Protection Plans Consideration for EF 500mm

When taking into account the cost of the EF 500mm f/4 lens and the fact that the price keeps going up, would you recommend adding on a Protection plan when purchasing.
When given the option of a 3 year plan at $340.00 -or- 5 year plan for $670.00 which Protection Plan would you consider?

What does a protection plan do? I am assuming it is like insurance?

If that is the case, it's MUCH cheaper to get a personal policy through an insurance company, that will cover theft, damage, basically anything. Quite a bit cheaper as well.

If I am wrong about what the protection plan is, just ignore this post

astronotus_2000 wrote in post #9573279
When taking into account the cost of the EF 500mm f/4 lens and the fact that the price keeps going up, would you recommend adding on a Protection plan when purchasing.
When given the option of a 3 year plan at $340.00 -or- 5 year plan for $670.00 which Protection Plan would you consider?

I just spoke to my insurance agent this morning. He said the trend in the insurance biz is to no longer allow floaters for camera equipment. Small items like iPods, lenses, etc. etc. result in too much fraud. People claim they were stolen and get their money back. There is no way for the insurance company to tell if it was stolen or not. Also, floaters typically only cover theft, not damage. Your homeowner's policy will cover it, minus your deductible (my case $1k) if it is stolen.

My advice is to get the plan. My bag unzipped itself friday and my 70-200 2.8 IS fell out. I almost had a heart attack.

Yeah I'm curious what the plan covers. I have insurance on my gear and will be picking up a 500 in a month or so. I assume the insurance will do most, if not all, that the plan might.

Pass. That is how many stores make their most profit.

My insurance covers EVERYTHING.

I have everything insured... They cover theft, misplacement, damage due to dropping, basically anything... The only thing they say they don't cover is "mechanical failure due to age", but that doesn't stop me from "accidently" dropping it, so that is a wash.

Obviously, if you abuse it, they will drop you. But it is there in case you do need it, and should not be a problem to get a claim through in most cases. It is quite cheap as well. For $4,000 in gear, it costs me around $26 a year I believe?

Invertalon wrote in post #9573453
My insurance covers EVERYTHING.

I have everything insured... They cover theft, misplacement, damage due to dropping, basically anything... The only thing they say they don't cover is "mechanical failure due to age", but that doesn't stop me from "accidently" dropping it, so that is a wash.

Obviously, if you abuse it, they will drop you. But it is there in case you do need it, and should not be a problem to get a claim through in most cases. It is quite cheap as well. For $4,000 in gear, it costs me around $26 a year I believe?

Can I ask who you are using? I literally had this conversation with my agent 1 hour ago.

mckinleypics wrote in post #9573325
I just spoke to my insurance agent this morning. He said the trend in the insurance biz is to no longer allow floaters for camera equipment. Small items like iPods, lenses, etc. etc. result in too much fraud. People claim they were stolen and get their money back. There is no way for the insurance company to tell if it was stolen or not. Also, floaters typically only cover theft, not damage. Your homeowner's policy will cover it, minus your deductible (my case $1k) if it is stolen.

My advice is to get the plan. My bag unzipped itself friday and my 70-200 2.8 IS fell out. I almost had a heart attack.

This is bad advise.

A Valuable Personal Property "flaoter" is typical. Most married couples have one on the diamond on their wife's ring. Camera equipment falls under these plans as well.

Your homeowners will cover your camera/lenses under a tranditional home owners policy but that is basically worthless. You have a deductible and it only covers theft.

A VPP plan is somehing you pay extra for and covers theft, loss, accidental damage, dropping it in a river, falling off a counter top, etc. Almost anything except war zones for most plans.

I pay ~$180/year for over 7k in equipment. And I never worry about anything anymore. I used to wrap my strap around my hand to prevent me from dropping it. Now I know I have insurance that I pay for, so I do not worry as much.

Insurance companies make their living insuring people.

Electronics companies make their living having customers buy overpriced "insurance" plans that they never pay out anyway.

Buy your lens and take out insurance.

mckinleypics wrote in post #9573500
Can I ask who you are using? I literally had this conversation with my agent 1 hour ago.

I use USAA. Call someone like State Farm. And stop using an agent unless it is someone directly at the insurance company. he probably doesn't make enough off of VPP plans to even want to bother to insure you.

gasrocks wrote in post #9573410
Pass. That is how many stores make their most profit.

LOL! You don't think that the stores make a profit on the items they are selling?! Last time I checked, unless its the Salvation Army, most stores are FOR any and all profit in anything they sell!! In my opinion this really adds no usable information for the OP.

Now going back to the OP's question. You may want to check to see if their warranty is:
1. Transferrable (if you decide to sell)
2. Prorated year to year OR of you use it for a repair
3. Covers FULL VALUE of the lens over the life of the policy
4. It is backed by and insurance company
5. Offers a guaranteed turn around time service for repair
6. Offers a replacement if it cannot be repaired or repaired economically
7. Offers a "no lemon" policy
8. Covers normal wear and tear and damage from dust heat and humidity

I am not hard on my equipment, but I use it a lot and, from recent experience, sending 2 smaller "L" lenses to Canon at $210 a shot which includes shipping and insurance to repair autofocus or focusing errors it may be worth it. Keep in mind the $210 is per lens one time sent out with a 7 day turn around from Canon for both the 70-200 and 24-70, but it is one time only OUT OF WARRANTY. Canon no longer does the complimentary back-focus/front-focus repair.

CosmoKid wrote in post #9573517
This is bad advise.

A Valuable Personal Property "flaoter" is typical. Most married couples have one on the diamond on their wife's ring. Camera equipment falls under these plans as well.

Your homeowners will cover your camera/lenses under a tranditional home owners policy but that is basically worthless. You have a deductible and it only covers theft.

A VPP plan is somehing you pay extra for and covers theft, loss, accidental damage, dropping it in a river, falling off a counter top, etc. Almost anything except war zones for most plans.

I pay ~$180/year for over 7k in equipment. And I never worry about anything anymore. I used to wrap my strap around my hand to prevent me from dropping it. Now I know I have insurance that I pay for, so I do not worry as much.

Insurance companies make their living insuring people.

Electronics companies make their living having customers buy overpriced "insurance" plans that they never pay out anyway.

Buy your lens and take out insurance.

Maybe consider all policies are different. You are making broad sweeping statements that are simply false.

I use State Farm.

Go through State Farm!

CosmoKid wrote in post #9573528
I use USAA. Call someone like State Farm. And stop using an agent unless it is someone directly at the insurance company. he probably doesn't make enough off of VPP plans to even want to bother to insure you.

I switched away from USAA because their costumer service sucked. They suffer from not using agents. One example - I bought an old house. Two years later the random person that answered the phone (finally) reviewed my policy and asked why I had decided to go with "original workmanship" on my house. I had no idea what he was talking about. He said that if something happened to my home, they would hire specialists to replace the horse-hair plaster on my walls instead of using drywall. I said this was new to me and nobody ever explained this option to me nor had I selected it. Removing this option cut my policy in half.

USAA sells you on low overhead = savings but after I switched, my premiums are lower across the board. If my house floods today, I can walk three houses down the road, grab my agent, and drag him up to my house.

mckinleypics wrote in post #9573716
I switched away from USAA because their costumer service sucked. They suffer from not using agents. One example - I bought an old house. Two years later the random person that answered the phone (finally) reviewed my policy and asked why I had decided to go with "original workmanship" on my house. I had no idea what he was talking about. He said that if something happened to my home, they would hire specialists to replace the horse-hair plaster on my walls instead of using drywall. I said this was new to me and nobody ever explained this option to me nor had I selected it. Removing this option cut my policy in half.

USAA sells you on low overhead = savings but after I switched, my premiums are lower across the board. If my house floods today, I can walk three houses down the road, grab my agent, and drag him up to my house.

I also own an old house (1890) and suffered from the same thing when I signed up with USAA. When I questioned them on this, they told me that they had to insure me this way unless I sent them a letter from me that included an estimated cost to rebuild based on pricing in my area.

USAA originally told me it would cost 750k to rebuild my house. Brownstone foundation, plaster, 16" base molding, etc. All of this I would never obviously do. My insurance went down about 35% after I sent them my estimate.

I am not saying USAA is perfect, but what I am saying is VPP policies are used widely across the insurance industry including with cameras and everyone who owns a DSLR should have one.