warranty

SquareTrade snags $238 million growth equity investment

Extended warranty service SquareTrade announced today it has secured a $238 million growth equity investment lead by Bain Capital.

Terms of the private financial transaction were not revealed.

The company, which sells warranties for consumer electronics and appliances directly and via more than 30 retailers and marketplaces, said its sales tripled in 2011 compared with 2010. It also expects to record "triple-digit" revenue growth in 2012, although the privately held company did not provide specific financial details.

"SquareTrade has been profitable and growing rapidly for several years," CEO and co-founder Steve Abernethy said in a statement. &… Read more

What to do when your smartphone craps out before the contract ends

When you sign a new wireless contract and pay $200 for the latest smartphone, you expect that device to last at least until the end of your two-year contract. Right?

Unfortunately that's not the case for many smartphone subscribers. If your device has issues within the first year, consider yourself lucky since the repair is likely covered under the manufacturer warranty. But if it craps out 13 months into your contract, you may be screwed. Ask Maggie offers some advice for how to protect yourself. And in a second question, there's some advice for keeping an older iPhone … Read more

Didn't get AppleCare+ when you preordered your iPhone 4S? You still can

With buyers snatching up a record 1 million iPhone 4S preorders in a single day, something was bound to go wrong. Not only were servers clogged and orders difficult (or impossible) to place for some users, but apparently many customers didn't get the option to purchase the new AppleCare+ extended warranty.

That may not seem like a big deal, except that AppleCare+--unlike the original AppleCare--must be purchased at the same time you buy your iPhone. So anyone who fell victim to Apple's overloaded servers during the order process would effectively be out of luck.

Thankfully, … Read more

It's all Apple

Apple announces the iPhone 4S with Siri and a new 8-megapixel camera, the iPods get a slight refresh and price drop, and AppleCare+ finally gives customers accidental damage protection.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Apple iPhone 4S iPod refreshes iOS 5 and Cards iCloud and Find My Friends AppleCare+ includes accidents Trade in your iPhone 4 Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (HD) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS HD

Apple upgrades iPhone AppleCare coverage, price

So you ran over your shiny new iPhone 4S with the car. Or dropped it in the potty. Or got there too late as your toddler took a hammer to it. These things happen. Like, for real.

Replacing a busted iPhone can cost a small fortune, as you're not subsidizing it with that juicy two-year contract the carriers love. If you're the clumsy or unlucky type, you might possibly want to consider an insurance policy.

Apple has just the one. The company's new iPhone AppleCare+ plan extends your one-year warranty and 90 days of tech support to two full years. And the "plus" part adds coverage for two incidents of accidental damage (like, say, a fatal run through the washing machine).

Now for the bad news.… Read more

Apple Stores sued in China, allegedly selling refurb iPhones as new

The Global Times, a news site in China, reports that two lawsuits have been filed charging that Apple is knowingly selling refurbished iPhones as new products in their stores.

"Six consumers who recently bought iPhones in Apple stores at Xicheng district's Xidan Joy City and Chaoyang district's Sanlitun, and some other authorized dealers, found their phones have a shorter warranty than the normal one year."

According to the report, two of these customers that purchased their iPhones at the Joy City store contacted noted consumer rights activist Wang Hai, whose fight against counterfeit goods in China … Read more

WarrantyLife building online shoebox for warranties

The hard drive in my MacBook died last week. It was a Seagate drive I bought about a year ago after I outgrew the drive the laptop came with. I think it's still covered under warranty, but I'm not sure. Should I do the research to find out, and then try to deal with finding the receipt to get it replaced, or just suck it up and get on with my life?

With a new service, WarrantyLife, I might be able to make that decision based on actual information, instead of just taking the lazy route and throwing … Read more

Intel boosts warranty on solid-state drives

Intel has added two years to the warranty on its 320 series of solid-state drives because it is confident in their reliability.

The boost in warranty from three to five years was announced Friday. It covers consumer-level use of the drives, which is up to 20 gigabytes of writes per day. Caveats apply to enterprise-level usage, typically in high input/output environments such as data centers.

"Expanding [the warranty] from three to five years on its latest product, the 320, is important," said Joseph Unsworth, a research director at Gartner. "This is a testimonial to the fact … Read more

Another Koss headphone plus: Lifetime warranty

Impressive sound performance, an affordable price tag, and a "Back to the Future" aesthetic keep the $49 Porta Pro headphones in the modern Koss stable of products.

Well into their 26th production year, we're proud to include them in our list of the Best Portable Headphones for more than just those reasons--they also happen to carry a lifetime warranty, no questions asked.

A clear statement on the warranty page reads:

Stereophones that were purchased after July of 1989 are covered by our No-Questions-Asked Lifetime warranty.

No need to include the original receipt, nor do you have to wait for an RMA. In fact, Koss actually encourages customers to visit its Milwaukee location for those in the area to make an exchange--if not, all they ask is that you include $6 in the box to cover the return shipping fees.… Read more