Warranty

[fadsarmy]

Hi. Scan (UK) have stated on their website under the 520HX PSU that for warranty you have to return to Scan. I was under the impression that you have to return it to Corsair in the USA. Could someone please clarify? Thanks.

[Yellowbeard]

If you need clarification on the SCAN warranty policy, please post in their section as it is their policy. As for Corsair, we will replace the PSU if it is defective according to the warranty terms. If you are in the UK, SCAN is likely your best option as for direct replacement with Corsair requires that you ship the unit to California, USA.

[Saracen]

I can add to that.

fadsarmy, you may have three routes to deal with faulty products.

1) Consumer protection legislation.
2) Any additional shop warranty
3) A manufacturer warranty.

In the UK, there's a set of laws that offer you, as a consumer, a variety of protection from, among other things, faulty goods. But your contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer, so the place you'd have to go under those laws is the retailer.

Some retailers offer extra degrees of protection,above and beyond those laws. An example might be Argos and their 16-day refund policy. They aren't obliged to offer it, but if they do offer it, then you can hold them to it. Again, you'd go to the retailer for that.

Then there's manufacturer warranties. Generally, in the UK, the consumer has no recourse against the manufacturer in the event of problems, because they don't have a contract with the manufacturer. The exception to that is where the manufacturer offers an additional (on top of your statutory protection), AND where the consumer knew of it and relied on it when making the purchase decision.

In that case, you can indeed treat the manufacturer warranty as legally binding, but you get the coverage the warranty says you get, including terms and conditions. If that requires a PSU to be returned to the US, then that's what it requires. You can, of course, always fall back on the retailer warranty (if any) and your statutory rights.

There certainly are occasions when using a manufacturer's warranty in preference to going back to the shop may make sense. Your legal position with the shop weakens, for example, after 6 months. You may then have a better position with the manufacturer. Or you may not. It all depends on the warranty.

And in many cases, with hi-tech goods, all the retailer may do is send them back to the manufacturer for testing, so it may be quicker to do it direct. Although your legal rights with the retailer protect you, they won't over you, for instance, to damage you've caused yourself, and the shop is entitled to get any faults diagnosed, and that may quite legitimately require them to return the goods to the manufacturer.

[fadsarmy]

Hi. But it doen't make sense returning a £45 PSU to USA for £30 postage. Corsair should pay the shipping costs.

[Saracen]

Why?

You didn't buy it from Corsair. You bought it from the retailer, and that's who you have the contract with. If the manufacturer offers anything at all in the form of warranty, it's in addition to what they're obliged to offer, so you're no worse off than if they didn't offer a warranty at all, and they're certainly not obliged to. It makes no more sense for them to pay it than it does for you to do so. It simply isn't realistically worth shipping it to the US, regardless of who pays.

[moogle]

Originally Posted by fadsarmy

Hi. But it doen't make sense returning a £45 PSU to USA for £30 postage. Corsair should pay the shipping costs.

well thats what you gotta think about before buying it, although it doesn't state that you have to ship it to cali which hooks in many without knowing. just pray yours doesnt go boom after 1 year

[Saracen]

Originally Posted by moogle

well thats what you gotta think about before buying it, although it doesn't state that you have to ship it to cali which hooks in many without knowing. just pray yours doesnt go boom after 1 year

Even if it does go boom after a year, you may well still be covered, depending on why it went boom.

A warranty might run out after a year, but your statutory rights don't. It's true, a refund is unlikely and if you do get one, it'll probably not be a full one, but you can still go after a repair or replacement. It does very much depend on the nature of the problem, and it's MUCH easier to stand on your rights in the first 6 months, but your statutory rights exist for 6 years* after purchase.

But again, it'll the the supplier you hold to account, not the manufacturer.

*Under English/Welsh law. Scotland is different, and is 5 years IIRC, but I don't live in Scotland so I don't pay that much attention to the differences.

[davidcrofter]

I think a lot of people DID BUY Corsair PSU's under the impression that they would be covered for 5 years if it does go boom, but I can guarantee that 99% of them did not know that after the 1 year warranty with the etailor they will be obliged to ship the PSU to the states, I can only see this leading to a big problem for Corsair with a lot of negative feedback if and when they do start failing.

[Oldjim]

The point being that under UK law (English or Scottish) after 6 months it is up to the buyer to prove that there was an inherent fault and that would be very difficult to prove. An inherent fault is defined as
A fault present at the time of purchase. Examples are:
• an error in design so that a product is manufactured incorrectly
• an error in manufacturing where a faulty component was inserted.
The "fault" may not become apparent immediately but it was there at the time of sale and so the product was not of satisfactory standard.