meade extra insurance

probably only for the us....
picked it up in the lxd55telescopes list.

Cheers,
~Al


Hi All,

Just received from Meade Instruments a new extended service contract
program for all their telescopes. Meade is calling it their "Sky
Assurance" program. Customers who purchased their telescopes in the
last 11 months are eligible to OPT in. A sample of the pricing; for
scopes from
$1000.00 to
$1999.99, 3 years is $144.99 and 5 years is $429.99. For scopes from
$2000.00 to $2999.99, 3 years is $244.99 and 5 years is $559.99. For
scopes from $3000.00 to $4999.99, 3 years is $324.99 and 5 years is
$839.99. If any are interested in more details, please feel free to e-
mail me directly, but here are the advantages from Meade, I am sure
there will be more info to come, but I just wanted to get everyone
the breaking news;

Meade® Instruments Corporation
SKY Assuranceâ„¢ Advantages


- An extended service contract supported by Meade Instruments and its
qualified service technicians and VAC Services Corp., the largest
administrator of service contracts in North America.

- Renewable as long as the customer wishes.

- Transferable even on the Replacement Plan at no cost.

- Cancelable at any time.

- No Deductible.

- Our program is fully insured to give your customer peace of mind.

- We allow the purchase of "Meade Sky Assurance" up to 30 days prior
to the expiration of the manufacturer's labor warranty.

- Our "No Lemon Guarantee" states that if your product is repaired
for the same problem three times we will replace the product with
new, like and or same quality.

- One time Replacement Plan on products under $200.00.

- Dedicated toll free hotline.

- 3-Way Advance Shipping upgrade, which includes a box for shipping
your product for service.

Clear Skies,
Mike Fowler www.optcorp.com opt@optcorp.com
Manager 1-800-483-6287 1-760-722-3343
Oceanside Photo & Telescope 1-760-722-8133 <fax>
1024 Mission Ave., Oceanside CA. 92054 USA

WOW
They're really let themselves wide open there.
I can already see a number of simple ways of manipulating that insurance policy.

Say someone goes for the three year policy, and decides that each year thay will break a certain item in the scope, they can have themselves organised to have a new scope sent to them after 3 years with all the newest modifications and improvements.
Anyone who has taken the scope apart (like I have on a number of occasions) could easily find a number of easily breakible items (untraceable).

I cant see that lasting as it is.