Selling extended warranties through independent firms lowers price, leaves consumers worse off
CATONSVILLE, MD, January 5, 2015 – Retailers selling home appliances and electronics goods typically make 15-20 percent profit from these products but realize more than 200 percent profit from selling extended warranties for them. A new study that appears in the January issue of Marketing Science, a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), finds that even though selling warranties through independent firms will lower extended warranty prices, the consumers may actually be worse off.