Guaranteed Profit

I just bought a new external hard disk online at Amazon and I passed on two options I was offered…

  1. A 2-Year Warranty for $4.95. The hard disk comes with a three year "limited warranty" and there doesn't seem to be any explanation as to what this warranty would do for me that the "limited" one doesn't. It also doesn't say that this is an extended warranty so it may cover the first two years of the product's life, which are already covered in some fashion.
  2. A 2-Year Data Recovery Plan for $9.95. This proposition gives me more information. It says, "If your drive stops working, the Rescue data recovery plan will recover the data from the failed drive and return it to you on a new piece of external storage." That sounds interesting until you get to this line: "If your data isn't recovered, you get your money back."

Okay, so follow me on this. Let's imagine that I have no technical capability to recover data from a damaged drive. None whatsoever.

I offer this deal. When you buy a new hard disk, you send me ten bucks. If the drive never fails you, I keep the ten bucks.

If the drive does fail, you send it to me and I send it back to you with your ten bucks and say, "Sorry, I couldn't recover your data." I don't even have to send you that new piece of external storage I send you if I do recover your data, which I don't even try to do.

What is my potential loss here? Well, I haven't investigated far enough to know but I suspect when you send me your drive for possible data rescue, you have to pay a postage and handling fee for its return. If you do, I'm out nothing. I might even make a few more bucks off that postage and handling fee. If you don't, then I'm out the cost of sending you your refund and returning your drive.

Since most people who bought this insurance wouldn't be sending drives in for my "services," I'd still make a pretty dandy profit from not being able to reclaim anyone's data. I may need to rethink my career choice.