Hi guys,

Ive had my TV (SAMSUNG UE50RU7020KXXU 50" Smart 4K Ultra HD HDR LED TV) for 3 months now and I just had a call out of the blue, saying about my TV maintenance payments. I dont believe I've ever paid for this on any of my TVs, if I'm honest, I'd never even heard of it before the call.
They said it costs £80 for the entire year and I could pay upfront on the phone. Is this really necessary as I thought my TV would be covered by my home insurance. How does TV maintanance differ to home insurance, does it cover extra stuff? I asked her to call me back this afternoon so I could find out about it before I signed up.
She knew my name and that I had a samsung TV, so I imagine Currys shared that information with them?
I also searched the phone number she rang me on, as I forgot what company she said she worked for, so I could compare prices and found this: [Link: scam-numbers.co.uk] which makes me think its not that common and perhaps not necessary, perhaps even a scam?.
Thought this forum would be a good place to get advice :)

Thank you in advance!!

LouLou

Home contents insurance may cover theft or accidental damage, but usually not component failure.

TVs are usually supplied with a 12 month manufacturer's guarantee, but I would be surprised if Currys didn't try selling you a extended warranty/repair support plan ([Link: currys.co.uk]). It could have been the underwriters of such a plan trying to contact you, or a third party fly-by-night outfit trying to scam you. Whatever the case, you're under no obligation to sign up if you don't want to.

I'm not in favor of consumer electronics add-on warranties. Basically it's a wager. The consumer bets that the unit will break and the warranty company bets that it will not break. The company has failure data and makes money on the wager. To me, it is similar to the slot machine. On occasion a consumer will make out nicely, but the house always makes a profit. On average I would make out better holding on to my money.

An average warranty plan charges about 10% of the value of the unit per year. As with any insurance, if you have the cash to absorb a loss, long term you are better off without insurance. Over the weekend I purchased a $20.00 keyboard for a Raspberry Pi project and the store wanted to sell me an almost $3.00 policy on the keyboard.

I did make an exception to this position some time ago for a laptop. I took out a policy and and had a failure. Overall I saved money because the cost of repairing the failure would have been higher than the premium because the insurance had a negotiated fee with the repair station that would not have been available to me as a direct customer. This is the only case where I purchased insurance and I have not had any other failures where the insurance would have paid for itself.

With respect to the OP's query: I would be very leery about this call. It would seem to me that Currys would make the call, not a 3rd party, but in fairness a 3rd party could have rented a customer list. Any legitimate caller would know the model number and purchase date.

I get calls about renewing my automobile maintenance insurance (that I never purchased).