Is a $749/Yr Home Maintenance Agreement worth it?

[muckmail]

We have a home maintenance agreement that cost $749/Yr that covers
Air Cond, Furnace and items from TVs, tread mill, range, freezer
refirgerator, etc. Other than the Air Cond & Furnace their is about
18 other house hold items.

We have had the agreement for a long time and some items such
as the funnace was purchase in 1969. So many items we have are
old but will maintained.

The agreement has influnced our buying because we have not
updated in the past .

If Sears can't repair they must replace the equipment.

It is an old Sears Agreement and service is good but is it worth
keeping it from a mathmatical point of view? Is that service
too expensive?

I am have not made up my mind on this so I am taking a pole.
What is your opinion? Should we keep it or dump it assuming
that we are satisifed with there service?

Thank you,

[snafu]

Are you planning to update your old [1969] items for power efficienc ies or more modern looking items? Phone Sears and ask what they charge for a service call...before repairing anything. What is your call history? Do you have a service call where the one individual checks all 15 items covered in your service contract?

I know they will charge me $65. for looking at my Sears vacuum which I bring to their Service Ctr. plus repair time, parts & labor even if the problem is that they sold me the wrong bags!

A dishwasher service call is a minimum of $200. plus parts in this region.

[Seeker]

I am have not made up my mind on this so I am taking a pole.
What is your opinion? Should we keep it or dump it assuming
that we are satisifed with there service?

Thank you,

Assuming your are satisfied with their service, I'd look at the other numbers...

Snafu has a very good question:

How many service calls on average a year do you call them?

Since some of the equipment is 1969, I'm actually surprised they can continue to repair them (parts are not always readily available for the older stuff).

And it's also true that newer appliances are much more energy efficient (so it's very possible to save in other areas with replacing your appliances as needed ; be aware that Sears may continue to repair instead of replace, simply because it's more cost effective for them to do so).

"Cannot fix" is not usually a problem if parts are available; and fixing old stuff is not always the best way to go.

We spent $60 three times over a period of 1.5 years before we replaced a clothes dryer that sometimes would not power on -- we were told that it needed a new engine, but it'd be cheaper to buy a whole new unit because of its age and the chances of another component failing.

$750 a year can replace 1 or almost 2 of these major appliances a year (depending on which are failing)... and it also represents approx $62.50 per month savings by getting rid of that contract. I assume that that $750/year has been slowly rising?

I'd make a decision based on how many calls you've made over the past year... and whether or not its for the same one or two appliances.

But also realize that my time is also valuable to me, and I dislike having to stay at home to meet and deal with repair people regularly.

My inclination would be to not renew and replace the older appliances as they fail, with more energy efficient ones.

[muckmail]

750 is constant.
I would say 2 times/yr for Furnace & Air.
Maybe a 2/yr for others appliances which may not be necessary.
I would not necessary use sears for appliance repair if contract is dropped. I would look
at competators in the yellow pages.

[mdcrim]

I wouldn't do it. I have a $439 yearly maintenance agreement for one of my rentals. It has an $85 copay and it is almost impossible to get them to actually cover what they are required to cover. I have had the agreement for 4 yrs but have not used it much until this year, which is how I've found out how difficult it is to get them to take care of covered problems. Good luck!

[segmond]

not worth it. save and invest that money.

[PetMom]

If you are asking about Sears we did not have a good purchase/warranty situation with them.

We bought a new dryer and it had a warranty. The dryer was defective in that it would need a new part every 8 months or so - but not, according to them, defective enough to replace. They even foisted us off on the manufacturer to take up why this part was malfunctioning - they said it was because I washed too many loads per day (3 loads) - the whole thing was so ridiculous.

We did learn how to do the repair ourselves and learned the ins and outs of a dryer.

Ask how promptly they can get out to your house. We had to wait a week during a peak busy time.

Sears always hard sells their 'warranties'. But they do not hard sell their follow ups. Others may have better experiences though.

We have never done business with them again.

But thanks to Sears Hubby could be a dryer repairman if needed.