Man, I had a car sales guy do that type of thing to.me years ago.
They were asking too much. So I said no deal, but if you want to make a sale ‘today’ here’s my price. Call me and I’ll buy it at that price.
Days later, he calls and says I think we have a deal. Spouse and I leave work early, find a babysitter and drive over. We do the offer, he takes my credit card and the offer to the manager. Comes back with the offer and no card (of course, because they think it will.keep.me there). Turns the offer over and it’s higher than what we’d agreed.
I think he figured we’d negotiate. What he got was me standing up and top of my lungs in the showroom saying ‘go get my credit card NOW’. Plus an f bomb in there.
You ever see a car salesperson run? Because I have lol.
Ah the old “So you do want the car, so now we’re just talking about price” line.
Yes, if you’re going to sell the car to me for such a humongous discount that I can resell at a significant profit with little to no effort on my part then sure, I’ll take the car. But if you’re going to sell me the car at or above it’s resale value which is obviously all you’re ever going to actually consider doing … not interested.
Ugh; I’m so glad they didn’t try this crap with me when I bought my current car. They did when I bought the previous car and I hated it.
I don’t know if I just look less gullible in my middle age or selling tactics have changed in the decade & a half since the prior car purchase or I went to a better dealer or some combination of all of the above, but I’m so over the hard sell.
This. Not to mention the stress and hassle of figuring out how to do the warranty process when all you want is your car fixed ASAP. I have peace of mind knowing that I don’t have to deal with the warranty headache if and when my car does break down. I can just get the car fixed on MY terms.
Plus the aforementioned rip off.
Any warranty actually for sale is almost certainly not worth what you’d have to pay to buy it. Some are not worth the paper they’re printed on. Some are worth something, but far less than what they cost. Unless it’s something like Costco’s warranty on stuff you buy with their Citi card at no incremental cost to you then I doubt it’s worth it. (And I’ve never tried to utilize Costco’s warranty… no idea how easy/hard it is.)
I had a home warranty once and when the furnace crapped out on the coldest day of the year they were going to send a guy out to inspect (not fix) it in like 9 days. So yeah… not worth the paper it was printed on. I’m obviously not willing to live without heat for two weeks or more by the time they get around to actually fixing the problem.
My question was about a $30 warranty on a guitar being pushed by a cashier, not a $3,000 warranty on a car by a salesperson. What cut of that $30 could possibly be worth how relentless this dude was?
It seems I’ve found my answer, consistent across a few different sites by prior Guitar Center employees. It doesn’t seem like they get a cut of the sale of the “Pro Coverage”. But they are heavily pressured to sell it on a percentage of their sales, otherwise they can get their hours cut back and/or potentially lose their jobs.
On coverage with a $30 premium I’d bet the ELR is like 10% or less so I wouldn’t be surprised if the business is getting like 1/2 to 2/3 of it, and then how they actually incent the worker is an extra wrinkle.
Some years ago I had a conversation with a car dealer guy that had warranty stuff. I don’t recall the exact numbers, but the margins on it were obscene. Like the bulk of the premium is markup.
I’m also a bit fuzzy on details, but I recall hearing years ago from someone in the biz that for auto warranties, roughly half of the premium was used to pay for claims. Leaving the other half for overhead on the carrier’s end and a hefty commission.
I would assume for a guitar warranty it’s tilted even more towards profit/commission, but I have no data.
However, there are not too many new car repairs that cost merely $500. I do have a fear of the major engine repair or transmission repair that costs 5k or 7k or 9k.
My brother just had a 9k engine repair - out of warranty of course - on his Chevy Equinox. So they happen. I thought he was foolish to originally buy a Chevy, but whatever.
I’ve been fortunate that I haven’t ever had a vehicle that required replacement of engine, transmission, computer system,… any of the big ones. I haven’t ever had a mechanical repair bill in the thousands. Knocks on wood.
A chevy extended warranty costs about $4k per the web. So with a $9k engine replacement, you’re really only getting $5K. Is a $9K loss worth spending $4k on? Not in my books, but if that’s catatstrophic to you (and it could be for a lot of people), then I guess I’d buy the warranty.
In practice, I’d just research beforehand and buy a car that’s not prone to engine failure. Or more likely, if I couldn’t afford the $5K at the time, it’d go on credit somehow.
I mean, I have a single data point as well. Bought a minivan back when chryslters had a habit of blowing the head gasket. And because I was young and broke, I bought the warranty because a major repair could’ve been a problem with me. A few thousand K later, the head gasket blew and they replaced the entire top end under warrant. So hey, free top end rebuild But that’s more a tale of lottery than it is insurance.
You’re being sold an attribute that doesn’t exist.
You’ll get the same sounds whether or not you have a warranty - a warranty doesn’t protect you against mechanical failure.
You still have to book an appointment and go through the same repair shenanigans.
The peace of mind is deceptive, there’s nothing there.
Except maybe the anxiety of wondering if the repair is covered under warranty or not - because that’s always a crapshoot.
And if you will be able to jump through whatever hoops are necessary to actually trigger a payout… which to me is stupidly stressful.
A warranty that won’t pay is worthless. A warranty that adds substantially to your level of aggravation in getting the repairs completed is common and very much not worth the cost to me.
