Okay, it looks like I may go ahead and get an HV20 this week and I was wondering if any of you bother to purchase those additional 2 year Service Protection Plans? At Circuit City, their 2 year plan is $220.00 and is inclusive of the manufacturers warranty.

Do you think these plans are worth the extra money? How many of you have bought them and do you find that you ever had to make use of them?

I don't even think it's worth it to be honest

I've broken 3 seperate Canon Camcorders (Just by using them... well I didn't take care of them either) 1 was a week old (Canon HV10) the other two were 4-5 years out of warranty

Canon repaired all 3 within a week of receiving and shipped it back for free...

The HV10 I'm 99% sure was water damage (Filming in the rain for 6+ hours with no protection, got through the microphone) but still repaired, the other one was just used for so many years the tape mechanism finally gave out but they repaired it for free (still works)

The canon SHOWED abuse, the LCD screen did not work, it had dents in it, the paint was rubbed off so you couldn't tell what any of the buttons did... but they still repaired it for free.

Canon has some of the best customer service I've seen for their camcorders, you do not have to setup an RMA#, you simply send in the camera to a repair center with a note that has all your information, and what's wrong with the camera

I'd save the $200 and buy some extra batterys and tapes so you can film more :)

Thanks Joe, that was a very good post you wrote. I didn't know that about Canon customer service, they sound like a good company to purchase products from. I've been a big fan of Sony and so much of what they produce, but the HV20 just really seems like a great piece of gear. I'm even thinking about some of Canon's digital cameras as well, so I may become a true Canon fan when all is said and done. But I think you're right, that extra money could be better spent on other accessories.

Great to pay using American Express. You will automatically get an extended one year warranty after the originally manufacturer warranty expires.

Canon will fix a 5 year old camera for free? I find that hard to believe. But it true, then so be it, and kudos to Canon.

I have a GL2 that was broken after 2 years of purchase. Canon still fix it for free.

Okay, it looks like I may go ahead and get an HV20 this week and I was wondering if any of you bother to purchase those additional 2 year Service Protection Plans? At Circuit City, their 2 year plan is $220.00 and is inclusive of the manufacturers warranty.

Do you think these plans are worth the extra money? How many of you have bought them and do you find that you ever had to make use of them?

I have kept track of everytime I was offered additional coverage on an equipment purchase (still and video and computer) for the past 5 years, this includes point and shoot cams for my wife, ipods, dvd players etc, all that crap we love to buy. Of all this stuff, I have had one $250 repair on a GL2. If I had purchased this coverage for every item it was offered on, I would have spent around $3k. Take that $250 repair away and I'm actually $2,750 ahead!

Original factory warranty will usually always work out. You will "most likely" never use an extended warranty. That's why they sell them, they make lots and lots of money from them.

Have fun with that new cam, I have had a loaner for a few days now and it's great. I'm ordering one up too.

Thanks again for your input. Just goes to show that in the long run, very few repair issues actually happen. I think that out of 20 years of buying electronics gear, I've only ever had one piece of gear need repair.