'I should be the Nook's ideal customer. But I'm not...I am locked in.'

[Cyberman tM]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Because people who are careless with their own property tend to be careless with other people's property as well. I'm not looking forward to somebody breaking my device and then saying: So what, you can just go to the store and get a new one. Oh, you didn't get the extended warranty? Well, whose fault is that?

And I've seen this behavior in children, both in my generation and this one: if they aren't careful with their own toys, they aren't careful with the ones that belong to others.

Then it's a different problem altogether. These people(or the parents) are simply stupid.
(Although I might agree with them that it would be a good idea to get an (extended) warranty for something expensive, I wouldn't blame the other person when it's me who broke it.)

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Because it takes away resources that can better be used elsewhere. It would be more financially prudent to stick that money into an emergency savings account and cover those small disasters yourself than to just fork over that money to a stranger on the long shot that something bad might happen.

Maybe if you have a low accident rate. If you have a high accident rate, on the other hand, you can SAVE money with an EW.

Not trying to argue with you, but a lot of your posts on this subject seem to sound very This Is Fact when, in reality, this is a very situational thing that varies from person to person.

Trust the people in this thread when they tell you that an EW was the right choice for THEIR personal situation.

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Because people who are careless with their own property tend to be careless with other people's property as well. I'm not looking forward to somebody breaking my device and then saying: So what, you can just go to the store and get a new one. Oh, you didn't get the extended warranty? Well, whose fault is that?

And I've seen this behavior in children, both in my generation and this one: if they aren't careful with their own toys, they aren't careful with the ones that belong to others.

And, honestly? This sort of thing needs to stop in my opinion. It's completely your choice if you don't want to let other people touch your eReader (I certainly don't share mine around!), but you are painting people with EWs as being assholes who will break your stuff and then blame you for not buying an EW.

Saying that if you buy an EW for your child YOU ARE TEACHING THEM TO WRECK PEOPLES' STUFF is silly, strawmanning, and utterly insulting. Clumsy children and jackass children may have an overlap on the Venn diagram, but it's not a 1-to-1 ratio, and buying an EW doesn't automatically make anyone an entitled jerk. Mmkay?

[khalleron]

Bhartman, your 'What if' is merely that, a 'what if'. It's long odds - that's why the Best Buys make so much money off that way of thinking.

As to medical and fire insurance - surely you see that insuring a loss that can be hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars, at a far lower rate per loss than an EW is, makes financial sense where paying $75 to cover a $200 device for three years makes none?

Say your house costs $750,000. At the same rate you pay for an EW, it would cost $93,750.00 per year to insure it.

Not to mention that, even with the current deflation of the housing market, your device has lost far more of its value in that time than your house has.

It's the odds that are the problem with EWs, not the concept of insurance itself.

[anamardoll]

Can we call Dead Horse on this topic now.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

And, honestly? This sort of thing needs to stop in my opinion. It's completely your choice if you don't want to let other people touch your eReader (I certainly don't share mine around!), but you are painting people with EWs as being assholes who will break your stuff and then blame you for not buying an EW.

What I said was that I think that EW would make people more careless, and that careless people tend to have the same attitude with other people's stuff. And the thing about the blame has to do with the value assigned to replacing a broken object. I wouldn't expect a deep felt apology if somebody broke my pencil, but it would be very different if they broke a device. If EW becomes ubiquitous, then replacing either would imply the same effort of going to the shop, and while I would have to still pay for a new pencil, I wouldn't have to do more than haggle with the employee for a new device.

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Saying that if you buy an EW for your child YOU ARE TEACHING THEM TO WRECK PEOPLES' STUFF is silly, strawmanning, and utterly insulting. Clumsy children and jackass children may have an overlap on the Venn diagram, but it's not a 1-to-1 ratio, and buying an EW doesn't automatically make anyone an entitled jerk. Mmkay?

It's a good thing then that I wasn't talking about clumsy or jackass children, but careless ones. (care·less/ˈke(ə)rlis/Adjective - Not giving sufficient attention or thought to avoiding harm or errors).
The thing is that the comment with the children isn't about EW in particular, but the whole actions have consequences idea. Let's say a kid plays with a toy car and the wheels come off. If this means that the car goes in the garbage, he will be more careful next time; if it means that somebody comes and puts the wheels back on, he will learn nothing, and would expect the same result (no consequences) if he is playing with a friend and his toy car.

Anyway, I'm not going to change my mind, and I'm not going to change yours, so let's just leave it at that.

[anamardoll]

Good. Back on topic.

SO, did ya'll hear that buying a Kindle means you can't buy the New Nook? It's true, I swear.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Good. Back on topic.

SO, did ya'll hear that buying a Kindle means you can't buy the New Nook? It's true, I swear.

Not without losing all the books you paid for, of spending some time converting them. Been there, done that. Don't want to do it anymore.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Bhartman, your 'What if' is merely that, a 'what if'. It's long odds - that's why the Best Buys make so much money off that way of thinking.

As to medical and fire insurance - surely you see that insuring a loss that can be hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars, at a far lower rate per loss than an EW is, makes financial sense where paying $75 to cover a $200 device for three years makes none?

That really depends on your insurance. If you're paying $600/month on insurance (which I had to do for a while), you're paying a very high premium for something that has very low probability of happening. But if it does happen, watch out! Most people would never need as much insurance as I had at the time, but not having it would've been catastrophic.

In the case of the EW I had, it was approximately $192 for the 2 years. For what I paid for the device, I would've still made out better, even at the end.

Now, if I paid $100, or even $150 for the device, I probably wouldn't have kept the EW for the entire time.

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

Say your house costs $750,000. At the same rate you pay for an EW, it would cost $93,750.00 per year to insure it.

But that's not an apples to apples comparison, because most people stay in their houses longer than the 2 or 3 years of your typical phone contract. If you paid $100,000/yr. to insure your house, and it gets destroyed after the third year. That's still a pretty good deal, because you just saved yourself $550,000. Obviously, you wouldn't have a 20-year policy like that on your home, but you wouldn't have one like that on an electronic device, either.

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

Not to mention that, even with the current deflation of the housing market, your device has lost far more of its value in that time than your house has.

That kind of depends on what device you're talking about. Some hold their value better than others.

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

It's the odds that are the problem with EWs, not the concept of insurance itself.

EWs are a gamble. I'm not even saying I always get them myself. For a device under a certain cost threshold, it's not worth it. But high-risk, high-cost (relative to the price of the EWs) are another story.

[khalleron]

Just goes to show what scientists have found over and over -

Humans are really poor at assessing relative risk. We're scared of plane crashes and terrorists, but drive everywhere.

OK, if you really, truly, trash 20% of your electronic devices, then you are a good candidate for EW. 99.99% of owners don't. I doubt anyone here does.

It's free money for Best Buy - it's your choice, but it's still not sound fiscal policy.

I'm done.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by khalleron

OK, if you really, truly, trash 20% of your electronic devices, then you are a good candidate for EW. 99.99% of owners don't. I doubt anyone here does.

It's free money for Best Buy - it's your choice, but it's still not sound fiscal policy.

That's true. There are some things I'd pay extended warranty/accidental damage insurance for. Laptops, for instance if you plan on keeping them for some time. Given their usage (portable, gets knocked around, high heat), it's pretty common to see them fail right after the 1 year warranty ends.

Desktops, not so much. More likely than not, you'll be praying it breaks before it actually does. My cousin wants a new PC since his old one (6 years old) is too slow but his parents won't buy him one since his PC's still working. Damage-prone parts such as the hard drive and optical drives are relatively easy and inexpensive to replace, not to mention you get longer warranty on the replacement. Now if they started including data recovery services with the extended warranty, then I'd probably get one.

If you build your own desktop, you get longer warranty on most of the parts:

• MB: 2~3yrs typical
• CPU: Box-3yrs, OEM Intel-Retailer RMA period, OEM AMD-1yr? (likelihood of failure during service life: very low)
• RAM: lifetime typical
• GPU: 2~3yrs typical, some manufacturers offer lifetime or double-lifetime on high-end models
• PSU: 3~6yrs on decent models
• HDD: 3~5yrs
• DVD: 1yr (replacing it only costs $20 or so)

An e-reader? Probably not. Then again, my readers only cost me $125 each on average. I already have a back-up in case one files and I'm more likely to replace it with a newer model than go through warranty for replacement.

Back on topic, couldn't really say much about it. The author already knows better and now he's just whining. If the article could raise awareness regarding the perils associated with DRM, then great. However, I'm not sure if what he's preaching will even reach the audience who needs it the most.

[Donnageddon]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Good. Back on topic.

You didn't really think that was going to happen, did you?

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

You didn't really think that was going to happen, did you?

LOL, hence the smily.

[MsCG1]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Just goes to show what scientists have found over and over -

Humans are really poor at assessing relative risk. We're scared of plane crashes and terrorists, but drive everywhere.

OK, if you really, truly, trash 20% of your electronic devices, then you are a good candidate for EW. 99.99% of owners don't. I doubt anyone here does.

It's free money for Best Buy - it's your choice, but it's still not sound fiscal policy.

I'm done.

Don't go throwing around numbers and percentages if you can't back them up.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by MsCG1

Don't go throwing around numbers and percentages if you can't back them up.

Although 20% of electronics isn't too bad a rate around here. Between my own personal clumsiness, and Husband's butterfingers, and TWO INSANE CATS, we probably do accidentally kill 1 in 5 electronics.

Primary Cat particularly likes to jump on top of the big screen TV, even though there's only about 2 inches of surface space for him to stand on..........

[toddos]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Not without losing all the books you paid for, of spending some time converting them. Been there, done that. Don't want to do it anymore.

If Barnes & Noble wanted to kill the Kindle in a single blow, here's what they could do: Provide a limited-time "trade-in" offer. For any Kindle book that is also in the Nook store, if you can provide proof of purchase prior to the start date of the promotion Barnes & Noble will give you a license for the same book on Nook.

Yes, it'd be expensive and difficult to verify proof of purchase and some people would game the system, but I bet they'd get hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions?) of converts who would then be "locked in" to the Nook store. Unfortunately it'd cost them several million to cover the cost of licenses for the converts and thus would be a short-term loss that they wouldn't be willing to take, despite the long-term gain in customer loyalty and lock-in.