Extended Warranty Services Review

It is not going out on a limb to suggest that many consumers make their purchasing decisions based primarily on the cost of the items in relation to other items of the same or similar variety. The product doesn’t really matter, only its price tag.

So, when we at TopTenREVIEWS began to research, examine and analyze companies that sell extended warranty services, we noticed that the majority of them on their websites state that customers who purchased their warranty service plans could “save up to 70 percent” compared to warranty plans offered through stores.  For companies that sit atop our rankings like Electronicwarranty.com, AMT Warranty and 4CS iWarranty, this claim is validated with price comparison charts and written copy that shows their prices versus retail stores’ prices.

As is also the case with many, if not all, of the electronic products consumers can purchase, there are a number of other important aspects of extended warranty services to consider before entering into a contract. These factors are what we used to create our rankings. They are explained in the following paragraphs, but basically they include Coverage, Claim Services, Product Warranties, Help & Support, and Service Network. 

Extended Warranties: What to Look For

There are a wide variety of companies that offer extended warranty and extended service contract products, and it pays to understand the difference between the two. This is elucidated in much more detail in one of the learning center articles about extended warranty services, but we’ll provide a brief explanation here.

Essentially, extended warranties generally draw out the original warranty supplied via the product’s manufacturer. They tend to begin as soon as the manufacturer’s warranty expires. Extended service plans primarily offer protection on things that are not normally covered by a warranty like water damage and routine wear and tear.

Coverage
In this section, we examined the different types of coverage for appliances and electronics warranties each company offers and compared them based on variety and service options. Here you can compare the best electronics extended warranty services that provide coverage on mechanical and electrical failures, surge protection failure, and 100 percent parts and labor with zero deductibles.

Claim Services
It was this section that often separated the great from the not-so-great companies in our research. Companies who offer claim services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, have a paperless option, offer in-house services and employ highly trained service technicians were ranked higher than those who offered only one or two of these services.  

Product Warranties
The variety of electronic products covered via a company’s extended warranty services also played an important role in our rankings. Most of them offer television and computer warranty products, but the better ones also cover some of the more esoteric products, such as global positioning systems (GPSs), vehicle video and audio, and video gaming systems.

Help & Support
This is perhaps the most important section in these rankings of extended warranty services. It could be argued that what customers are really buying when they buy an extended warranty service plan is customer service and technical support. There really isn’t much more to these plans, so the companies that are more accessible and supply more help and support options are the ones who reached the top of our rankings.

Service Network
Most of the extended warranty services providers we reviewed work with an extensive array of maintenance, repair and replacement service centers. The companies with the largest service networks tend to offer customers more location and service choices than those with smaller networks.

Do some research, using this ranking and review site, to find the best extended warranty services for your consumer electronics. For additional information, check out our learning center articles on extended warranty services.

At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don't Have To.™