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From: ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: maintenance contracts
Message-ID: <3714@alice.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 11-May-85 10:34:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: alice.3714
Posted: Sat May 11 10:34:08 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 12-May-85 05:53:02 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 20

By definition, maintenance contracts are almost never worth it.
After all, the people selling them have to make money, right?

Exceptions:

	1. a repair might be so expensive you wouldn't be
	able to afford it.

	2. a service contract might offer something you couldn't
	get otherwise.

As an example of #1, suppose you buy some kind of microcomputer
with a hard disk.  If the disk breaks, it's going to cost $1500
to replace, because it can't be repaired, but you can get a
service contract on it for $200/year.  That might not be too high
a price to pay for the knowledge that you won't lose everything
in the unlikely event of a hard disk failure.

As an example of #2, DEC field service always takes customers
with service contracts ahead of customers without service contracts.