Sept. 1994- bought Mom a new TV, Magnavox 27" w/stereo sound & Pic-In-Pic. CRT, of course, but pretty spiffy for '94. All went well until...
~April Fool's Day, 2009- after more than 14 years of service, the M-Vox died. Mom wanted to keep her TV cabinet(complete w/VCR shelf!) that she bought at a local furniture store circa 1995. No modern flat screens need apply, size restricts to ~27" CRT tv. She didn't want a used TV, so I went looking through *Very* slim offerings, got her a 27" CRT from Sears(Sansui brand, mfg by Orion). It fit her cabinet, had both analog and digital tuner, & she was happy with it. All went well enough until...
Mid October 2011- the alleged Sansui developed near-horizontal lines across the top 4-5 inches of the screen- still watchable, but irritating. They went away after warmup at first, by mid Dec were permanent. New-set warranty was 90 days, even with credit card extension it was long gone after a mere 2 1/2 years.
Finally, in mid-Jan, talked her into letting me look for a good used 27" CRT TV. By then all the Christmas cast-offs seemed to be gone here, I'vv been looking for a month.
Connected on a CraigsList ad Friday night($20, 27" Sylvania, included original remote), combined trip to get it with other stuff, hooked it up Sat night. After looking up the manual online, got channels dialed in(analog cable) & everything going, Mom was happy.
I was getting the old set ready to offer to a charity store & unstapled all the 2009 purchase papers from inside its manual- and guess what I found? Mom had bought a Sears extended warranty for it, good until sometime in April 2012!
I'll call tomorrow & start the ball rolling on a replacement under warranty, gotta hold 'em to it for the junky TV. But the moral of the story- when your TV dies, be sure you look through *All* the papers you have for it, no telling what you might find!
~April Fool's Day, 2009- after more than 14 years of service, the M-Vox died. Mom wanted to keep her TV cabinet(complete w/VCR shelf!) that she bought at a local furniture store circa 1995. No modern flat screens need apply, size restricts to ~27" CRT tv. She didn't want a used TV, so I went looking through *Very* slim offerings, got her a 27" CRT from Sears(Sansui brand, mfg by Orion). It fit her cabinet, had both analog and digital tuner, & she was happy with it. All went well enough until...
Mid October 2011- the alleged Sansui developed near-horizontal lines across the top 4-5 inches of the screen- still watchable, but irritating. They went away after warmup at first, by mid Dec were permanent. New-set warranty was 90 days, even with credit card extension it was long gone after a mere 2 1/2 years.
Finally, in mid-Jan, talked her into letting me look for a good used 27" CRT TV. By then all the Christmas cast-offs seemed to be gone here, I'vv been looking for a month.
Connected on a CraigsList ad Friday night($20, 27" Sylvania, included original remote), combined trip to get it with other stuff, hooked it up Sat night. After looking up the manual online, got channels dialed in(analog cable) & everything going, Mom was happy.
I was getting the old set ready to offer to a charity store & unstapled all the 2009 purchase papers from inside its manual- and guess what I found? Mom had bought a Sears extended warranty for it, good until sometime in April 2012!
I'll call tomorrow & start the ball rolling on a replacement under warranty, gotta hold 'em to it for the junky TV. But the moral of the story- when your TV dies, be sure you look through *All* the papers you have for it, no telling what you might find!
As your mother did....I wish I could pull up some bony statistic out of thin air of money wasted on extended warranties that don't get used 
