More on my @LdnIncMag March cover story about Zucora Home #LdnOnt

My experience with the first extended warranty I ever bought should have prompted me to buy warranties, when available, on everything I bought thereafter.

              I extended the warranty on my first new car: a 1989 Chevrolet Sprint. It was a tiny car with a tiny engine and a tiny price: $8,000 new. But it got me to British Columbia to live for two years and then back to Ontario. At some point after my return, my father borrowed the car for some reason and returned with some disturbing news.

              An engineer who worked at GM and once took his car apart just to see if he could put it back together, he knew cars. And he said my three-cylinder, one-litre engine sounded odd. “I think you might have a cracked cylinder head,” he said, sympathetically.

              Sure enough, a mechanic confirmed the news within days. I needed a new engine, at a cost of roughly one-third the cost of the car. You don’t buy a tiny, $8,000 car if you’re flush with cash, so this was bad news indeed. Except I had an extended warranty, and for the price of a small deductible, I got a brand-new engine for my cheapo vehicle.

              So, I’ve been buying extended warranties ever since, right? Ah, not exactly. I still blanch at the cost, resentful that the manufacturer’s warranty is so lousy. Sometimes I give in. Sometimes I don’t.

              For the last four decades, London-based Zucora has provided the warranties offered by most of the country’s large furniture retailers. If you bought a couch at The Brick or La-Z-Boy or a dozen other retailers, the extended warranty came from Zucora, whether you knew it or not.

              As you can read about in my London Inc. March cover story, the company is expanding its suite of services and methods of delivery, offering homeowners a worry-free experience, for $70 a month or less. Its new Smarter Living Plans offer protection on furniture, appliances and home systems. In theory, there’s no reason to worry about anything in your home breaking or wearing out. Zucora Home has you covered.

              Scoffers, please note the experience at La-Z-Boy, where Zucora has offered warranties on the retailer’s motorized recliners etc. for years. The coverage costs 12-15 per cent of the price of the item, and 85 per cent of buyers buy it.

              That’s a lot of people willing to pay a little more for long-term peace of mind – exactly what Zucora provides.