5CHICAGO TRIBUNE Ô TEMPO Ô SECTION 5 Ô TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

Eric Gwinn Digital Page

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Going for broke

Computer hard drives fail. Digitalcameras quit clicking. Stuff breaks,so you might be wondering aboutso-called extended warranties tocover your new gadgets in casesomething goes wrong during aspecific period of time.

The term “extended warranty” isoften a misnomer; only manufac-

turers offer warranties. What you’rebeing offered at the electronics storeis an “extended service contract” torepair or replace your purchase if itbreaks in the next three or fouryears—some coverage restrictionsapply.

Should you do it? It’s a bettinggame. When you buy an extendedservice contract, you’re betting thatyour new gadget will break in the

next three years. The seller of thecontract bets your gadget will worklike a dream for three years.

You “win” if you have to get yourdevice repaired or replaced underthe terms of the contract. You winbig if, say, your $200 contract windsup covering an $800 repair.

Contract sellers win if no prob-lems covered by the contract pop up:They gambled and won your $200.

Repair contracts

(A betting game)

When does buying an extended contract make the most sense?

When buying a laptop, according todata compiled by Consumer Reports.With all the bumping and bangingthose portable computers suffer, it’sunderstandable that 43 percent ofthem fail, according to nearly 1 millionConsumer Reports subscribers whoresponded to a survey on electronicsbreakdowns. So if you’re investing$1,000 in a new laptop for your stu-dent, and the laptop is going to bejostled about in a backpack every day,spending another $200 for a servicecontract on the laptop might give youpeace of mind, if it covers accidentaldamage from handling.

But keep this in mind: The wordingof extended service contracts usuallymeans your protected product will berepaired or replaced with a similar,refurbished device.

That’s important to know because ifwe’re talking about a broken laptop, itcould get swapped for a replacement,and you can’t be sure your photos,movies, e-mail contacts, music andpersonal files will get transferred. (Butyou always back up what’s on yourcomputer, right?)

Common laptop repairs include a

damaged hard drive, a malfunctioningmotherboard or a broken LCD, saysGeorge Krogul, of the Elk Grove Villagerepair shop Crescent Technology. Oneof the laptop problems he sees mostoften involves the DC input jack, thepoint where the power adapter con-nects to the computer.

Searching the Web for “laptoprepair flat rate,” you can find repairshops that charge a flat rate of $175 to$200 (plus shipping) to inspect and fixmost problems. Costlier fixes—such asreplacing a fried motherboard or bro-ken display—will cost you parts andlabor: $300 to $800, depending on theseverity of the problem.

Here are 2 tips: If you choose toget an extended contract, especiallyon a laptop, read the fine print to makesure you understand the coverage. Ifyou drop your digital camera, if yourlaptop falls out of a backpack, does thecontract apply? Is there any kind ofmechanical failure that isn’t covered?

Also, check to determine where itgoes for repairs and who pays forshipping. (It can be a costly pain ifyour contract requires you to ship yourbig, broken HDTV to a far-away state.)

What to know about coverage

n You may already have some if youbought the computer with a creditcard. Visa or American Express, forexample, take care of repairs of up to$1,500 if you charged the purchase. n Not the same as insurance. As TimMeenan, executive director of theService Contracts Industry Counciltrade group, explains, “Insurance cov-ers things that happen from outside,like a flood or a fire. A service contractcovers something that happens frominside, like a broken disk drive. There isa legal definition of ‘insurance,’ so youcan’t call a service contract ‘insur-ance.’ ”n Not always cost effective, ac-cording to Consumers Union, publisherof Consumer Reports magazine. “Mostproducts are quite reliable,” says TodMarks, senior editor at ConsumerReports. “Others don’t break within thefirst three or four years of ownership[the length of a typical service con-tract].”

Mark Kotkin, director of surveyresearch for the Consumer ReportsNational Research Center, added, “Wefound the cost of the repair on averagewas not very different from the cost ofan [extended] warranty.”n The model is changing. Eric Ar-num, editor of the Warranty Weeknewsletter, predicts “repair clubs” willpop up, in which consumers will pay asmall monthly fee, say $5, for repair/replacement coverage of their pur-chase. These clubs would be run by amanufacturer such as Apple, or a storesuch as Circuit City, entities withstrong name-recognition and a desireto get customers to love them.

“Retailers such as Best Buy are nolonger content selling the product andnot seeing you again,” Arnum says.“They want you to come back ... tobrowse for new products, ask ques-tions, receive training, get installationadvice. They want you to think of themas a place to bring your products back,not just a place to buy them.”

Get more on service contractsat chicagotribune.com/eric

Alternatives

You probably know about ex-tended service contracts fromstores such as Best Buy. Companiessuch as Square Trade and newcomerGreen Umbrella also sell such con-tracts.

And you can always skip signingon the dotted line and simply takeyour broken gear to a repair shopyourself if something goes wrong. Tofind a shop near you, search yourphone book or the Web for a phrasesuch as “laptop repair, Chicago."

Square TradeBills itself as a cheaper alterna-

tive to store-bought service con-tracts.

The premise: Square Trade’scontracts are cheaper than manyservice contracts sold at stores.Those tend to run about 20 percentof the cost of your purchase (a con-tract for a $1,000 laptop typicallycosts about $200), while SquareTrade’s contracts cost 10 percent to12 percent of the price of your de-vice (a contract for a $1,000 laptopwould be $100 to $120).

The pros: Square Trade will repairor replace your gadget within fivedays or give you money equal to thecost of your gadget. So, a $1,000laptop would be repaired or replacedwithin five days, or you’d receive$1,000.

The cons: As with any such con-tract, you’re still gambling that yourdevice is going to break.

Green Umbrella$9.99 a month covers every new

gadget in your home, so long as youregister that gadget at greenumbrel-la.com.

The premise: Instead of buyingone contract for your computer,another for your camera, a third foryour TV, pay $9.99 a month to coverall your new gadgets. Each deviceunder the Green Umbrella coverageis protected for three years.

The pros: Cheaper than purchas-ing a new contract for each newproduct you buy.

The cons: You’re limited to onlytwo claims a year (but if one of yourdevices has a troublesome compo-nent—say, your laptop’s keyboardrefuses to stay repaired—it can befixed up to three times). If you loseyour receipt, you can’t file a claim.

Getting it fixed yourselfBest Buy’s Geek Squad and Cir-

cuit City’s Firedog are getting morecompetition: AT&T recentlylaunched its ConnecTech repairservice for AT&T and non-AT&Tcustomers nationwide.

egwinn@tribune.com

3 things to keep in mind

n If the contract covers “accidental damage from handling,” it’s a good one.n In many states, you have 30 days to cancel for a 100 percent refund.n If a valid claim is denied, your state insurance commission can help you.

Paleontologists tell usthat 530 million years ago,the Cambrian explosionbrought us an amazingvariety of evolutionarydiversity. Suddenly, crea-tures with fins or limblikeappendages were floppingaround in ponds and scut-tling across land.

On Sunday, a similar kindof creative explosion willrock American creaturecreators when the videogame “Spore” arrives forPCs and Macs. (It makes its

worldwide debut Thursdayin Europe.)

“Spore,” created by thedevelopers of “The Sims”—the best-selling computergame of all time—has beeneight years in the making.Players start with single-cell organisms and try togrow them into exotic,thinking creatures outfittedwith characteristics thatwill help them survive andevolve—you can put eyes inthe back of your creature’shead to spot predators, for

example, and give it power-ful legs to run if you thinkthat will help it get along.

Though Spore is a gamefor individual players, thecreations are shared. Thatmeans if your critters arefit enough, they will even-tually form tribes that usehunting-and-gatheringskills and civilizations thatuse negotiation or physicalmight against other play-ers’ creatures. If you suc-cessfully populate yourplanet, your creatures will

gain the ability to buildspaceships to travel to dis-tant galaxies.

But if you prefer, you cansimply build creatures,buildings and vehicles (in-cluding spaceships) to seewhat it takes to survive indifferent environmentswith other players’ crea-tions. Unlike most othergames, the way “Spore”plays out is completely upto you.

You can get an early tasteof the game at spore.com,

where you can download acreature creator to playwith.

Meanwhile, we will beplaying with “Spore” andtalking to some of the peo-ple behind the game tofigure out why it has beenso eagerly anticipated, whyit might set a new standardfor video gaming technolo-gy and whether it lives upto the buzz.

Look for our report Mondayin Tempo.

Is ‘Spore’ the next stage of computer game evolution?

Product: CTTEMPO PubDate: 09-02-2008 Zone: ALL Edition: TUE Page: ACDIGITAL-5 User: jdziura Time: 08-29-2008 18:08 Color: CMYK