* In a message to Blair Thompson on 10-28-97, MATT SMITH said the following:
MS>     He's talking the price of _extended_ warranty.
MS>     Many places try hard to push extended warranties on customers buying 
MS> electronic goods, because the profit in them is way more than on the item 
MS> itself.
        It's like the state lottery.  You are wagering that eventually
        your investment will pay off, and the state is wagering that
        it won't have to pay out.  With the service plan, the plan
        administrator (a separate company) wagers that no matter how
        many thousands or millions of instances the product will be
        used in the course of 3, 4, 5, or 6 years, it will never fail
        to perform exactly as it did on the date of purchase.
        The customer wagers that, some moment in the next 3, 4, 5, or
        6 years, some part of the item, whether it be a rechargable
        battery pack, a knob, or a PC board assembly, will cease to
        function as well as it did on the date of purchase.  Under the
        plan, the customer never has to settle for "good enough"
        performance because the repair might cost more than he's
        willing to spend.  That's his bet.
 -- SPEED 2.00 #2712: A penny for your thoughts...  $20 to act it out...
--- GEcho 1.00
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