On-site warranties: the small print

To most people, a computer purchase is a big deal. The large sum of money invested in a PC may have taken many moons to accrue and, for that reason, the machine will usually be expected to last for several years.

It's no wonder, then, that the idea of having a roving engineer at their behest seems attractive to so many computer buyers.

If something goes wrong, just pick up the phone and before you can howl 'Blessed computers!', a toolcase-bearing, overall-clad technician will be rapping on your front door offering to cure all your hi-tech ills. Hallelujah for on-site service!

Well, that's what many a computer company would have us believe. But how does this sunny vision of at-your-place service provision compare with reality?

Will a request called in at the first signs of trouble really conjure up a clever man in a white coat? Or will you spend aeons explaining your woes to be told that engineers perform call-outs only on 29 February?

Sounds like a ripe time for an investigation by vnunet.com's sister publication What PC?.

Cold calls

First things first: what is an on-site service contract? Although the definition varies from firm to firm, in the buying public's mind on-site service means only one thing: in the event of purchased equipment developing a fault the cause will be diagnosed at home or at work (and ideally repaired there, too).

It seems pretty cut and dried but, remember, this is the consumers' perception only. From the manufacturers' point of view, sending an engineer out to a customer's premises is an expensive day-trip to nowhere nice.

Call-outs cost computer companies time and money so it's hardly surprising that they endeavour to avoid making them.

If a customer suspects a fault with their PC, inevitably they'll look to their supplier for help. But expectant holders of on-site service contracts will discover that computer companies have erected front-line defences in the form of telephone support lines.

Before an engineer ever gets the chance to direct the nose of his white van towards your neck of the woods, helpline operators back at head office will have intercepted your phone call.

Here, you'll hang on the end of the line as the telephonist runs through a checklist of potential causes, ranging from the downright obvious ('Is the computer plugged into a main socket and powered, sir?') to the almost inevitable 'It sounds like it could be a software problem'.

The hitch is that software problems are rarely, if ever, covered by on-site service agreements. Indeed, it's highly likely that you'll be directed to another department, often at the sharp end of a premium rate telephone line.

You see, the bottom line is that on-site service contracts and extended warranties are first and foremost money-making schemes.

Yes, roving engineers do exist and they will visit your home or business and attempt to repair faulty equipment on site, but only after the telephone support warriors have discounted every possible other cause of the problem.

Cost of contracts

Usually, suppliers which offer on-site maintenance agreements alongside their computer systems charge a premium for them. Demanding three-year on-site cover to go with a new Dell Dimension PC, for example, would currently cost £116.33.

It's impossible for us to comment on the competitiveness of this, as the value of any on-site service contract depends as much on your specific requirements and circumstances as the cost of the machine you're buying. But you should always look beyond the headline price.

Evesham.com, for instance, offers two-year on-site service as standard, with a third year of return-to-base cover thrown in for good measure.

Return-to-base means that, while the company will stump up for the cost of labour and parts used in any repairs, the onus is on the customer to arrange and pay for shipment of the faulty goods on both legs of the journey.

With that in mind, Evesham.com's offer to upgrade for £29 the third year of warranty to on-site seems attractive. Indeed, on the surface, Evesham. com charges £29 for what would cost you £116.33 if bought from Dell.

However, the devil is in the detail. Remember those helpline defence trenches? Dell's hardware and software support centres are both contactable on national rate telephone numbers meaning affordable technical help. Evesham.com's software support specialists, on the other hand, sit at the other end of a premium rate line costing £1 a minute.

We're not suggesting that this is in any way unusual - for example, Mesh, PC World and Time all charge premium rates for software support. But it serves to highlight why you should look closer at the initial cost of on-site service.

It's likely that you'll need considerably more software support than hardware help over your PC's lifetime, so factor in a sizeable number of those pound-per-minute calls.

Tiny tears

It's important to double check any details you may read, even if they're in black and white. During the research for this feature, we discovered that warranty information outlined on Mesh's website was out of date, doing it no favours at all.

The company's support pages state that machines include just one year of on-site service. In fact, Mesh has recently upped its standard warranty to three full years of on-site cover.

However, as thousands of Tiny customers found out recently to their considerable cost, on-site service contracts sometimes aren't worth the carbon copies they're etched on.

When Tiny went bust, it owed lots of money to its creditors. Among these was Computacare, a company which provided the bulk of Tiny's customers with at-home servicing.

More or less immediately, Computacare suspended Tiny computer owners from the use of its services because Tiny hadn't paid the bills.

Of course, the remnants of Tiny have since been picked up by Time Computers, but that doesn't mean existing on-site service agreements will be honoured.

Time bought Tiny's business and assets but not its debts and, until such time as the bill is paid (which is unlikely ever to happen), Computacare's travelling technicians will not be knocking on the doors of Tiny PC owners.

The only upside to this situation is that Time has agreed to repair under-warranty Tiny computers, but customers must pay shipping costs.

Unsure insurance

The Tiny debacle highlights the interesting situation whereby third-party companies often manage on-site service on behalf of computer manufacturers.

Indeed, in some cases, the money you cough up for an on-site service 'contract' pays for nothing more than an insurance premium.

Should components in your computer fail within the period specified in the service agreement, its manufacturer may - all other options exhausted - decide to stump up for the cost of an engineer's visit to your home. Subsequently, they will claim back that cost from their insurance company.

Picking this apart, you could, in effect, end up paying your computer supplier's insurance premiums. Therefore, it might be wiser to look at purchasing an insurance schedule of your own.

An outfit like Complete Computer Cover (020 7628 3661 www.completecomputercover.com) offers insurance products tailored to PC owners, or you can almost certainly arrange specific computer cover through your household insurance provider.

Signing off

We didn't set out to diminish the stature of on-site service supply but we can't help coming away with a feeling that consumers are, if not cheated, then often misled by retailers and manufacturers. Engineer call-outs are generally the last resort, rather than a manufacturer's panacea for PC problems.

Whether you pay hundreds of pounds or nothing for your on-site service agreement, you will always have to contend with telephone support in the first instance. This might take moments, minutes or hours, so be sure to confirm how much this is likely to cost.

Finally, read the small print of your on-site service contract. If it turns out to be a glorified insurance policy, then cut out the middleman and arrange your own cover: it'll undoubtedly work out cheaper and, as many a Tiny customer would now warn, you won't have to rely on someone else to pay the premiums.

Trading standards

According to the government's Trading Standards Office (www.tradingstandards.gov.uk), on-site warranties are commonplace in the computer industry. If you're looking to purchase on-site service, the organisation advises to check whether an engineer will visit your home or whether you will have to telephone a premium rate advice line for support.

It also points out that such warranties are in addition to your legal rights as a consumer. In other words, regardless of the terms of any on-site service contract you may purchase, you still have a claim against the retailer if things go wrong.

Finally, it urges consumers to read a warranty offer's terms and conditions carefully and to consider other insurance options.

What to ask

Ask your PC supplier up front for service and support contact telephone numbers and opening times. If you detect any reticence on the salesperson's part, remind them who's holding the purse strings.

If it turns out that software support is charged at a premium rate, don't be surprised but do factor the fees into your calculations. If a company charges for hardware support, ask them to justify the costs.

Equally important is the availability of support. On-site service is fine in principle but if it's only available when you're at work, a fat lot of good it will be. Can engineer visits be arranged for weekends or evenings? Will this cost more?

Lastly, be sure to ask exactly what your money gets you. Does it buy a contract with a third-party company? Will the contract be honoured if your PC supplier goes out of business? Or is it simply an insurance policy maintained by your supplier?

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