Should I Buy a Warranty?

8.5.22

The idea of buying a warranty can be a daunting task, and it can sometimes create concern that, in the end, more issues will be created than solved.

We’ve all likely met someone who has had to battle with a warranty company and jump through hoops just to get their broken appliances repaired. At Kelly’s, we have partnered with Epic Protect in a direct effort to combat those very problems.

Purchasing an Extended Warranty

Epic’s protection plan includes three coverage plans (two year, three year and five year). It also covers some areas that a manufacturer’s factory warranty is not likely to cover (outlined in greater detail below). Another benefit to having the extended warranty protection is claims can be submitted online with ease so there’s no long waits on hold.

What does Epic Offer?

• Power Surge Protection
  • Typically, not covered by the manufacturer

• In Home Service
  • Service comes to you in the comfort of your home, and Epic is responsible to find a service in your area 

• Diagnosis, parts, and labor
  • To have a service professional come to your home to give a diagnosis starts at a minimum of $120.00 before parts and labor. Prices for parts can range from $50 to $400+, and labor usually sits at around $50/hour. Epic covers the diagnosis, parts, and labor with no out of pocket expense to you or deductible

• Laundry Fees
  •  If your washer is not repaired within 7 days from the first service appointment, Epic will cover up to $50.00 in laundry fees

• Food Loss
  • Reimburses up to a total of $300 for food replacement on items that may have been lost because of a fridge outage.

• Guaranteed replacement
  • There is guaranteed replacement in the event that the unit is confirmed to be irreparable by a factory certified technician.
  • Home warranties usually cover the cheapest replacement while Epic reimburses the full amount or finds a replacement of equal value
  • If replacement is necessary, Epic will also cover up to $75.00 of the reinstall/haul-away fee for the new appliance

Value In Every Dollar

Let’s run through a quick example. The average cost of a fridge in the US is around $1000-$2000, and for the sake of our example, we’ll take the median value of the two and say our fridge cost $1500. A 5-year warranty from Epic will cost us $249.95 for a fridge of this price.

As a lump sum, adding the extra charge is a lot, but let’s do a breakdown and see what the payment looks like if we amortize it on a few different schedules:

• Annual expense: $49.99
• Monthly expense: $4.17
• Weekly expense: $0.96
• Daily expense: $0.14

Breaking it down in this way, it becomes more easily justified, and with a minimum cost of $120 just to have someone come out to your home (before parts and labor), it is easy to see how even after one service call, the warranty has real potential to more than pay for itself.

What Happens if I Buy the 5-year plan and you Don’t use it?

If you get to the end of the 5-year warranty period, and no service calls have been made against the warranty, we will issue back to you (in the form of in-store credit) 50% of the original warranty’s list price.

Conclusion

The reality is that things break, and while we hate to see it, it is something that we all have to deal with. It may not happen in year one, but as the appliance gets older, the chances of a part needing replaced only increases. To give yourself a bit of peace of mind, we recommend picking up an extended warranty with every appliance purchase.