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How
to Win at eBay:
Warranties
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Use this link to get to eBay whenever you buy and it helps me write more like this, thanks! Ken.
July 2011 top of How to Win at eBay Index of detail pages
Bogus "Square Trade" Warranties
I use Adorama, Amazon, Ritz, B&H, Calumet, J&R and ScanCafe. I can't vouch for ads below.
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Ignore sales pitches for warranties.
I often get repeated pitches from Square Trade glibly offering coverage, along with loads of claimed testimonials from happy customers.
I decided to read the fine print, since for about $10 they offered several years of coverage for a used Nikon FA I had bought, and I know FAs occasionally need service. I'd pay their $10 for a few years of insurance. The FA hasn't been made for over 20 years.
It would have been trivial to click the links and buy the coverage, and I almost did.
Then I read the fine print.
Square Trade explicitly denies any coverage for anything more than a few years old!
Square Trade would cheerfully have taken my money, and God help me if I ever needed to make a claim!
One of you consumer lawyers out there needs to do something to stop them from so aggressively and repeatedly offering coverage on items which clearly would have no coverage.
When I get an item from a seller in cahoots with them, the junk emails (actually illegal Unsolicited Commercial Email) keep coming for weeks.
Google them if you're curious.
New Gear: Manufacturers' Warranties
If you're buying what you think is new gear in the box, but if it's not sold by an officially authorized dealer, legally it's a used product, and not covered by the manufacturer's warranty.
This is another reason to buy new gear only from real, authorized dealers, and not strangers over eBay.
eBay is for used gear. I never use it for getting new gear.
Sure, you might get the manufacturer to cover you, but like everything else over eBay, you're gambling.
What if it shows up, and it's not what you expected?
Next: Legal Obligations
back to top of How to Win at eBay.
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