Thinking of Buying the Z1

[allen504tke]

149 for 2yrs

[mhyde71]

[quote name="Anonymous"] [quote name="allen504tke"]I called Abes and ordered it but I also got the extended warranty along with it, should I have not got the extended warranty? :([/quote]

How much was the warranty?

I didn't purchase the warranty. When I found out that you have to pay for the repairs out of pocket and then trust the warranty company to reimburse you I wasn't too confident in that. Pioneer only has 2 locations that repair the AVIC-Z1 so you have to ship it out as oppose to taking it to a local repair center.[/quote]

In fact it is my understanding that pioneer offers one year manu warr. And the extended warr can still be purchased at that end of that 1st year. Therefore if it breaks within the first year pioneer covers it. If it lasts for the 1st year and you wish to still have it covered, then at that point grab the exttended warr. I hear through grape vine that it is illegal to only allow the extended warr at time of purchase. Plus it's the third party companies making money on the extended warranty's, they'll be more than happy to take your money in 11 months just the same. I'm looking in to this rumor and may be we can keep each other informed.

matt

[mhyde71]

[quote name="Anonymous"] [quote name="allen504tke"]I called Abes and ordered it but I also got the extended warranty along with it, should I have not got the extended warranty? :([/quote]

How much was the warranty?

I didn't purchase the warranty. When I found out that you have to pay for the repairs out of pocket and then trust the warranty company to reimburse you I wasn't too confident in that. Pioneer only has 2 locations that repair the AVIC-Z1 so you have to ship it out as oppose to taking it to a local repair center.[/quote]

In fact it is my understanding that pioneer offers one year manu warr. And the extended warr can still be purchased at that end of that 1st year. Therefore if it breaks within the first year pioneer covers it. If it lasts for the 1st year and you wish to still have it covered, then at that point grab the exttended warr. I hear through grape vine that it is illegal to only allow the extended warr at time of purchase. Plus it's the third party companies making money on the extended warranty's, they'll be more than happy to take your money in 11 months just the same. I'm looking in to this rumor and may be we can keep each other informed.

matt

[Guest]

The reality is that a great many of these units are Grey Market, or out of the country goods not meant to be sold in the US.
The reason that these companies are offering warranties at the time of purchase is that they have no US warranty.

Pioneer only sells to authorized dealers in the US. You can tell pretty easily if there is a CE Sticker on the unit or the box.

The really cheap prices are for imported goods that you as a consumer would typically pay some marketing expenses that are part of the price that the merchandise is sold to the retailers.

I don't work for Pioneer, but I have worked in the CE industry for many many years.
$
If you buy from one of the bigger CE retailers anywhere you will be able to get instore service, and they do the leg work to get your unit repaired or replaced rather that you having to remove it from your dash, box it up, return it to a repair place, then get it back and have to reinstall.

Back in the day, (i don't know of this ever happening) the story always was that the manufacturer could confiscate it, or charge you the difference of the US retail.

Just food for thought. Its enough to make me think twice about saving $400 or $500 for a paperweight if anything were to happen.

[mikecoscia]

Well just buy it from 6ave.com, their and authorized dealer and you are saving more then $500. Plus I got a 5 year warrenty for 200 bucks, so this is covered for 6 years all at 1700, not bad at all. For the warrenty they said u can bring it back to any 6ave for repair or replacment.

[Guest]

[quote name="mikecoscia"]Well just buy it from 6ave.com, their and authorized dealer and you are saving more then $500. Plus I got a 5 year warrenty for 200 bucks, so this is covered for 6 years all at 1700, not bad at all. For the warrenty they said u can bring it back to any 6ave for repair or replacment.[/quote]

Be careful, 6th avenue sells both Grey and US warrantied merchandise.
Check you unit or box for the CE sticker.
if you got that for that price you did get a steal!

[Guest]

[quote="AnonymousBe careful, 6th avenue sells both Grey and US warrantied merchandise.
Check you unit or box for the CE sticker.
if you got that for that price you did get a steal![/quote]

What does this CE sticker look like? Is it a sticker with the serial number or something like that?

[Cirbirus]

[quote name="allen504tke"]I called Abes and ordered it but I also got the extended warranty along with it, should I have not got the extended warranty? :([/quote]

Tough question. I generally think they are a scam and so do most consumer advocates:

[url=http://www.consumerjungle.org/junglemambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=302&Itemid=560]http://www.consumerjungle.org/junglemam ... Itemid=560[/url]

That being said, I must admit that BestBuy's extended warranty is pretty good for very expensive items. I bought a very expensive TV from them so dropped the extra $'s for the warranty and it was hugely useful. Basically it was a convenience though. I would have had to return the TV myself but with the warranty they came to my house 4 times and on the 4th time they were bringing me a replacement for the lemon I had bought. I haven't had any problems at all with the new TV.

So, extended warranties are mostly worthless but for really expensive stuff if the warranty is serviced by the place you bought the item from it might be worth the added security. The problem with the warranty you guys are talking about is, as was stated, you have to pay for the repair first then hope the warranty company will actually pay you.

[Lil Red]

[quote name="Cirbirus"I generally think they are a scam and so do most consumer advocates]

Cirbirus, that information is soo good that I want to post the text directly to this thread!

The Latest Scams Circulating the Consumer World. Be warned. Be informed.
July 2005

Extended Warranties
Did you know that an extended warranty is just an insurance policy? Do you really need an insurance policy on your electronics or appliance purchase? The answer is, "No".

The usage rate for extended warranties is even lower than the breakdown rate of appliances and home electronics that consumers buy the extended warranties for. So, when is it a good time to buy extended warranties? Never! Extended warranties are complete rip offs.

Retailers offer extended warranties to consumers because warranties are extremely profitable for the store. Commissioned sales representatives usually earn a higher percentage on the warranty than they do on selling the product.

Most extended warranties are for one year, and Consumer Reports found that a computer is the only electronic product that is likely to need repair in a one-year period. However, it still isn’t a good idea to get an extended warranty on a computer because the value of the computer will drop to nearly nothing within a couple of years. For lower-priced electronics, an extended warranty shouldn’t even be a consideration, since it will be less expensive to directly replace the product than to pay for the warranty.

Play it Safe
Take the money you would have spent on a service contract and create a repair fund.
If you already have a service contract, keep it in a safe place. You will need your original copy to make a claim.

[jbell73]

[quote]Most extended warranties are for one year, and Consumer Reports found that a computer is the only electronic product that is likely to need repair in a one-year period. [/quote]

And then followed by...

[quote]For lower-priced electronics, an extended warranty shouldn’t even be a consideration, since it will be less expensive to directly replace the product than to pay for the warranty.[/quote]

So let's extrapolate this a little bit. Let's take an expensive ($2250) piece of electronics, say a navigation unit, convert it to a computer with a fully functional hard drive and then on top of that we'll put it in a car and drive it down the road over potholes and rail road tracks.

Then the logic would say "Well, you're still wasting money." That might be the case if you paid the full price of $2250. How about if you paid $1500 from the grey market. You might not even have any warranty at all. Now for an extra $200 you can give yourself a 5 year warranty and the net cost is $1700, still less than the $2250 which only comes with a 1 year warranty.

I personally drive an STI, which has a very stiff sometimes jarring suspension. My old CD player used to skip which shouldn't happen in any modern stereo now a days. I can only imagine what will happen to the HD over years of potholes. I only hope it lasts, but if it fails after 4 years, I'll have more to work with than nothing at all.

Just my .02c

-Jeff

[Cirbirus]

You're assuming the warrenty company will actually cover the replacement/repair. Hell, you're assuming the warrenty company will even be in business in 3 years.

Also, if you read those warrenties you'll see they don't cover normal wear and tear, no warrenty does, and the warrenty companies hire people that's only job is to make sure that your claim is not covered so that's the easiest out for them.

Now for my political rant:

Warrenties are insurance and insurance is legalized extortion, "If you don't pay us, something bad might happen to you. You need our protection."


And finally lets say the nav unit only lasts 3 years. Just like computers these systems get better every year so a 3 year old nav unit is like a 3 year old computer. It's ok, and it does the job. But there's much better stuff out there now.

Of course I'd rather sell my $1500 nav system for $500 in three years than not get anything for it...

[Lil Red]

I wonder if anyone was able to use this warranty on last years model, or the year before that, or the year before that? Surely there's someone out there that can attest to there Warranty investment paying off for them, but maybe not, so far noone has come forward with their success story.

[Cirbirus]

Well, the problem with that is these warranties are offered by lots of different companies so one person's experience won't necessarily mirror another person's experience.

[Guest]

[quote name="ducatiboy"] [quote name="allen504tke"]Wait you're in NJ what county? How much for the flasher if I come pick it up?

Also how much was shipping from Abes?
[/quote]

I'm at the very northern tip of morris county. The flasher is still $30. My shipping costs are $0.63 for the postage. So technically I could save you $0.63 but for an ammount so trivial it's easier to just say $30.

And Abes of maine is free ground shipping with that unit. You might not have to pay sales tax either. I don't remember.[/quote]

Ducatiboy, where do you live? I thought I lived in the northern most part of Morris County!! Butler!

[ducatiboy]

[quote name="Anonymous"] [quote name="ducatiboy"]
I'm at the very northern tip of morris county. [/quote]

Ducatiboy, where do you live? I thought I lived in the northern most part of Morris County!! Butler![/quote]

Budd Lake... Yah, I just checked the map, I didn't realize that Morris when that far north over east that-a-way. I rememberd seeing sussex coming down and that little tip of morris by me and thought it extended down from me. Guess I was wrong. :) See what happens when you start looking at maps, you get all confused.