At Your Service

The Ins and Outs of Extended Service Plans

By Natalie Hope McDonald

When Sears Roebuck and Co. began selling extended "warranties" 25 years ago, even the retailer didn't know exactly what to call them. And the customer was even more at a loss as to whether it was worth investing, in some cases, 10 percent of the overall price to protect against a one-in-five chance that a product would fail.