ADVICE // 3
Protecting Yourself in the Event of Equipment Malfunction

This year has already proven itself to be the year of technical difficulties. First my camera died on me after taking it out for pictures during one of the many snowstorms last season…I know BAD IDEA! And most recently, my only two year old 27-inch iMac decided to start shutting down randomly while in use. Needless to say, I learned a few things about what to do in situations like these. Hopefully, you’ll never find yourself in similar crisis, but before you do, here are a few tips to help make things go much smoother when your equipment decides to quit on you.

• Don’t skimp on the extended warranty. Computers and cameras can be so expensive as is that it may be tempting to skip on the extended warranty altogether to save a few bucks.  But in my experience, upon one use, the warranty pays for itself and then some. Of course, if you never use it, it may seem like a waste. But I’d rather plan for the extra expense of a warranty during purchase, than be surprised with an unxpected expense due to an accident or equipment failure at a later time when I didn’t budget for the costs of repair.

• Read the fine print.  Don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions before committing to a warranty.  What does it cover?  Does it cover accidental damage or just hardware failure? Does it cover parts, labor or both? Is there a deductible for repair? Consider how you’ll be using your equipment and determine what’s the best coverage for your particular siutuation. For example in addition to my extended manfucaturers warranty, I have a special accidental protection  for my camera that covers falls, water, sand and pretty much everything you can imagine, except theft.  Because I shoot in so many types of enviroments and because I’m so damn clumsy, I wanted the most inclusive protection plan to cover all my bases.

• Beware of big box store warranties.  When my iMac went kaput I learned the hard way that the difference between Apple Care and the Geek Squad protection plan I purchased through Best Buy was the length of time for repair. While Apple does their repairs in house making it a much quicker turnaround (in most cases, less than a week), Geek Squad ships the faulty equipment out to their service center for repairs. The process can take anywhere between 2-4 weeks between diagnostics, shipping to and from the service center and any waits for special part orders and repairs!  That’s a long time to be without a computer, especially if you need it for work. Even though I was satisfied with the overall time it took to get my computer back from Geek Squad (10 days), in the future I will probably opt for the Apple Care protection plan for its super fast turnaround time. (Update: One day after publishing this post, the iMac dies on me again! Same issue. Back to Geek Squad it goes. Not a happy camper, but just goes to prove my point about big box store warranties – buyer beware!)

• Have a backup plan. When I purchased my Nikon D700, I decided to keep my older D90 instead of trading it in towards the purchase of my new camera…I’m so glad I did!  Even though it rarely sees the light of day, it has come to my rescue on several occassions.  As a professional, it’s always important to have a backup for emergency purposes.  Even if it means renting equipment in a pinch, an emergency plan or emergency funds is a must to insure you don’t skip a beat in your business when these things happen. When my iMac was out for repair, I had my Macbook to lean on for editing (even though it’s not my preference) never skipping a beat in meeting client deadlines.

• Save everything! Call me crazy, but I’m a digital hoarder. Not only do I backup my computer, but I have backups of my backups on actual external hard drives, as well as on the web. I also make sure not to delete my memory cards from my camera until everything has been backed up properly. Computer crashes happen and they suck! But if you back up your work on a regular basis, you run less risk of losing precious data, making the process of restoring your computer a little easier.

• Repairs vs Replacements. When my camera wouldn’t power on after I took it out in the snow storm, I thought it was done for good! The extended warranty had just expired a month earlier and I was afraid I’d have to shell out close to $3,000 for a new camera body model or $2,000 for a refurbished version of my now discontinued camera model.  After some research, I found an authorized Nikon repair dealer that was able to replace the water damaged parts and bring my camera back to life. Most places will give you a quote at little or no cost, so it doesn’t hurt to inquire whether repairing is a better option than buying new. The repair and labor for my camera ended up costing $400, but it was far less than purchasing a new or refurbished camera unexpectedly. Since my camera was in great condition and I wasn’t planning on an upgrading it in the forseeable future, repairing was the best option for me – and the least expensive!

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