7. Insurance Salesmen and Warranty Peddlers: Are They Smooth Enough?

A few months ago, I went to my local electronics store to get a new cordless telephone because the one in my office had broken after a few years of daily use. After scanning the aisles, I chose a basic unit that cost about $110 and headed to the cash register to pay. Upon handing the salesperson the phone I wanted, she asked, in a bored monotone, a question she’d probably already posed a hundred times so far that day: Want to buy an extended warranty on that?

I’m sure you’ve had the same experience, too, every time you’ve bought something from any electronics store. Her pitch continued: The warranty would “protect me” for the next two years, and if anything should happen to ...

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