SquareTrade Warranty Blog

Cyber Monday Deals and Giveaway!

Last week, many of our Facebook fans and Twitter followers told us about the awesome deals they'd scored Black Friday. Some of you braved the early morning lines while many of you told us how you survived Black Friday by shopping online.

SquareTrade fans are savvy consumers who know where to get the best deals. (After all, you've helped us start a revolution!) So, whether you braved the parking lots or are surfing online for your deals - we've got some great savings just for you! Our current Twitter giveaway actually makes it rewarding to share all those awesome Cyber Monday deals you find with others!

Exclusive Cyber Monday deals for our fans: 40% Coupon: Due to popular demand, we've extended our Black Friday sale. Use coupon code WARRANTYSANTA by 11:59pm, Dec. 1st and snag forty percent savings! Plus, we've got more 50% and 100% off coupons to giveaway today! Want to score one? Just follow @SquareTrade on Twitter and take a few seconds to share a #CyberMondayDeal!

Share a #CyberMondayDeal and win with SquareTrade! It's true - we often find out about the best deals from friends and family. Since sharing is caring, we've decided to reward our fans who share the latest Cyber Monday Deal they found. Simply post a tweet about a hot Cyber Monday Deal for chance to win a 50% or 100% off coupon! We'll be randomly selecting winners throughout the day (from 9am-6pm PST) so you've got multiple chances to win! It's simple to enter: Simply follow @SquareTrade on Twitter and post the following: Post a tweet about the Cyber Monday deal you've found or are hoping to score and include the hashtag "#CyberMondayDeal" Mention @SquareTrade in your tweet. You can send us your entry or simply include "@SquareTrade" in the deal you mention. Feel free to be creative! Here's an example tweet: Skipped Black Friday lines & shopped online. Got great #CyberMondayDeal on HDTV from @amazondeals. Plan to save even more with @SquareTrade! To keep it simple, you can just finish this sentence: I found a hot #CyberMondayDeal ... Between 9am-6pm PST, we'll randomly select winners for 50% off coupons and 3 winners for a FREE warranty! Three entry periods: 9am-12pm , 12:01-3pm, 3:01pm-6pm PST. So, you can enter more than once. But please, no autobots and don't spam your friends!.

Rules: (Our legal team says we have to have them.)

• ELIGIBILITY: Giveaway is open to anyone with a Twitter account who is at least 18 years of age as of the date of their entry.Winner must have a permanent US mailing address.
• DATE/TIMES: Sweeptstakes is December 1st, 2009 with following entry periods:
  • #CyberMondayDeal entry periods are 9:01am-12pm, 12:01-3pm and 3:01-6pm PST.
• No person/Twitterer can win more than one time. Multiple entries are allowed but don't spam your friends!
• NO CHEATING! Any use of robotic; automatic, programmed or like entry methods will void all entries affected by such methods and be deemed tampering.
• RANDOM DRAWING: Winner(s) will be selected via random drawing for each entry period. The odds of being selected depend on the number of @SquareTrade followers.
• Potential winner(s) will be announced at http://www.twitter.com/SquareTrade once selected. 
• PRIZES: Coupons are either 50% off or 100% off, valid only at www.squaretrade.com
  • Coupon eligible for warranties on items purchased from any Retailer.
  • Coupon may not be combined with any other offer. (If you win 100% off coupon, it's already free!)
  • Coupon cannot be applied retroactively to past purchases.
  • Each winning coupon expires at midnight PST, 3 days after we DM (direct message) it to the winner.
  • Winning coupons will be sent via direct message on Twitter by December 1st.
• Discount reflected when you enter coupon code at checkout.
• You must enter your credit card info at checkout to claim prize but will NOT be charged when you apply coupon.
• Warranty must be purchased within 90 days of item purchase date. The purchase window of warranties including Accidental Damage from Handling (ADH) is 30 days.
• LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: SquareTrade is not responsible for lost, interrupted or unavailable network, server or other connections, miscommunications, failed computer hardware or software or other technical failures, unauthorized human intervention, garbled or jumbled transmissions or other errors of any kind, whether human, mechanical or electronic, including without limitation, the incorrect or inaccurate capture of entry information online regardless of cause.

Black Friday 40% Off Sale Extended Through Tomorrow!

On Friday, we experienced a short site outage due to the overwhelming response to our Black Friday promotion . Because we want to make sure that all of our valued customers get an opportunity to make the full use of our Black Friday promotion, we are extending it to all customers through the end of Tuesday, December 1st.

We apologize for any inconvenience and frustration we might have caused, and thanks again for your business.

Happy Holidays,
The SquareTrade Team

Remember:

• WARRANTYSANTA is valid for 40% off, up to a maximum of $40, through 23.59 PT December 1st, 2009.
  
• After that, coupon code is valid for 20% off through 11.59pm PT Jan 10th, 2010 at www.squaretrade.com.
  
• Offer valid for warranties for items purchased from any retailer, except Amazon.com, Buy.com, Abt Electronics, Vann's Inc, and Woot.com
• Warranty must be purchased within 90 days of item purchase date. The purchase window of warranties for Items bought on eBay is 30 days.
  
• Coupon may not be combined with any other offer.
  
• Coupon cannot be applied retroactively to past purchases and are only applicable to warranties purchased directly from the SquareTrade website.

Low Price Guarantee - Plus, additional 40% savings extended!

Hi SquareTrade fans! As you go into the holiday season, we know that many of you look to us for our guaranteed best prices and service. We occasionally have to adjust our prices at times as we adapt to ensure that we can continue to offer the best possible 5-star service you know us for. While we continue to obsess about ways to provide you with great savings and no-hassles experiences, we've unfortunately had to increase our prices in some areas. In some cases, this may be due to better understanding of product risks (e.g.,our recent laptop study showed over 20% of laptops fail over 3 years.) That having been said, we hold true to our low price guarantee: As always, we continue to be on average 40% less expensive than other warranties sold by retailers. Plus, with the WARRANTYSANTA coupon (which we've extended due to overwhelming demand - see below), you will get warranties at 65-85% less than retailers!

Our holiday warranty prices versus other retailers:

3 Year Warranty Comparison Other Retailers SquareTrade YOUR SAVINGS iPod touch 32 GB $299.00 at Apple $88.50 $23.39 $65 save 74% Flip Video - Ultra HD Camcorder $149.99 at Best Buy $67.49 $11.99 $55 save 82% HP Pavilion Laptop $646.99 at Best Buy $224.99 $59.99 $165 save 73% Sony 46" HDTV $1,039.99 at Sears $319.99 $109.99 $210 save 65% Playstation 3 $299.99 at Best Buy $89.99 $23.39 $66 save 74%

WARRANTYSANTA SAVINGS EXTENDED!

Exclusive Black Friday Deals for SquareTrade fans!

Share

We love our fans and would like to express our gratitude with some extra special savings. Check out these exclusive Black Friday Deals! Are you scouring Google for "Black Friday Sales" and counting down until the Black Friday Madness begins? Whether you're bracing yourself for the stampedes on Friday morning or opting to shop later to bypass the lines altogether, we've got some exclusive deals just for our fans!

Black Friday Deals include:

40% coupon: It's coming midnight, 12am Friday! Update: First 10,000 customers to use coupon code WARRANTYSANTA snag additional forty percent savings! HOLIDAYMAIL: Have you received a postcard from us? Check it out for additional savings! Exclusive 50% and 100% off coupons for die hard fans who follow @SquareTrade on Twitter!!! See below to find out how easy it is to score one.

40% Off! First 10,000 Warranties Starting Midnight November 27th!

Are you ready? It's coming!  This Friday we'll email all our customers - first 10,000 customers get 40% off!

Plus, stay tuned for info on additional savings! (Including special deals for our Facebook Fans, and more Twitter giveaways!)

Consumer Reports, SquareTrade agree - Don't get pushed around!

Share

Have you seen the latest Consumer Report's "Dear Shopper" Ad? We love it! The new ad appears in the USA Today, citing results from their national survey of consumers. "Dear Shopper," it reads, "It's time we told retailers how you feel about their pushy holiday-season practices."

No one likes to be hounded with extended warranty sales pitch: According to the survey, most Americans dislike when store employees try to get them to sign up for store credit cards, ask for phone numbers or e-mail addresses, or launch into their pushy sales pitch for an extended warranty. We join consumers in giving hard warranty sales a big thumbs down!  Consumers should have a choice. In fact, that's one of the reasons we're in this business - to provide a refreshing alternative!  Afterall, SquareTrade is about not getting pushed around!

A rebuttal to some comments about our laptop failure study

Dear Readers,

I would like to respond to some comments made today in an article by Gareth Halfacree on the bit-tech.net website.  You can view that article here.  Specifically, a number of claims were made by Ray Gorman of Lenovo about our Laptop Reliability study, and I would like to clarify each of those claims, and give a rebuttal where necessary.

Ray Gorman: “total number claimed in this report is not a statistically significant sample for a study where no attempt is made to control key variables affecting repair rates, such as comparable machine types, end users, geography, and applications”

SquareTrade’s study examined data from 30,000 laptop owners, which we believe to be a very statistically significant sample.  When a national publication polls Americans on their attitudes towards political matters, they poll 1000-2000 people; a sufficient sample size to represent the 230 million Americans. 

We did not control for the variables Mr. Gorman mentioned, but we also did not feel it necessary.  With an average sample of over 3000 laptops per manufacturer, our sample size is large enough to assume a random distribution of users for each variable. 

As an example culled from Lenovo's own warranty repair data, Gorman points out that the company would "expect a 10X difference in repair rates between systems bought for [secondary school] students and systems used only in a home office by adults," a distinction which isn't made by SquareTrade's study.

Our data set assumes an equal distribution of the types of consumers for each manufacturer.  Thus, we believe that our data sets for each manufacturer contain a similar proportion of students, home office users, frequent travelers, and so on. 

We analyzed our data to produce a general study of manufacturer failure rates relative to one another, not to produce a study only about the reliability rates of laptops used in a home-office setting.

To return to the polling analogy, pollsters choose random survey participants in the phone book, and do not control for geography, race, income, or any number of other variables that are may be very relevant in determining which candidate the participant would vote for.

 

Arguing that SquareTrade "has a vested interested in showing scary failure rates as they have done here [as] they are in the business of selling after sale warranties," Gorman claims that Lenovo's internal data shows that laptop failure rates are "at least two-thirds lower than what is claimed in the Square Trade survey."

I won’t dispute the fact that SquareTrade is in the business of selling warranties.  However, I do dispute the fact that we’re trying to scare consumers to buy warranties.

We find our overall results for laptop failure rates to be very consistent and in line with other organizations that have reported research.   We direct our readers to the following reports:

• In June 2006, Gartner reported actual failure rates of 28% for systems purchased in 2003-2004.  They projected a 22% failure rate, based on 1 year of data for systems bought in 2005-2006.

• In November 2007, Consumer Reports reported “Repair Rates for 3- to 4-year-old” Laptop Computers at 43%. 

With our results showing a LOWER failure rate than reported by these other sources, we are telling consumers they need warranties LESS frequently than the numbers published by Consumer Reports.  If anything we’re providing “less scary” numbers than Consumer Reports and Gartner on laptops.

Furthermore, we have also published past research reports that show device failure rates far below the point at which it makes sense for most consumers to purchase warranties.  Most recently, our Game Console failure rate study from August 2009 found that only 2.7% of Nintendo Wii systems failed over 2 years.  We would not have published such data if our only interest was in selling warranties.  We provide the information to consumers and make affordable warranty protection available to them.  It is up to them to make the decision of whether a warranty is worthwhile.

 

For those concerned by the high rate of failure that SquareTrade quoted in their study, Gorman says not to worry: "PC hardware is extremely reliable, and this study is full of holes[, as the] method is flawed, the data is inaccurate, and the conclusion is wrong."

 I strongly believe that our study of over 30,000 laptops is one of the most comprehensive studies on laptop reliability.  We have not surveyed customers on past failures, which allows for subjective recollection and brand affinity bias their memory.  Instead, we have recorded device failures as they have been reported to us for warranty service. 

Readers, let me know what you think.  I am happy to discuss any questions about the study in further detail. 

 

Respectfully yours,

Vince Tseng

VP of Marketing, SquareTrade

 

 

PS. I am typing this out on my Lenovo T61 ThinkPad, which is the standard notebook distributed by SquareTrade’s corporate IT department.  Before my current Lenovo ThinkPad, my prior personal laptop and corporate laptop were both IBM ThinkPads.  For what it’s worth.

Getting Tough On Plasma TVs

Share

Want to save some extra cash with bonus of being more earth-friendly? As Engadget points out: "That new HDTV of yours? It may be thin and light and lovely, but it ain't saving you any money." Some 50-inch HDTVs demand over 400 watts of power when you turn them on. That's more than some modern refrigerators!

So what's to be done?! Consumers can consider this when making purchasing decision - many manufacturers are already making more energy efficient models. There are also ways to curb your current HDTV's energy use - do a quick google and you'll find tips or TV energy-efficiency guides. Meanwhile, the California Energy Commission voted unanimously this week to become the first state to impose energy efficiency standards for televisions. New energy efficiency standards will apply to TVs sold after January 2011:

"The initial regs state a maximum of 1 watt of consumption when "off" and, when on, a maximum of .2 watts per inch of screen area plus an arbitrary 32 watts." - via Engadget

But will such regulations help more than they hurt?

Some are saying California's legislation is a death knell for plasmas. The Consumer Electronics Association says it is "extremely disappointed"  because this policy will threaten consumer choice. What do you think? Sound off below or join the conversation on twitter. You can add the hashtag #TVregulations to tweet your thoughts.

Which laptop manufacturers are most reliable? Study has people talking!

Like our previous studies, SquareTrade's Laptop Reliability report has people talking! 

Join the discussion! Join thousands of others on SquareTrade on Facebook or on Twitter. (Tweet your thoughts or comment below. See live Twitter feed of discusssion below, after the jump.)

	"3-year service history of more than 30,000 laptops has been pored over, analyzed...you get what you pay for -- shocking, right? The big talking point, though, will inevitably be the manufacturer comparison chart..."
	"Our last annual survey of laptop owners turned up a similar result...A reliability report from RESCUECOM, published last March, also put Asus ahead of the pack and HP in dead last, with Apple coming in the middle..."
	"New data from SquareTrade (one of the bigger warranty providers) says Asus and Toshiba have the least hardware malfunctions over 3 years, while one-in-four HP laptops are projected to experience problems."
	"Apple may have played its cards right by not moving into the netbook market, according to SquareTrade's data."
	"...smaller name brand notebook manufacturers are usually more reliable than their larger rivals."
	"Apple ranks a lackluster fourth...The top honor goes to Asus, which surprised me, but I suppose shouldn’t have when I consider the build quality of my fairly inexpensive Eee PC."
	"While Asus topped the list, the bottom part of the list was taken by HP, which would probably be rather disappointing to the numerous HP fans out there."
	"That's bad news for the Dayton area, with such a heavy research and technology sector tied to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base."

If you're on Twitter, you can simply include the hashtag #LaptopReliability to your tweet. (We'll update with a live feed below.) Check out other reactions to the study and tweet your thoughts!

Study Finds One in Three Laptops Fail Within Three Years

Share

Are you planning to get a laptop or netbook this holiday season? Our team has been collecting data on over 30,000 new laptops and netbooks. As laptops have historically been among the most popular electronics gifts, SquareTrade publicly released its findings to consumers, examining the different aspects of laptop and netbook reliability.

Highlights are below but be sure to check out the full study. Update: For further coverage of the report and discussion, check out Gizmodo, Engadget, PCWorld, Electronista or ComputerWorld and see the "Thoughts on this Study?" section below.

Netbooks projected to fail at a 20% higher rate than traditional laptops The study begins with an overview of laptop hardware failure rates, as well as failures caused by accidents. We then compare netbook failure rates to more expensive laptops and evaluate the relative reliability of several leading laptop brands.