I have always heard buying an extended warranty is a rip off. My local stores offers a 4 year warranty for like $119 for a $1,500 Roland. They try to entice me by telling me that the good thing about the warranty is while they are fixing your DP they give you a loaner. I never owned a DP so I didn't know if I should buy a warranty or not.

The answer is NO, do not buy it. It is simply pure profit for the store and often the source of high commission for the salesperson.

The only exception to this rule is if the store gives leeway for the associate sto provide additional discounts on gear. If you can get an additional $250 discount off the instrument in return for agreeing to buy the warranty which will likely result in the salesperson being paid $60 for having found a sucker, then by all means. The loser then will be the store.

I'm with the Journey on this one.

My take is that extended warranties are a big money maker - but not for the buyer.

Some credit cards (like my Visa) double the manufacturer's warranty time limit. With a (generally) well made product like Roland, the probability of requiring warranty is slim.

My first Roland piano had noisy keys that was fixed by the dealer coming to my place to install a felt strip. My current five year old Roland has had no issues at all, and likely never will.

BTW, there is a reason that the big name brands (Kawai, Yamaha, Roland, Korg) cost more.

I concur with everyone and say NO.

>I had a Technics which lasted me 10 years flawlessly then sold it, it's still probably going strong. DPS are more reliable than I originally expected.

>Warranties from the big name manufacturers are long (Roland 3 years!!!) and any faults will likely develop within the warranty period.

>Don't buy a cheap generic chinese digitals, which could well cause you pain and problems in the long term compared to the established brands.

>DPs can be fixed onsite by their own engineers and they will collect and return if not.

Extended warranty on a DP? Nope. IMHO. The normal warranty should suffice. However, make sure you have really good surge protection.

Save your money

Also think about who's selling you the extended warranty. If it's not sold directly by the manufacturer, but instead from a third party who's in cahoot with the store, I wouldn't trust them at all. You don't know whether they'll be around to honor it 4 years from now, or how they're going to honor it, or whether they'll honor it at all if you have to make a claim. They probably have a lot of fine prints of limitations on the warranty to rule out 90% of potential claims.

No. I never buy extended warranties on anything. It's how sellers make up for sale prices. Big money in those things.

Generally I'd say it is not necessary.

Maybe one could think about it, if one had a Stage Piano that is moved around a lot, although that is just an argument I deduce from extended Laptop warranties (which are IMO a sensible choice in many cases).

Most problems likely to be caused by moving a keyboard around a lot tend to involve accidental damage and are unlikely to be covered by any warranty.

You're right, a warranty won't cover damages that result from improper handling, but I'd argue that frequently moving a piece of electronic a lot can strain some parts even if it is done carefully. A device designed for mobility however should bear up under such conditions, so I'd expect a warranty to jump in if it doesn't.

However, this is pure speculation.