This guide is for the point where two or more sellers have offered a service contract and you must choose between them. A sales call gives you little you can check later. The written contract, the disclosure pages and the seller's answers to the same questions can be compared line by line, and that comparison is the only fair basis for a choice.
Send the same questions to every seller
Write one short list and send it to each seller in the same form, by email or letter, so there is a record of what was asked. Ask for the answers in writing. An answer given only by phone is hard to hold a seller to, and an answer that points to a page you have not seen is not yet an answer.
The questions worth asking
Ask which company is legally responsible for paying a covered claim, and whether that company is the one that sold you the contract. Ask how a claim is started, who decides whether it is covered, and what written decision you receive. Ask how long the waiting period lasts before coverage starts, and whether it applies to every kind of claim. Ask what happens when the repair shop you want is not in the seller's network. Ask for the cancellation steps in writing, including what is refunded and how that refund is calculated. Ask whether the contract can pass to a new owner of the item, and on what condition. Ask which document controls if the sales sheet and the contract disagree.
Sort the answers before you compare them
Use three marks for each question: answered in the contract, answered in writing outside the contract, or not answered. Keep oral answers in a separate column, because you cannot check them later. Treat a vague answer as not answered. Do not total the sellers or rank them by how smooth their replies sound. Compare the same row across every seller, and note where a seller has left a row empty.
Check the state roster, then the seller's own paper
Each state page on this site names the regulator, cites the statute or program, says whether the state publishes a roster, and prints that roster in full with its as-of date where one exists. Check whether the seller is on the roster as of the date printed, and check the regulator's own site for anything newer than that date. Being on a registration list is a listing fact only. It does not tell you the contract is good, and this site does not read registration as a quality rating. Where a state has no roster, the page says so, and you rely on the written contract alone. Where a state page says this edition has not read a point, treat that point as open. For example, see the California service contract rules and roster page.
What this guide does not settle
This guide does not tell you which seller to choose, what any contract costs, or what any contract covers. Those answers are in each contract itself. The published figures for each state are in the tables on this site. This is general information, not legal advice. If a term is unclear after you have read the contract, ask the regulator named on the state page, or a licensed attorney in your state.