Sugarbear, there are many differences. Some may say I'm splitting hairs, or it's all semantics, but I respectfully disagree. There are legal differences, and it's not just semantics. First and foremost, a warranty comes from the manufacturer at no additional charge and is regulated by Federal law. A service contract is similar to an insurance policy, and the repair costs, overhead, sales commissions, and profit come from the "premiums" and the deductibles the customers pay.
There really is something called an "extended warranty", but it is provided free of charge by the manufacturer in cases where they determine there is a higher than normal failure rate on a part and they voluntarily extend coverage beyond the stated warranty limits to improve customer satisfaction. There even was a time when H-D did that, back in 1999-2000 when they found a high incidence of cam bearing failures in the new Twin Cam engines. They extended the factory warranty on the cam bearings and sent a letter stating that to all those who purchased a bike built prior to their production "fix". (Obviously that was under a different management group, the current group prefers to let you find and fix the problems yourself.)
Coverage under an ESP can vary greatly from the coverage under the factory warranty, but when people keep hearing that term "extended warranty" it tends to mislead many into thinking the coverage and their rights just continue as they were under the factory warranty. Wrong. I won't try to talk anyone out of buying a service contract on their Harley, even though for most products they are a losing proposition, strictly because Harley's quality and reliability has gotten so bad. But I strongly suggest that they read the contract thoroughly before they buy, so they won't be surprised when the administrator refuses to pay for certain things, or even voids the contract and refunds your money if you get tripped up by one of the fine print exclusions.
Jerry
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Topic: warranty (Read 6536 times)