SquareTrade Warranty Blog

SquareTrade Adds Leading Electronics Retailer Crutchfield to Growing List of Retailer Clients

 


We’re proud to announce Crutchfield as the latest retailer to offer SquareTrade. (That’s a customer service match made in heaven!!)

Pioneering Warranty Provider Extends Premium Service Offering to Established Catalogue and Online Retailer.

Which Digital Camera Manufaturers are most reliable? Study has people talking!

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

Join the discussion: Check out other reactions to the study and tweet your thoughts or sound off in the comments.

	"...a new study showing the reliability figures in the digital camera market has some interesting (and non-obvious) results."
	"...a lot of the data jibes with my experience. Particularly the high three-year failure percentage and the more you pay, the better the product. I can't speak to the reliability of specific brands, though. Can you?"
	"SquareTrade keeps track of the data and releases insightful information about how reliable our electronic devices are...the company has crunched the numbers on digital cameras, with some truly surprising results."
	"If you’re looking for the most reliable point-and-shoot digital camera, you might do well to focus on a Panasonic. That’s the conclusion from a study of 60,000 warranties on cameras conducted by SquareTrade, a warranty provider for tech products."

If you're on Twitter, you can simply include the hashtag #CameraReliability to your tweet. (We'll update with a live feed below.) 

The Secret is Out: Moms Know Best!

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I recently came across an awesome blog post from one of our newest customers. Seems her younger sister - another consumer savvy mom - clued her in on a little secret...

"My sister, who is meticulous in her research, was interested in finding the best deal she could on warranties for the high-priced equipment that would soon be in the hands of her rambunctious offspring..." "She was able to purchase inexpensive warranties for a DVD player, a Nintendo Wii, an iPod Touch and a digital camera. In all cases she was able to get coverage well under the cost that the individual manufacturers were offering." -  Mary, SimplyForties

"Shortly after purchasing my Kindle, I received an email from Amazon urging me to purchase a two-year warranty on my new device for $65. Remembering my sister’s experience, I went to Square Trade to see what they had to offer."

(Not So) Secret? OK, so this isn't really a secret to SquareTrade fans -- you already know we OBSESS about finding ways to give you more bang for your buck! But, as Mary's blog points out, you might have family and friends who still don't know they have a choice!

Share your money-saving tips & save more! Thankfully, there's a quick, easy way to share the good news about affordable peace of mind. If you haven't already, check out our tell-a-friend referral program. Your friends will get a coupon for their first SquareTrade Warranty and you'll get five bucks for each referral! (Check out the official details here.) Got the inside scoop on another great deal? Don't forget to make your mom proud and share it! We'd like to give kudos to Mary for sharing her SquareTrade story and helping others by sharing her money-saving tips! Meanwhile... Another SquareTrade customer and frugal mom says she loves to visit Frugal Mom Knows Best to get info on tips and giveaways for the whole family. Several SquareTrade fans on Twitter have also given thumbs up to Slickdeals as an awesome destination for bargain hunting and finding hottest deals on latest electronics. What about you? Submit a tip and let others know where you go to find the best deals. (Your money-saving tip might just earn you a free SquareTrade warranty!) Feel free to post your tips in the comments below or on our facebook fanpage.

Sound off: What's relevant to consumers?

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Read the recent laptop study Computerworld published from RESCUECOM? Curious what your thoughts are. There's an interesting discussion surrounding their results and methodology in comparison to our in-depth analysis on laptop reliability.

"Rescuecom's rating for Apple hardware contradicted after-sale warranty firm SquareTrade..." - Gregg Keizer, Computerworld "Rescuecom is not an Apple authorized repair facility..., nor does Rescuecom provide the protocols of their methodology for their survey, as do all others who conduct valid surveys, so that their method can be subjected to peer review." - Computerworld reader

What’s the motivation? Much of the discussion echoes our thoughts: consumers should have access to statistically significant data with transparency in methodology, etc. Many of you expressed interest in our multi-year laptop reliability report for this very reason. While we can’t speak for RESCUECOM, the goal of SquareTrade’s reliability reports (like our overall company mission) is to empower consumers, giving you the opportunity to make an informed choice (even if this means publishing data showing lower failure rates than reported by other sources.) More relevant data for consumers: Given the overwhelming interest in our previous studies – including our 2009 laptop reliability report – our current plan is to continue gathering and publishing such data to help you make a more informed purchase decision. But we’re interested in hearing about what you find most relevant. What do you find most useful about our studies? Which of our studies have you found of most interest or valuable as a consumer? (eg our 2009 Video Game Console Study, iPhone study, Smartphone reliability report, etc.) Sound off: Feel free to post your feedback directly on the Computerworld article. You can also sound off below or join the conversation on Twitter!

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

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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.

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!

Geezer Gamers Review: Is SquareTrade For Real?

Read what happens when FireMedic41 takes the plunge and chooses SquareTrade for the first time!

 "I had seen the SquareTrade logo multiple times on Ebay and felt that it was another way to get a few dollars from me. I really hadn’t researched it that much, but that day I needed it to be real. I read everything I could on SquareTrade (ST)... 'No hassle'.  'Customer Focused'...Why isn’t everyone using it then?"

Read the full review here.

SquareTrade.com gets a fresh, new look!

We mentioned there was a lot going on here at SquareTrade HQ. When you visited the site to check out the current Deal of the Day promotion, you may have noticed things looked a bit different since the last time you'd visited.

 

That’s right. We’re excited to announce the unveiling of our new site design. If you haven’t seen the new layout yet, visit our homepage and let us know what you think!

2008: A best-of list of best-of lists.

If you're a list lover like me, check out this link-happy article at thestandard.com.

My favorite Geeky Moment of '08 from Asylum's Most Wonderfully Geeky Moments of 2008:  

New Zealand man creates personal jet pack: This past July, an inventor in New Zealand showed off a jet pack that can fly 30 miles per/half hour at altitudes of up to 1,500 feet. Though the pack's mechanics run more like a car engine than an airplane, it still allowed the inventor's teenage son to hover three feet above the ground for 45 seconds. Technology is finally catching up to "The Rocketeer."

Best phone?  The experts like the G1, but the people favor the iPhone.  That's according to CrunchGear's Best of 2008 + People's Choice.

Check out these and other lists, like Quotes of Note from PC World, Top 12 Tech Embarrassments of 2008, and the 24 Most Underrated Websites of 2008.