them again.

Since I didn't pay for the warrantee and since I needed the stove fixed immediately, I called the appliance repair guy I work with and paid him to fix it.

I called the warrantee company and complained about them working with a company that got such bad reviews but, as far as I know, they continued to work with them.

Mike

[John O'Brien]

I normally don't go for an extended warranty, but........we bought a Kenmore Elite (made by LG) French door refrigerator and my wife decided to get the warranty. We have had to have 2 repairs so far. First we had an error code, something to do with the freezer fan. A common problem with this model according to the internet. It was replaced under warranty. Then the ice maker stopped working and was also repaired by Sears.

I forget how much we paid for the extended warranty, but I think we are ahead of the game.

[Rich Riddle]

John,
I bought about the least complicated refrigerator they sell, no bells and whistles. No ice maker, no water in the door, no computer, etc. It's like the Yugo of refrigerators.

Mike,
Angie's List reports that home warranty scams constitute the highest percentage of complaints of any companies. They are utterly worthless. Typically the service call fees are higher than one could simply call a technician to fix the problem.

Pat,
Sometimes I forget how scientific and nerdy I talk. In statistics the "bathtub curve" looks like a capital letter U whereas a "Bell Curve" (or Unit Normal Distribution) looks like an inverse U. A bathtub curve shows most problems (or any statistical anomaly) occur at the beginning and the end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

Erik,
I am not known to possess the overly polite demeanor you possess.

Bruce,
Walking out proves your point, but the next closest Sears Outlet is a long drive. I wimped out and returned for a stove after checking to ensure the "Viper" wasn't working.

[Dan Hintz]

On more than one occasion I have told the sales associate (after being asked about the extended warranty several times), "I told you I'm not interested, and I mean it... if you raise the issue about the warranty one more time, not only will I not purchase the item from you, I will inform your manager that you cost the company a sale." I don't believe that has ever failed to shut them up.

[Thomas Pender]

Have any of you all tried to buy a car lately? Even worse.

They try to sell you maintenance plans , warranties, and junk on the car. Worse yet, they misrepresent the benefits of the plans (claiming the need for maintenance not in the maintenance schedule) and sell warranty plans, typically, for a 100% or more markup. They call these guys the finance office, whether you want to pay cash or finance, they bite on and do not give in easy. Consumer Reports recommends not buying and I personally know of no one who ever made out well on one of these plans.

The funny point is that when I buy wood working stuff, I am not pressured to buy warranties - they know we expect it to last and just the implication we need a warranty would chase us away from the sale. Have to admit my Grizzly, Jet, Festool, Onieda, Bosch, Makita, etc., stuff has been rock solid over the years if you do not count my inability to make some of it work as intended.

[Jeff Monson]

Just a polite "no thanks I will take my chances" usually works for me. I seldom get asked twice. The one that makes me chuckle the most is Harbor Freight, the store I go to from time to time will ask, "do you want to add 5 years of protection for $10?" when I say no they respond "ok well I can go ahead and double the mfg. warranty for free." This has happened quite a few times and I really have to struggle not to laugh till I leave the store.

[Dale Coons]

It's the shape of the tub, not how a bathtub lasts. Cut a lengthwise cross section or look at the side of an old style tub with legs--it has a high spot at both ends (the beginning and the end of the 'curve') and a long low part in the middle--sort of "U" shaped. High failure rates occur at the beginning and end of life, but once you make it past the first bit (usually a defect if it fails here), the likelihood is your appliance will last a long time, until you get to the point where parts start failing (end of life). Models producing this shape of curve are still used frequently to predict failure rates for parts--hence a warranty period at the beginning to cover bad parts, then the assumption that unless it is abused or misused in some way, the part will last a long time.

So Rich is right. Warranty deals are usually not in your best financial interest they are there to make money. The mfr warrants the device usually for a period that would cover the initial breakdown (of course, you may get the 'one' that fails the day after the warranty expires), so the extended warranty you pay for covers you for a period your device is far less likely to break down--its a great money maker. On the other hand, if a breakdown or repair costs seem daunting, maybe that 'insurance' is a good thing for you. I don't have repair insurance on my cars. My son, who is totally unhandy feels it is worth it--has it and has used it.

[Matt Meiser]

Even bigger question is whether Sears will make it 3 years to service that warranty? They have to be about out of assets to sell to raise cash.

[Curt Harms]

I was trying to buy a washer & dryer at Best Buy and walked out because of a pushy salesman that wouldn't take NO! for an answer. The look on his face was priceless.

Best solution. Think the knothead learned anything?

[Kent Adams]

I purchased a Kenmore refrigerator yesterday and knew about the model prior to purchase. It makes the eighth one folks in our family have. We have two of that model in our home and this one is for a rental unit. They sales clerk would not give up about being super pushy on selling an extended warranty. She nearly demanded a purchase of one from every customer she approached. At check out, she ask me a half dozen times to purchase one. Then she asked how I wanted to pay for the extended warranty after continually telling her no. She indicated how foolish it is to not purchase one, how low-quality appliances are made, how I could get more money if it broke since it was a scratch/dent, how much it cost to repair appliances. Her diatribe never ceased. I am guessing they get a commission on the sale of warranties.

Sears wanted $189 for a three year warranty, or two additional years for a scratch and dent $519 refrigerator. I checked at the Home Depot and they would charge $65 for an extended warranty at the same price point. American Express doubles the warranty on appliances for free, so in reality the warranty would only offer one extra year. About this time every year some news agency does a story on how worthless extended warranties are to consumers but in November & December people will spend 1.2 Billion dollars on extended warranties.

As far as appliances go, you typically see a "bathtub" curve on break downs. You either typically see them immediately upon purchase or just before they bite the dust for good. Not so many problems in the middle. Research has shown this for quite some time.

If this happened to me, I would have simply said nothing after about the 3rd time and walked away. I'm in sales for a living myself, but this clerk's actions is what makes me sick about where we are going in the sales world. I happen to work for a bank and if we pushed and sold like our executive team asked us to do, we'd be insolvent in no time as everyone of our customers would leave. This type of sales culture is hollow and hellish to work in. Make a quality product, charge more for it if you have to and stop trying to make up for poor quality with expensive warranties that are too much of a hassle to get a claim paid, which is their business model. No pride much anymore left in much of big corporate America, IMHO.

[Pat Barry]

It's the shape of the tub, not how a bathtub lasts. Cut a lengthwise cross section or look at the side of an old style tub with legs--it has a high spot at both ends (the beginning and the end of the 'curve') and a long low part in the middle--sort of "U" shaped. High failure rates occur at the beginning and end of life, but once you make it past the first bit (usually a defect if it fails here), the likelihood is your appliance will last a long time, until you get to the point where parts start failing (end of life). Models producing this shape of curve are still used frequently to predict failure rates for parts--hence a warranty period at the beginning to cover bad parts, then the assumption that unless it is abused or misused in some way, the part will last a long time.

So Rich is right. Warranty deals are usually not in your best financial interest they are there to make money. The mfr warrants the device usually for a period that would cover the initial breakdown (of course, you may get the 'one' that fails the day after the warranty expires), so the extended warranty you pay for covers you for a period your device is far less likely to break down--its a great money maker. On the other hand, if a breakdown or repair costs seem daunting, maybe that 'insurance' is a good thing for you. I don't have repair insurance on my cars. My son, who is totally unhandy feels it is worth it--has it and has used it.

Oh sure, I agree, the curves are usually the high stress points where you would expect the failures to occur. The funny thing, to me, is that the high failures at the end of life is exactly as expected. I mean where do you expect end of life failures to occur except at the end of life? What the??