Originally Posted by nffc

There's not really anything wrong with the warranties to be honest - PC parts do fail even with great care (especially emachines) even outside the first year (that said, only my optical drives have actually "broken") and the warranty means that if anything does go wrong, even if it's accidental damage, you pay nothing for the repair and if an engineer comes out and finds nothing wrong it's still no charge. Plus some people (n00bs) feel they need extra support after the first year and if their PCs get clogged up and run slowly without them knowing they can get advice on that.

Plus the newer warranties include limited software advice, networking advice, etc etc - again, can be invaluable for n00bs buying say their first wireless router, getting it out of the box and thinking "oh **** what do i do next" or something. Ideally they'd know but we are talking about the general public here. Plus everyone was a n00b once.

Yes the stores may over-hype them but the small print of the service agreement does inform them what it involves and does or does not cover. Also not something I'd take out but then I know what I'm doing.

It's a n00b thing but it's not that bad. It's a value added extra and some people want it, some don't and try it and cancel it within the grace period. Everyone's different.