A member wrote to us about the need to keep your wits about you when you come across an almost-too-good-to-be-true sale.
Our member bought 3 Apple computers in a 10 percent-off sale at Sylvia Park's new Dick Smith store earlier this year.
He was tempted because this was a rare sale of Apple products. But when he tried to register one of the computers, an iMac, for the Applecare package (an extended warranty for Apple products) he found that it couldn't be registered online.
Dick Smith provided a help line number – and the upshot was that the Applecare package wouldn't work as the iMac was a 2009 model. This seemed strange as Applecare normally runs from the date of purchase rather than the date of manufacture.
Further discussions with Apple and Dick Smith led to the bizarre situation where neither refused to confirm when the computer was manufactured, but implied it was a 2010 model. To their credit they did offer finally the Applecare package from the date of purchase.
The moral is: if you're buying something on sale, take the time to make sure you know exactly what you’re getting. And never go for the extended warranty – we don’t think they’re necessary. The Consumer Guarantees Act gives you the same basic protections (unless bought for business use) against manufacturing defects for free.
More from consumer.org.nz
- Extended warranties - we explain the pitfalls, and the cover your already have
- Consumer Guarantees Act - a guide to your rights
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Joseph: I'm curious. Do you think it is acceptable that, after paying a large sum of money for a laptop, it dies after a year? Why should you have to pay more to get that problem fixed? The whole point of the CGA is that it is to protect the expectations of reasonable consumers - if they expect a laptop to live for three years (and that's certainly my expectation), then buying a warranty is paying for something they aleady owe you.
I would never buy an extended warranty for any computer equipment for home use. The CGA should apply, especially after only one year. I would expect the life of a laptop to be around three years, although I have several older ones around here that are happily (if slowly) continuing to provide service.
Sadly the CGA only applies to individuals though, so the extended warranty might be useful in a business environment.
Cheers,
Andrew McMillan.
I have to disagree, as I have found that having brought 4 Laptops over the last 2.5 years for the family that they start have little hardware problems and in one case total failure just out side of the 1 year warranty.So from now on I will be buying a extra 2 years extended warranty. Regards Joseph Taylor