<p>I am getting a Toshiba Portege from Best Buy. There are 2 types of warranties, and I want to know if either of them are worth it. </p>
<p>One is 2 Years of Geek Squad Service for general manufacturing problems and the such for $150. </p>
<p>The other is 2 Years of Geek Squad Service for general manufacturing problems and they will fix accidental damage(I drop laptop and bust the screen, spill something on it, or someone accidentally knocks it over) for $270. </p>
<p>Or, I can skip both and save the money, and hope that nothing goes wrong. <em>crosses fingers</em></p>
<p>In general, I would NOT let Best Buy near any of my computers. Get a good manufacturer warranty and have a backup plan that allows you to survive being without a system for a week or three. </p>
<p>In the event that the Toshiba croaks Best Buy will not be able to do much more than pray to the Semiconductor Deities unless it’s an obvious fix that requires very minimal intervention. In any case, the downtime is the big issue, not the repair cost per se. </p>
<p>See if your campus is a ‘Dell’ campus or an ‘HP’ campus or a Mac campus or some such, and if they offer depot service where they fix such things for free or for low cost. DD’s school has such a service (free for basic things to very low cost for supported systems).</p>
<p>Check similar spec’d models on amazon/newegg. Some portege models listed on either site have 3 year limited warranties included by default (which would be akin to the first one you mentioned).</p>
<p>What I have noticed that best buy and some other stores (like microcenter do) is having reduced warranties from what the manufacturer itself actually offers (so that they have a larger profit margin with the warranty). I know this definitely happens with Asus, but i’m not sure with other manufacturers. As far as estimated returns go, the best-buy warranty is always a bad proposition. Since the loss isn’t devastating, its not really worth it.</p>
<p>The most likely failure in most laptops is the hard drive, and since that is what most people value the most (their data) there isn’t really anything a warranty is going to cover (aside from one that includes data recovery, which I’m doubtful of), only an external backup would really be protection.</p>
<p>Thanks Rhythm! I just looked it up on Newegg and they have the p56x model for 800 and 2 years of accidental damage coverage for $140. I’d be saving $60 compared to Best Buy Laptop + Warranty.</p>
<p>Hmm, just noticed they are out of stock at the moment. Will have to look at Amazon.</p>
<p>You’ve probably already decided but stay clear from GS. They only do simple services on hand and if they cannot fix it, they just ship it to your manufacturer for them to fix. I tend to be careful with my possessions and hardly need extended/external warranties but in the case you do, I advise you go with SquareTrade.</p>
<p>I am the same way. I’m just banking on the unfortunate event of someone accidentally pushing it to the ground or dropping it myself. I have never dropped a laptop, or any of my valuable possessions, but accidents happen. I would rather be safe than sorry.</p>
<p>If you can’t get squaretrade for some reason get the manufacturer’s warranty.</p>
<p>Geek Squad can only do simple repairs. If the hardware breaks, GS will send it to the manufacturer. So GS is the middle-man essentially. And I’m always wary about middle-men. Geek Squad may give the wrong info or it may get damaged during shipping.</p>
<p>And, get the accidental damage warranty. Although you won’t be stupid and break your laptop, others might… college is a crazy environment sometimes…</p>