HP Care Packages

[Justan]

HP offers extended warranties by way of what they call a Care Package.

Has anyone researched buying these from a 3rd party retailer or dealer instead of directly HP or is this exclusively a HP offered commodity?

I've bought extended warranties for other products at a discount before, sometimes a substantial one, and it would be great to do this here.

Thanks!

[jalcocer]

As a computer retailer here in Mexico I can tell you we have access to some of those packages for selling to the end user, but not for all the models of printers, computers, etc. In this case I'll recommend you go directly with hp for the extension, that way you also won't have anyone in the middle.

[Justan]

As a follow up I contacted HP directly. They say that there are 2 warranties for the HP Z3x00 printers.

Following is clarification on their extended warranties.

1 warranty is the 2 year factory extended warranty. This applies to an HP Z3x00 series printer that is still under warranty. This is HP part number UF035E.

Another warranty applies to out of warranty HP Z3x00 printers. According to HP, an out of warranty printer may be covered by a 2 year HP Warranty under part number UT788PE. With this warranty there is a 1 month lag between the time the warranty is purchased and the time the warranty takes effect. The 1 month lag is stated to insure that the printer is operational at the time the warranty begins.

For a 2 year in-warranty extension (again HP part UF035E) HP sells it at $1399.

For a 2 year after the original warranty expires warranty extension (again HP part UT788PE) HP sells it at $1459.

A few phone calls shows that cyber retailers sell these part numbers at about a 15% discount, compared to what HP is asking.

As a final note, I called some local (to Seattle) service providers and the costs above are less than what is offered by the local vendors I contacted.

[jalcocer]

That's really good to know, please let me know which way you go.

[Jim Coda]

As a follow up I contacted HP directly. They say that there are 2 warranties for the HP Z3x00 printers.

Following is clarification on their extended warranties.

1 warranty is the 2 year factory extended warranty. This applies to an HP Z3x00 series printer that is still under warranty. This is HP part number UF035E.

Another warranty applies to out of warranty HP Z3x00 printers. According to HP, an out of warranty printer may be covered by a 2 year HP Warranty under part number UT788PE. With this warranty there is a 1 month lag between the time the warranty is purchased and the time the warranty takes effect. The 1 month lag is stated to insure that the printer is operational at the time the warranty begins.

For a 2 year in-warranty extension (again HP part UF035E) HP sells it at $1399.

For a 2 year after the original warranty expires warranty extension (again HP part UT788PE) HP sells it at $1459.

If you own an HP Z3x00 printer how many times can you buy a two year extended warranty?  With Epson you get a one year warranty included with the purchase and you can buy two more years of coverage.  Can you buy longer coverage from HP?

[Justan]

> Can you buy longer coverage from HP?

Clearly yes, but I don’t have a direct answer for how long they will offer so you’d want to contact HP for that, but the people who answer phone calls don't set policy, so they may not have an answer either.

I suppose the implied answer is as long as HP maintains part numbers for the Care packages…