Harvey Norman Extended Warranty - is it worth it?

Ng TK
Harvey Norman shop layout
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TLDR

I had purchased a Samsung 55" TV with extended warranty (3years Samsung Wty + 2 years Harvey Norman Extended Wty) back in 2018 and the screen blacked out on the 4th year which means warranty is covered by Harvey Norman. I filed a repair request, TV was collected from my residence and was deemed not economical to repair. Harvey Norman offered $667.55 in store credits which was not what was defined in the Terms and Conditions of the Extended Warranty. I escalated the case by writing in and was eventually offered a new brand 55" Samsung TV as a replacement. I topped up $469 to get a 65" Samsung TV with extended warranty instead which was permitted at the store. The extended warranty for my 2018 purchase lapsed but the 65" TV comes with 5 years warranty starting 2022 (3years Samsung Wty + 2 years Harvey Norman Extended Wty).

Background

"Hi Sir/Mdm, would you like to purchase extended warranty to go with your TV/Laptop/Fridge/Washing machine?" This is one question that many consumers are familiar with when making a purchase of any consumer electronics. In this blog post, I will be sharing a personal experience I had with Harvey Norman's Extended Warranty, and it will help you make an informed decision the next time you are making a purchase. Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by any departmental stores and its intend is to guide consumers to making better purchase decisions.

The Story

Back in 2018, I purchased a Samsung 55" TV(UA-55NU7100KXXS) from Harvey Norman(HN) for a total of ($1388). The breakdown of the cost is as such:

 Item Price
UA-55NU7100KXXS $1027
HN Extended Warranty $261
Titan Bracket and Installation $100
TOTAL $1388

 

The HN outlet that we bought from was having a moving out sale. This particular model that we bought was actually a display unit, which according to the sales associate was only recently displayed so it was still in relatively brand new condition(I'll never know if this was true). He was basically selling this to us by throwing in free extended warranty and a Blu-ray player that will cover us for a minimum of 5 years of use. A brand new set of this TV with extended warranty and wall-mount installation will set me back approximately 1.5k-1.6k. To me it was a no brainer, the few other departmental stores I visited offered nothing close to this.

Fast forward to 2022, 4 years later, the TV was working great up until one day where it decided that the screen will no longer light up. I called HN, put up a service request and a third party repairman(Nautical Electronics) came to collect the TV approximately 3-4 days later. A week later, I got in touch with them and was told that the cost of repair will be very high. In such a scenario, they will submit the quote to HN and HN will decide whether to proceed with the repair or simply compensating the customer as agreed on the TnCs of the extended warranty. I waited for another week for HN to get back on my case but I ended up calling them instead to request for an update.

To my surprise, the customer service rep had only offered $667.55 worth of store credits for me to purchase a new TV. At the time of writing, the Samsung UA55AU7000KXXS cost $999.

samsung UA55AU7000KXXS - $999

The store credit was clearly insufficient for me to get similar 55" TV without topping up additional cash and this does not matches what was defined in the Terms and Conditions of the extended warranty. You can read the small snippet here.

Terms and Conditions

The Customer Service Representative had explained that the compensation amount was evaluated and given by a insurance company that HN has engaged for their extended warranty policy. She also mentioned that should I wish to escalate this compensation offer, I would need to write in via email to HN and I did. 

After writing in, a got a callback from HN a few days later saying that they will honor the warranty terms and offered me the Samsung UA55AU7000KXXS replacement without additional charges. Also, should I wish to purchase a different product, the store credit equivalent amount will be $939(I am not sure why its not $999). I accepted their offer and eventually topped up $260 to get the Samsung UA65AU7000KXXS model, a 65" TV.

Samsung UA65AU7000KXXS
This was not the end! In a typical warranty claim process, the remaining duration of the warranty will remain unchanged(1 year remaining for my case). For some reason, HN  has allowed me to purchase extended warranty on the new 65" TV. To simply put it, it is as if I am making a brand new purchase! Upon delivery of the new TV, the new 5 year warranty period will kick in (3years Samsung Warranty + 2 years Harvey Norman Extended Warranty). If you look at my case in totality, I effectively only spent $349 for a 55" TV which I used for 4 years(pretty darn good deal!)
 Item Price
UA-55NU7100KXXS + Ext Wty $1288
Compensation Value $939
Net Expense $349

 

This is a breakdown of the 65" TV purchase.

 Item Price
UA65AU7000KXXS (3 years warranty by Samsung) $1199
Harvey Norman Extended Warranty $209
Store Credit -$939
Delivery ($30) Free
Digital Indoor Antenna Free
Total Due $469

Bonus

A few other learning points that I wish to highlight that will be useful for you as a consumer.

Always Negotiate

It takes practice for one to negotiate a good deal. You have to understand that the price tag on these products are not final. The sales associate are given a price range for each of the products they sell and the range will be larger for more expensive products. This is why if you demonstrate intend to buy multiple big ticket items, the sales associate often times may offer you a slight discount from full price items. It is to entice you to spend more. I know this because of my prior experience as sales associate in these departmental stores when I was still a student. However, please, know that the more discount they give you, the less commission they are going to get so be kind! I wasn't able to negotiate any further discount for the 65" TV because the sale associate knows that I have no choice but to make the purchase due to the two weeks validity of the store credits. However, I was still able to convince him to deliver the TV for free and he also threw in and Digitial TV anntenna. Bottom line for negotiating, if you don't ask, you get nothing.

Why do they always try to hard sell extended warranty?

The reason why sales associate always try to push customers to purchase extended warranty is because its additional commission for them! Don't underestimate how much their commission can be from selling extended warranties, In some situation, the commissioned earned from selling extended warranty can be more than selling the actual product!

TV wall-mounting bracket

The existing wall-mounting bracket that I have for my 55" TV was the Titan Bracket SGB493.

Titan Bracket SGB493
Although it was made to support only up to 55" TV, the maximum weight it can handle was 40kg. My old 55" weighs 17.3kg while the newer 65" weighs 20.6kg a mere 3 kg difference. I casually asked the repairman if there will be any issues reusing my existing bracket to mount a 65" and he said it should be fine because the newer models TV are much lighter (the 65" 2018 model weighs 25kg). So with that, I have decided to take a calculated risk of reusing the existing bracket to mount my 65" TV, that saves me an additional $100.
Titan bracket test
Doing a little experiment while waiting for my TV to arrive.

 

So, Extended Warranties, are they worth it? It depends. Should Harvey Norman decide that $667.55 was all they were gonna compensate me, then I will definitely give it a pass. The reason why they had made such an offer in the first place, in my opinion, was to take a short at reducing the compensation value. Any other unsuspecting consumers would have accepted their first offer if they themselves are not full aware of the TnCs behind the extended warranty program. So before you put your money down, do your homework! I hope you learned something from my experience and hopefully you'll secure a good deal for your next buy. Good luck!

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