I am buying a olympus 400Z. and the sale person trying to sell me a 5 year service contract mack camera shop.I checked the usenet and mackcam.com looks good.How do you feel about buying service contract for olympus brand of digital camera?Is the money well spent?

-- paul wong (pyw@jps.net), March 18, 1999

Answers

I bought the 5 year service warranty from Mack on my CoolPix 900 last month. IMO it was worth the money as they cover EVERYTHING for 5 years for the cost of $100. I figured since I invested so much in my camera, I wanted a good warranty and Nikon's 3 month warranty scared me. Good luck.........

-- Jody Kind (kind@telisphere.com), March 18, 1999.

Think about the useful life span of you digital camera. At the speed they are changing, it is probably not much over 2 years. A 5 years service looks ridiculously long to me. Think of what the D400Z will be worse in 5 years. Peanuts. Doesn't it come with a 1 year warranty from Olympus ? It will probably lose 50% of its value during this first year, this is the only one you really need covered. I would get such a service contract for a $650 regular camera, not for a $650 digital one.

To me it looks like this is a way for low-margin vendors to make some profit after catching clients with a great price tag. They use service contracts, shipping and overpriced accessories.

But of course, if $100 buys you peace of mind go for it. I just don't think it is a sound financial deal. I would get a couple of memory cards instead. And probably not from the same vendor.

-- William VPB (vbp@via.ecp.fr), March 19, 1999.