etailer warrantys

[looney]

I remember reading on the forum that etailers are responsible for a products warranty is all its lifetime and not just 1 years, can anyone point me to the specific thread or some kind of resources, cant find the thread myself.

thanks

[staffsMike]

I remember reading on the forum that etailers are responsible for a products warranty is all its lifetime and not just 1 years, can anyone point me to the specific thread or some kind of resources, cant find the thread myself.

thanks

That'll be saracen just search his posts in the scan section

Something like this
http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...ml#post1476083

[TAKTAK]

It was in the XFX thread that Mike has linked too
Cos is was in reply to me

[Saracen]

I remember reading on the forum that etailers are responsible for a products warranty is all its lifetime and not just 1 years, can anyone point me to the specific thread or some kind of resources, cant find the thread myself.

thanks

Not quite, no.

There's two completely different things :-

- consumer protection from statutory rights like Sale of Goods Act, Distance Sellings Regs, etc
- warranties/guarantees

When you buy retail, the contract is with the retailer, and so are the vast bulk of the consumer protection rights. But as for a warranty/guarantee, that might come from the retailer or manufacturer, or both.

Generally, what people mean by a warranty is when you buy an add-on with the product. And usually, a guarantee means the free one you get automatically with most products. In either case, it lasts as long as the company offering it says it lasts, which is often one year but can be more. Or you might not get one at all. The two words are often used kind of interchangeably though.

For instance, if you buy double glazing it might come with a 10 year guarantee. My last washing machine had a £10 option (which I took) giving me a 10 year parts warranty. If you buy a TV it may have a one year manufacturer's warranty, but you might (such as with John Lewis) get a five year free extended retailer's warranty.

For either a warranty or a guarantee, you have to take it up with the person offering it, via whatever method they require. That might be via the retailer, acting as an agent for the manufacturer. That's typically the case where the retailer is sole distributor or one of a very limited number. I rather imagine the deal Scan have with Corsair over PSUs is something like that.

On the other hand, if you buy a banana at Tescos, don't expect a 12 month guarantee on it.


But when you say "lifetime" as opposed to a year, I suspect you mean the 6 years that's been mentioned, and that refers to your consumer rights. If you have a claim under the Sale of Goods Act, for instance, you can take court action for up to 6 years (in England and Wales) as defined by the Limitations Act, but that does NOT mean that every product is expected to work for 6 years.

The Sale of Goods Act gives various rights (satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose, as described, etc) BUT ..... a product is of "satisfactory quality" if it lasts a "reasonable" time, not if it lasts the whole 6 years.

I refer you back to that banana. You couldn't take a 5 year old banana back because it didn't last 6 years. Okay, that's a daft example, but it illustrates the principle .... if a product has failed because it's worn out, has it lasted as long as a "reasonable person" would expect it to? That doesn't mean how long the buyer thinks it should last, but how long an impartial court thinks it should have lasted. A kettle would be expected to last longer than a banana, and double glazing longer than the average kettle. But if you bought a £100 premium brand kettle, could you expect it to last longer than a £4.99 budget item from a supermarket? Probably, yes.

All those sorts of factors are taken into account when determining how long "reasonable" would be.


So in summary, in answer to the original question ....

- do products have a "lifetime" warranty? Not unless someone offers one and specifies it's lifetime, and even then the definition of "lifetime" is slippery

- statutory rights can last for up to 6 years (Scotland is a bit different, it's five years and defined differently as to when that period starts), but that doesn't mean all products have to last 6 years.

Finally, in either case (warranty or guarantee), whether you're covered is likely to depend on what failed and why. If it's use damage, misuse, or just plain old wear and tear, you'll probably get nothing either way but with warranties/guarantees, it'll depend on the exact terms of that guarantee.

Hope that helps.

[staffsMike]

He's always listening.

[peterb]

And it depends on WHAT is beeing guranteed - normally people think working or not - but the performance may be warranted for a specific period of time.

For example, a CPU sold as a 2GHz device may work if it overclocked, but the performance is not warranted - only the performance at the mfrs rated voltage and clock speed.


If the warranty is for lifetime, your question should be "What is the rated lifetime of the product?" For example, a projector lamp may have a warranty that it will produce a specified light output for 50hrs at the rated voltage. After 50 hours if the light output drops, yiou are out of warranty - the lifetime of the product was defined as 50 working hours.

[looney]

Thanks for the rplies guys

Not quite, no.

There's two completely different things :-

- consumer protection from statutory rights like Sale of Goods Act, Distance Sellings Regs, etc
- warranties/guarantees

When you buy retail, the contract is with the retailer, and so are the vast bulk of the consumer protection rights. But as for a warranty/guarantee, that might come from the retailer or manufacturer, or both.

Generally, what people mean by a warranty is when you buy an add-on with the product. And usually, a guarantee means the free one you get automatically with most products. In either case, it lasts as long as the company offering it says it lasts, which is often one year but can be more. Or you might not get one at all. The two words are often used kind of interchangeably though.

For instance, if you buy double glazing it might come with a 10 year guarantee. My last washing machine had a £10 option (which I took) giving me a 10 year parts warranty. If you buy a TV it may have a one year manufacturer's warranty, but you might (such as with John Lewis) get a five year free extended retailer's warranty.

For either a warranty or a guarantee, you have to take it up with the person offering it, via whatever method they require. That might be via the retailer, acting as an agent for the manufacturer. That's typically the case where the retailer is sole distributor or one of a very limited number. I rather imagine the deal Scan have with Corsair over PSUs is something like that.

On the other hand, if you buy a banana at Tescos, don't expect a 12 month guarantee on it.


But when you say "lifetime" as opposed to a year, I suspect you mean the 6 years that's been mentioned, and that refers to your consumer rights. If you have a claim under the Sale of Goods Act, for instance, you can take court action for up to 6 years (in England and Wales) as defined by the Limitations Act, but that does NOT mean that every product is expected to work for 6 years.

The Sale of Goods Act gives various rights (satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose, as described, etc) BUT ..... a product is of "satisfactory quality" if it lasts a "reasonable" time, not if it lasts the whole 6 years.

I refer you back to that banana. You couldn't take a 5 year old banana back because it didn't last 6 years. Okay, that's a daft example, but it illustrates the principle .... if a product has failed because it's worn out, has it lasted as long as a "reasonable person" would expect it to? That doesn't mean how long the buyer thinks it should last, but how long an impartial court thinks it should have lasted. A kettle would be expected to last longer than a banana, and double glazing longer than the average kettle. But if you bought a £100 premium brand kettle, could you expect it to last longer than a £4.99 budget item from a supermarket? Probably, yes.

All those sorts of factors are taken into account when determining how long "reasonable" would be.


So in summary, in answer to the original question ....

- do products have a "lifetime" warranty? Not unless someone offers one and specifies it's lifetime, and even then the definition of "lifetime" is slippery

- statutory rights can last for up to 6 years (Scotland is a bit different, it's five years and defined differently as to when that period starts), but that doesn't mean all products have to last 6 years.

Finally, in either case (warranty or guarantee), whether you're covered is likely to depend on what failed and why. If it's use damage, misuse, or just plain old wear and tear, you'll probably get nothing either way but with warranties/guarantees, it'll depend on the exact terms of that guarantee.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply, learnt something new there, but i think I may have mistyped my post

What I meant was, when someone buys say a corsair psu or a seagate hdd which come with 5 year warranty either from scan, ebuyer etc, most etailers will provide the warranty for the first year, as in you give it to them and they sort everything out, and then after that one year if the product fails you have to do everything directly yourself with the manufacturer, or is the etailer actually liable in handling the warranty for the remainder of the warranty time (ie for the five years if it fails in the 3rd year you can send it back to the etailer and they sort it out). Hope that makes sense, or is that the same thing?

[looney]

ps, is there a difference between warranty and guarantee?