I was talked into an extended warranty when I bought a ~$3000 Samsung LCD from Abes of Maine. It was to be an extended warranty on top of the samsung 1 year warranty, for a total of 4 years. When the paperwork came through, it was a 3 year warranty starting on the day of sale. I pushed an pushed until I got a letter from the warranty company that the policy will start AFTER the manufacturer's warranty.
Thank goodness! I started having sound problems and by the time I decided to do something about it it was past 3 years. By then, my warranty company went out of business and transferred the warranty service to a new company. Without that letter I would have been SOL.
However, I'm still trying to get my TV fixed 4 1/2 months later. The first time they were out I was not home and my wife handled it. They replaced the speakers, but the sound distortion returned a few weeks after the repair. So I had to start the process all over again. Meanwhile, I lifted the edge of the TV to clean under it and the front bezel was completely loose, started separating from the screen. Also, I started noticing vertical green lines near that edge of the TV. So I called and added these two things to my service needs. Meanwhile, I figured out it was the case making the vibration noise, not the speakers. I suggested the case might be the problem.
When the second set of service technicians (barely worthy of that name) came out, they had all sorts of strange boards to replace. No speakers, no case. When they took the TV apart, they found most of the studs were broken from the last repair. Most of the screws were not engaging anything. They replaced the boards, found the TV was no better, so they had to put the old boards back in. Then the video didn't work, so they had to take the TV apart a third time. Needless to say, I was entertaining two people screwing my TV all evening.
That was a couple months ago. I've been calling every week and they told me somebody from a different company will be visiting to review my TV's problems. No matter what I said over the phone, nobody understood what the problem was... the reason for sending out strange PCB's.
Just today, when I called I was informed when I called that they determined the TV will be too expensive to fix and a replacement will be issued. I'm to wait 2 days for somebody to call me with the details. I have no idea if it will be a new TV, refurbished unit, and if it will have all the bells and whistles my current TV does.
I'm not sure how it will end up, but I can tell you at this point I've spent enough of my time and resources trying to get this warranty coverage done that I wish I had never bought the plan. What leverage do I have to get my TV repaired in a respectable amount of time?
What happens if the warranty service goes bankrupt? I've seen enough scammers on TV who close up shop after selling policies and live in mansions on other people's dime.
The only possible way I will buy an extended warranty is to get it directly from a long-established retail chain who will allow you to bring back the item to the store and take care of everything, including a guarantee of replacement. I don't know if anyone does this anymore. I think just about all electronics warranties are handled by a third party.