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Archive for June, 2009
If you eat a hamburger that someone behind the counter of a fast food restaurant spit in, sure, ignorance is bliss. But when you get taken advantage of and ripped off when buying a good or service you know nothing about, ignorance is not bliss.
I recently went to a major retailer to buy a new 23″ HP monitor. When checking out, I was relentlessly offered “extra protection” for “not that much more” because “you know how technology fails”. My response? I told them I was buying HP and wouldn’t be needing “extra protection”, but if I ever bought another brand from them I would be sure to get it. Same thing when I was generously offered a $2000 extended warranty on my Scion. I told them “sorry, Toyotas/Scions rarely break down so I won’t be needing it.” They still pressed. Maybe they have never seen the movie “Tommy Boy” where Chris Farley eloquently explains that essentially, guarantees, extra protection, warranties, etc are all basically labeling a product as worthless. It’s like saying “hey, when it breaks (because it will), come back and we will give you another one that will break”.
Granted not ALL coverage plans are bad news, but too often I see people that don’t know what pixels, drive trains, power supplies, etc are and so they buy out of fear that this “thing” they know nothing about will break. Ignorance with consumer products can end up costing a lot.
Personal philosophy: 99% of the time I pass on the insurance, warranty, etc, knowing that all the money I will save over the years will far exceed the amount I will have to spend on the item or two that breaks down once in a blue moon.
When it comes to life, happiness, and money, there are two extremes: the Donald Trump approach and the Mother Teresa approach. The below quotes do a nice job summing it up:
“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.” -Jane Austen
“All you need is love.” -John Lennon
What do you think? Right in the middle? More towards one than the other? All I know is that one of them smiles and one of them doesn’t…