"Clive Page" wrote in message
...
On 29/07/2018 09:00, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Actually I think it ties in to a whole mentality which is somnewhat like
the TV rental market used to be. I want a product, but not te
reposnibility of ownerhsip.

So cars are contract hired.With AA style support.

Appliances are bought on credit with a guarantee. If they break then
they are fixed FIC.

Household maintenace is on fixed annual price call out.

It's all about people who can understand monthly outgoings, but not how
to budget.

Further up the income scale, they simply buy new on fault.

Agreed. These extended warranties are in my view always a con. But
enough people get taken in that they account for a significant amount of
profit for the manufacturer and, of course, the insurance companies
involved.

It's also an explanation for the difficulties of the Brexit negotiations,
where there's an attempt to separate trade in goods and services. Both
are broadly speaking covered while we are a member of the EU, but if we
leave - who knows? The problem is that lot of the value of the supply of
goods comes from a service element. And not just in consumer purchases:
if a business buys a software package it will probably also buy a software
update service, and at the highest levels, if you buy a frigate or an
airliner you expect that a servicing contract will be included in the
deal.


ITYF that ongoing maintenance of a purchased item is not the type of service
that is considered separately from goods under EU regs.

There wont be a specific problem with this when we leave

tim