Do you want fries with that?

I was definitely speaking in English.

Had a rather frustrating chat with Sky TV yesterday. My request was pretty clear in that I wanted to downgrade to the basic package. Don’t get too much time to channel surf these days and can’t say that Nordic tractor pulling floats my boat so it was time to eliminate a lot of channels and save a few quid each month.

Couldn’t blame the Sky chap for trying, but even though I specifically asked for a downgrade, he insisted that an upgrade is what I really needed – and cost me more money!

I eventually got through to him but the point I’m making is this…

Is an upsell always a bad thing?

“Do you want fries with that?” The answer is a pretty obvious “yes”.

When buying a new computer, the upsell would be the “extended warranty.”

So the question is “should you take it?”

When I replace my hardware, I always go for the top end in specification that I know will last me around 5 to 7 years and paying an extra £200 say for an additional 4 years of cover say is a no brainer.

A classic example of when the “extended warranty” has paid off is my Sony laptop.

I bought it back in the Dec 2013 and paid for the extra cover which expires in 2017. Since buying it, the storage drive in the laptop has died twice but it hasn’t cost me a penny to repair; just the inconvenience of being without the laptop for a while.

On the subject of laptops, the cost of repairing a laptop is quite expensive in comparison to a desktop so assuming you’ve bought it as a long term purchase, I would always advise in extending the cover on laptops.

On the other hand, if you bought a budget computer, taking out the “extended warranty” will probably be close to the value of the machine and wouldn’t expect it to last for many years anyway; be that from a performance point of view or the physical hardware.

P.S. One big difference between “do you want fries with that” (which I believe still gets asked every time) and the high street computer store is that they don’t always mention the “extended warranty” option.

You’ll find the hard sell is in the AntiVirus and Office software because the software sale is far more profitable to them.

But remember….

It’s always available; always. You just need to ask for it.

And if you’ve already bought a computer and took out the standard one-year warranty, it’s not too late. Just call your supplier or computer manufacturer for a quote.