Walmart's Protection Plan...worth it?

[eightbit]

I know most people will say "of course" to any additional plan, but I just wanted to see if anyone has purchased (or even had to use) Walmart's plan in the past for a game console. I purchased an Xbox Series X from Walmart on 12/17. Not my first choice of retailer, but it was available for a few seconds and I was able to beat the bots for once...so Walmart it was

 

Anyway, the console arrived on 12/28. No issues. Packaged well and works great. It has a 1 year warranty with Microsoft but I do have the option (8 days left now) to buy a 3 or 4 year extended plan that is "powered by Allstate" through Walmart. The price does not seem astronomical for four years ($77) but when I look at the terms I really can't see much that specifically applies to consoles:

 

https://www.squaretrade.com/img/merchant/pdf/terms-conditions/new/(2019-12-17) ST-WALMART-A3 (final).pdf

 

I mean, they speak of optical, jewelry, rugs, "multi-use items". I sort of skimmed through it but I would have suspected a plan for consoles to be thorough about just that...consoles.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to get some input from you kind folks as maybe someone has more information about it and hopefully some experiences they would like to share with using it in the past. I would like to be covered on this console for as long as possible if the coverage is worth it, especially considering the cost of the console and the fact that it has moving parts (optical drive, massive fan) that could be failure points in the future.

 

Any input is appreciated!

[DragonGrafx-16]

I got a two year plan on my PC but that was a different store... and also unlike a game console it cost a lot more than double the price... and that covers parts and all that.

 

I would not get a plan if it doesn't clearly state what is covered. If it doesn't they can just screw you over. It's a way to make extra money off of people. 

[eightbit]

7 minutes ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

I got a two year plan on my PC but that was a different store... and also unlike a game console it cost a lot more than double the price... and that covers parts and all that.

 

I would not get a plan if it doesn't clearly state what is covered. If it doesn't they can just screw you over. It's a way to make extra money off of people. 

 

Well, I would at least expect that the warranty would cover normal failures (such as if the drive stopped working, or the console stopped turning on) otherwise what would be the purpose of the warranty in the first place. It seems however they are encompassing all products they sell that are eligible for an extended warranty into one blanket warranty.

 

I purchased a refurb Macbook on Amazon for my daughter and she spilled an entire bowl of hot ramen onto it and Assurion (the warranty through them that I purchased) covered it 100%. I don't know what we would have done without that...well...yeah I do. We would have thrown it away and called it a day. But at least with that warranty it was very clear what they covered.

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by eightbit

[DragonGrafx-16]

I just don't think I would trust Walmart's protection plan. They push it on anything almost...

 

Anyway let me fix what I said above... the plan on my PC also covered accidental damage. 

[eightbit]

It appears from the reviews that most people are satisfied with it. Of course some people had issues, but the reviews indicate many did not:

 

https://www.walmart.com/ip/3-Year-Protection-Plan-For-Gaming-Hardware-Accessories-200-399-99/810641192

 

[Tanooki]

If it's Allstate backing them they're a very reputable quality insurer primarily for home, auto, other vehicles, and renters insurances too but I know they did other plans.  Just think of it this way you're not buying it from Walmart, you're buying it through Walmart from Allstate.  If you can't read the legalese bs, call Allstate and ask, then buy it or not.  But given the problems with heat and other bs it seems these early first model systems have it would almost seem like a no brainer at around $70-80 vs what $500?

[eightbit]

6 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

If it's Allstate backing them they're a very reputable quality insurer primarily for home, auto, other vehicles, and renters insurances too but I know they did other plans.  Just think of it this way you're not buying it from Walmart, you're buying it through Walmart from Allstate.  If you can't read the legalese bs, call Allstate and ask, then buy it or not.  But given the problems with heat and other bs it seems these early first model systems have it would almost seem like a no brainer at around $70-80 vs what $500?

 

This is my thought. I think I will probably just go for it. I may not have any problems at all for the next few years (knock on wood) but the peace of mind that at least I will have some avenue after the stock warranty expires is something I want. Still, I wish I could apply the Microsoft total care to this but apparently you can only do that when purchasing directly from Microsoft.

 

If someone actually has/had a Walmart Allstate protection plan and had to use it in the past here I would like to hear the experience still. But, yeah, it looks like I will probably just do this. Thanks for the reply.

 

And if not and if I ever have to use this thing in the future I will certainly add that experience to this thread for others

Edited January 8, 2021 by eightbit

[Video]

It's dependant. Like a previous poster said, I've only bought them for more expensive items like computers. I don't bother with media, as it either works, or doesnt, and unless your abusive to your things, it'll work forever if it worked when you got it, and if it doesn't work, well, Wal-Mart does let you exchange within a certain time frame, so no need for extra insurance.

 

So far, Wal-Mart gives the option (which I'm almost exclusively "no" on) but it won't surprise me when they just go to adding it to everything even if you don't ask.

[eightbit]

I highly doubt they will ever "make" you purchase extended warranty with a product. They (and other retailers) have been offering additional warranty for items for as far back as I remember. But depending on the coverage it may be worth it as it would have for the PS3 I had that developed the yellow light after two years or the Xbox 360 that developed the RROD after 2 1/2 years. Most manufacturer warranties offer one year by default and if you do not have any sort of extended warranty you will have to pay for out of warranty repair which generally is half or more of the cost of the console.

 

What I would really like to know is if anyone here has actually purchased and had to use their warranty in the past and what their experience is with it.

 

As an example I will share that my experience with Assurion (which is the warranty Amazon provides) is an excellent service. I have had to use it twice already for a laptop and filing a warranty claim is extremely easy and hassle free.

Edited January 8, 2021 by eightbit

[Razzie.P]

Yes, I've purchased it 12 times (per my emails) over the past few years, and have used it 7.  I take care of my crap, but 3 kids are a bit rough on their tablets and laptops, so these protection plans are a must for me.

 

But yes, I've had to use a few times, and it's always been the same, painless process when I've used Asurion through Amazon (same kids, ya know...)

 

Here's the thing, though -- all of my Walmart protection plans (and some from Amazon) are through SquareTrade.  As of 2019, though, it says "powered by Allstate" but still shows "SquareTrade."  I've not had to use any through Allstate (my claims were on purchases prior to 2019) though, so anything I say may be moot if it's changed, but best I can tell by reading the info, it seems to be exactly the same, though.   Here's the link provided with each for "understanding my coverage."  You'll notice it's still SquareTrade

 

https://www.squaretrade.com/coverage

 

Whenever I've bought the plans, it's always been specified whether it's Standard or Accident Protection, so I've never had any confusion with what's covered.

 

Hopefully you'll never have to use it, but it's saved me quite a bit with the kids' gadgets. 

 

 

Here's an sample of the email/contracts in case you wanna see how they spell out what's what.  At the bottom of each, they have the link I posted as well.

 

Hope any of this rant helps.

 

 

 

[Razzie.P]

Also worth noting, maybe -- of the claims that I've filed, they mailed a new replacement for 2 of them (new, not refurbished best I could tell) via Walmart and the replacement was covered through the remainder of the plan.   And the other times, they simply mailed a check for the purchase price since the same item wasn't available.   I've never had to use the "we'll repair your item" option.

 

 

[Tanooki]

19 hours ago, eightbit said:

 

This is my thought. I think I will probably just go for it. I may not have any problems at all for the next few years (knock on wood) but the peace of mind that at least I will have some avenue after the stock warranty expires is something I want. Still, I wish I could apply the Microsoft total care to this but apparently you can only do that when purchasing directly from Microsoft.

 

If someone actually has/had a Walmart Allstate protection plan and had to use it in the past here I would like to hear the experience still. But, yeah, it looks like I will probably just do this. Thanks for the reply.

 

And if not and if I ever have to use this thing in the future I will certainly add that experience to this thread for others

Well I've had them for renters at first, then condo, then home all around having auto too.

Last year my very old roof was getting up on its last legs, yet despite that, while they were dickish at first, and it was an area thing more than a property thing, another storm cracked a piece of roof just near the water heaters roof spout enough to leak in rain, and then they did help.  I got around $8000 or so to replace my entire house but also detached garage roof too a few months back.  Once the ball got rolling, each rep with very friendly, very helpful, took care of stuff, it wasn't pulling teeth or putting up with bs.

 

The only dickish thing was, and all insurers do it in this area, was around a decade ago a horrid storm came through and jacked up a majority of the roofs in this major area and collectively the industry lost billions.  Due to that they're very particular about authorizing roof repair compared to most others which is dumb, but I get it.

[DJ Clae]

On 1/7/2021 at 9:34 PM, eightbit said:

I know most people will say "of course" to any additional plan,

No, quite the opposite in fact. I thought it's common wisdom these days that the protection plan is a racket, not worth the money. Most run out before the 3-year mark around the time when a PS3 would have died.

[eightbit]

4 hours ago, DJ Clae said:

No, quite the opposite in fact. I thought it's common wisdom these days that the protection plan is a racket, not worth the money. Most run out before the 3-year mark around the time when a PS3 would have died.

Hey man, I though the same thing for years. I actually never purchased a protection plan on anything, ever. I purchased a laptop for my kid from a co-worker however who had purchased it refurbished on Amazon. He purchased the three year extended warranty when he bought the laptop and mentioned it to me in case I had any issues.

 

Well, a few months after I bought this for her she ended up eating in bed (which we tell her never to do!) and an entire bowl of hot ramen water tipped over into the Macbook. I opened the thing to inspect the damage and it was destroyed. It was on when hot salt water poured all over the board, so you can imagine the damage.

 

I nearly tossed the laptop out and was calling this a loss until I spoke with my co-worker and he had mentioned the extended warranty. I thought there would be no way in hell they would cover this, but to my amazement they did. They sent me a shipping box with a pre-paid label, off it went, and in about 2 weeks I received an email that the repair was done. It came it and I inspected it. All of the boards had been replaced.

 

 

This experience alone has completely changed my tune about these warranties being a "racket". I thought the same as you previously, but this really saved my butt. I doubt Apple would have taken it in for repair even if I had to pay them, but this insurance took it in and didn't cost me a dime.

 

I think it takes an experience like this for someone to become a believer in the insurance. If you never purchased it and never used it...yeah I can see on the outset it appears to be a racket/cashgrab by these insurance companies so I get your thought process completely. But, now I know at least "Assurion" is on the level and a good insurance. If I'm ever to purchase something large (laptop, etc) from Amazon I will definitely add this insurance to it without hesitation.

 

But, that is not to say that the are all this good. This is one insurer and one example. That is why I was asking if anyone here had actual experience with a purchased protection plan from Walmart. I am sure there are people on here that have as the retailer is pretty popular and they have been offering insurance plans for a very long time, so I am surprised nobody has chimed in yet with their experience. Maybe nobody here has bought one?

Edited January 9, 2021 by eightbit

[eightbit]

I have received a bit more information regarding the warranty offered my Walmart.

 

They do not cover accidental damage, period. So if you crack your tablet screen, they will not cover it. It appears most (almost all) of the bad reviews online are of this type. People think the word warranty and "I broke it" go hand in hand and that simply is not the case. The warranty that comes with the console does not cover accidental damage either so I do not see where they get that train of thought.

 

They also do not cover any removable batteries. So if you buy a Razor scooter and the batteries die, not covered. I understand that as batteries have a finite life.

 

What they do cover is basically everything the console warranty covers....after the console warranty comes to an end. If something happens to the console while it is still inside of the 1 year manufacturer warranty you cannot use this insurance at that time. It is only AFTER the 1 year warranty expires that this warranty kicks in and the warranty continues. It is basically an extension of the original warranty. Anything that malfunctions via a mechanical failure is covered. NVMe drive stops working, HDMI stops sending a display, optical drive dies, USB ports stop functioning...etc. That is all covered. If you break it though (Break a USB port, drop the console, etc) that is not covered.

 

 

So I think I have my answer. And I think it is worth it to add that coverage. I think the likelyhood of a mechanical failure is quite high with modern game systems, especially considering the large moving fans, the heat these things generate, and especially with the nature of optical drives.

[Razzie.P]

3 hours ago, eightbit said:

so I am surprised nobody has chimed in yet with their experience. Maybe nobody here has bought one?

I chimed. ?   

[eightbit]

Just now, Razzie.P said:

I chimed. ?   

I don;t know how I missed it but I just saw that. Much appreciated. I went ahead and paid for four years. Better safe than sorry (especially with my luck!) Thanks!

[Agamon]

I guess I've been lucky? I've been offered this protection on every device I've bough since the mid 90s and never regretted not getting it.  I've used manufacturer's warranty (recently with my PC's PSU, actually), but I find if something works for the first year I have it, it'll live it's expected lifespan.

 

If you get a lot out of it, I can sure see using it. But anecdotally speaking, I could buy a new car outright with the money I haven't spent on this in my lifetime.

[Tanooki]

1 hour ago, Agamon said:

I guess I've been lucky? I've been offered this protection on every device I've bough since the mid 90s and never regretted not getting it.  I've used manufacturer's warranty (recently with my PC's PSU, actually), but I find if something works for the first year I have it, it'll live it's expected lifespan.

 

If you get a lot out of it, I can sure see using it. But anecdotally speaking, I could buy a new car outright with the money I haven't spent on this in my lifetime.

I've avoided them for years, but given my financial situation that has been poorly prolonged for years now, when it took me over 6months of selling, flipping, trading, to the the funds wrangled up for the now 6 year old computer I'm on, I didn't ignore the warranty.  I got it, and extended it out to 3 years.  In that time because of a poor design choice from the factory on parts that didn't always jive with others, I went through a motherboard (for elimination sake), the memory with it, and 3 classic hard drives.  It would randomly hit the point where one of my cores would go psycho on the system, Win would run at 100% CPU and HDD, and I'd have to pull the power basically and after that first time, it would increase in frequency, then get toasted (glad I kept backups.)  I did that process 3X in nearly 2 years.  When it pulled that crap after the warranty expired I bought a 1TB SSD instead and it has been a rock ever since.  The money involved in a mobo, 16GB of ram, and 3 hard drives would have been ugly on top of the repair and shipping fees too.

[DJ Clae]

I am not convinced by personal anecdotes. I have no doubt that it's possible to bet and lose on this. However, the difficulty redeeming an extended warranty outweighs any potential benefit.

 

If you are unable to absorb a potential worst case scenario $500 loss on a non-essential appliance after you've already gotten a year of use out of it, you probably have bigger problems with your finances, making that $77 extra cost even more painful on the wallet.

 

It's a racket. The reason stores push the hell out of these things is because it's one of their most profitable sources of revenue.

Edited January 12, 2021 by DJ Clae

[eightbit]

On 1/12/2021 at 10:48 AM, DJ Clae said:

I am not convinced by personal anecdotes. I have no doubt that it's possible to bet and lose on this. However, the difficulty redeeming an extended warranty outweighs any potential benefit.

 

If you are unable to absorb a potential worst case scenario $500 loss on a non-essential appliance after you've already gotten a year of use out of it, you probably have bigger problems with your finances, making that $77 extra cost even more painful on the wallet.

 

It's a racket. The reason stores push the hell out of these things is because it's one of their most profitable sources of revenue.

 

 

No doubt they sell these for profit. Walmart tries to sell it on anything. Even the $15 video game I purchased last week. I had to get a teller to override as I accidentally hit OK on the purchase plan on the self checkout computer...lol.

 

I don't think really it is a "racket" however. Some people are pretty glad to have purchased warranty when things go wrong years later as opposed to just buying another $500 system. Take my fridge for example. I think it was $800 and I purchased an extended warranty on it. The thing crapped out right after the normal warranty expired and the extended warranty paid for a repair and replacement parts. If not for that warranty (which was like $50 I think), I'd be shopping around for another $800 fridge.

 

It's not a matter of not being able to afford it...no issues with my finances. But if I can avoid having to buy a whole new unit...sure I'll do that. My money is better spent elsewhere...

 

 

Anyway, all things said, I did cancel the warranty purchase. With tax it is nearly 1/5th of what I paid for the console. I will just deal with the year with Microsoft and if it fails after that...well...I'll either fix it myself or buy another one. I've personally never had to use a warranty on a game system either so I don't expect I will need it. But, I still don't think these are entirely a racket either.

[mr_me]

Extended warranties are designed to make them money, not save you money.  If you continue to purchase them, over time the money spent on them would be more than the cost of repairing or replacing.  However, if you are buying an item that is prone to breaking or you are prone to breaking stuff it could push the odds in favour of buying an extended warranty.