Why even call it a warranty?

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I just helped my mother pick out a new television set. After much research, we found that ecost.com beat out our local retailers by 25%. About an hour after completing the purchase, I received an e-mail from SquareTrade, a reputable company, offering to give her an extended warranty on the television – a full year past the 90 days from the manufacturer. Now in my day, an extended warranty was a load of hogwash because every major purchase came with a warranty (keep in mind that I am only 33). What I have realized however, is that more and more manufacturers are giving us consumers the short end of the stick on warranty protection, legitimizing the idea that a consumer-purchased warranty is the norm. Webster’s Dictionary defines a warranty as: a usually written guarantee of the integrity of a product and of the maker's responsibility for the repair or replacement of defective parts. That would make sense, right? So how is it that, over the last decade, we’ve gotten used to the idea of purchasing a warranty the way we purchase insurance? Don’t believe me? Just go to Best Buy, Sears or Circuit City and purchase a big-ticket item. As soon as you’re ready to check out, you’ll be offered extra warranty protection. In fact, sales clerks at every major retailer will offer you some sort of extra coverage – for a fee usually no lower than 10% of the purchase price. This begs the question, why even call it a warranty? If the manufacturers are so proud of their products why do I have to pay for them to stand behind them? The people in the commercials they pay for seem to be happy with the products. The models in the magazines are really enjoying them, too. There’s more pre-purchase encouragement from all sides but, not a lot of fanfare after your money is spent. The 90 days you get from most companies makes you wonder if they really expect your TV, VCR, stereo or computer to survive. Maybe if they spent less money telling me to buy it, they could afford to back products with a real warranty. If you were wondering, yeah, I bought the stupid warranty and, that’s probably why I’m venting here. I guess you don’t have to be over-the-hill to long for the “good ol’ days.”