Sorry you had a bad experience. I normally refuse them, too.
But my FIL had a different experience. He was a Sears man. Every appliance in his house was Sears, and you could be sure it was covered by their warranty. Sears sold it, they warranted it, and they came out and fixed it. That was back when they were a good company.
Along about 1970 (might have been 1870, I don't know) when we were getting married his freezer just quit one night. No noise or indication. A couple of days later it started to smell. That's a bad thing if you didn't know. So he called the local Sears store. Out they came to take a look. Yep, it was dead and needed a new compressor along with new food. So they sent out a clean up crew, bagged all the rotting food and carried it away for disposal, then cleaned the freezer. My MIL was happy so they apparently did a good job. The new compressor came in a couple of days later and they installed it, made sure it was working right. Then they gave them a check for the guessed at value of the contents. My MIL didn't complain about that, either, so I have to guess it was generous. Over the years they also fixed a bunch of other stuff. Sure, the warranty was expensive every year, but there were no worries.
Then the old freezer started making noise. So they immediately called Sears and they came back out. The verdict was they couldn't fix the thing again. So they asked him what he wanted them to do. They agreed upon a new freezer to just replace the old one. That same afternoon the Sears truck showed up. They offloaded it into the garage and turned it on full blast. They said the heavy lifter guys would be there in the morning. They hauled the new one down into the basement, pulled the old out out and pushed the new one in place and plugged the already cold freezer in. Then they transferred the goods over. Hauled the old one out to the truck and then gave my FIL the bad news. The maintenance fee on the new one was a bit higher than it had been on the old one. Nothing bad sounding, maybe $25 a year more. He paid it until he died with a smile.
So about 5 years ago my oldest son bought a fridge. He didn't bother with the extended warranty. It was expensive, about $1700. It died the month after it turned 1 year old. They wouldn't do a thing. He refused the warranty, so he didn't have one. They could fix it, but it would cost over a grand after all was said and done. He was pissed, but took the loss.
3 years ago we built a new home. Needed all new appliances. Sure I insisted we shop all the big box stores. My wife loves to shop, but when it came time to buy, she headed to Sears. All the stuff came from there. The most costly item was the fridge, and she'd heard and read great things about Sammy-sung. So she bought the one she liked at well over $2000. And she tacked on the extended warranty. And I expect her to keep it in force until she gets mad at the thing and wants a new one.
Yes, there are some rules of life. One is that if you buy the extended warranty find out who makes good on it. Cars are especially worrisome, since some die far from home. Be sure its the manufacturer that honors it. If you're buying appliances, make sure its not some 3rd party. You want the thing fixed right away, not in a month.
But even then there are pitfalls. A girl that worked for me in the early 90s had some problems commuting. She lived in a town called Falmouth. we often called it foul-mouth. It was a long commute, over an hour each way. And her car was junk. So I promoted her and gave her a nice raise because she was worth it (and had a nice ***). She went out and bought a new Corolla because Toyotas were the best cars and she'd get 5 or 6 years of trouble free travel. Sort of. But she drove a lot of miles, and within a few months she was racking up excessive miles. So I counseled her that she should go back to the dealer and get Toyota's extended warranty. Instead she answered a glossy mail ad for some aftermarket thing. She said it was just as good. Things went well for two years. But then the miles were adding up and went through the factory limit. Then a few months later it started making a noise.
She took it in and discovered those cars had a problem (not advertised, go figure). The exhaust manifold had cracked, a common problem. So it was time to contact the 3rd party clowns. And they refused the repair saying it wasn't covered. She threw a fit, but it did no good. When she finally got around to reading the extended warranty she discovered it covered almost nothing. It was just a warranty in name only. She pouted for a while after that and was upset because I'd advised her to use the factory plan. It was OK because she was mad at me, too. And almost never faced me so all I saw was her backside. That was Debbie's good side.
