I think they are a bad investment for many situations. They are expensive and never solve any emergency problems. You only come out ahead in a total system failure where environment or human error didn't cause the problem. So, power surges, lightening, accidents, etc. are uncovered. Hard drives, cards, or even a processor failure are almost always cheaper than the warranty. That's why they sell them.

In my case, our equipment is in a lights out facility. So, arranging for the company's tech personnel to come by and look at the hardware (which is some local tech contractor) isn't a time-saving task. Again, packaging the unit up, FedEX'ing the box to our home office and doing a real diagnostic on it so we feel confident putting the machine back into product is cheaper and much more reliable a business practice. In my business, the hardware is the cheap part. The warranty doesn't actually save money in our case.

Posted in business | tech jasonn's blog