What’s Gotta Go

American’s are consumers, in a big way.  I know this doesn’t come as a revelation to anyone, but I ‘consume’ like the rest of them.  I enjoy my electronics likely more than the average.  I purchase locally and online depending on price and whether I think it is a product that may be prone to problems and heading back to the store.  Every bit of electronics these days comes with some sort of warranty, but who really reads this tome of fine print until you actually need it…be honest.

So what bothers me about warranties you ask?  Actually, you didn’t ask, but if you are reading this far you are at least curious I suppose.  Here are a few things that come to mind:

Registration Required Within XX Days

Ok, this one sits at the top of my most despised practices list for product warranties.  We all know why they want you to register, so they can add you to the mailing list, rent or sell the names and generally stuff your mail box (both physical and electronic versions if you are naive enough to give them your real email).  What bothers me most about this is the writers of such policies know that none of us crack the seal on the warranty packet unless the product breaks, especially us guys that are too smart to read instructions.  There is an marketing industry term for this practice, it’s called breakage.  By creating these required steps they are producing the desired loopholes so they don’t ever really have to support their own products.  The higher breakage percentage you create, the lower support & replacement costs become.  Nifty process of making sure of sticking it to your customers on even the crappiest of products.

30, 45, 60 and even 90 Day Policies

I know you have to draw a line in the sand somewhere, but do companies really only believe their products are good enough to last a few months at best?  Electronics are most likely to break in the first month or so of heavy use, this is true.  When you purchase a computer I have often been told it is good to run it almost constantly for the first 30 days for a burn in period.  While I don’t know any science behind this, I think it is sound advice essentially because you are running the device a lot during the warranty period in hope that if you bought a lemon it will show its ugly head while you are still in the warranty period.  Ecoustics.com says for some things the burn in period is a myth, but I think my logic still trumps theirs.  So back to the ultra-short confidence level companies have in their own products.  How about throwing consumers a bone an standing behind your products for a bit longer, say a year?

Paying for Postage

Recently I had a new DVD player give up the ghost pretty fast.  I put it through it’s paces, but after just over a month it just got tired of spinning up the drive.  Being a bit savvy I did all the testing I could to power cycle it, leave it unplugged for a long time then reboot, etc.  No love.  Being past the 14 days the store would be willing to swap out the unit, I had to resort to the manufacturer’s warranty.  After ripping open the wrapping on this to be feared document, I track down the contact info.  I call support and after verifying I all the “is this really broken or are you a moron and the power is unplugged” steps, they decided that yes this unit needed to be replaced.  Here is your RMA number, here is where to mail it, at your expense.  Hey, your product didn’t live up to at least minimal life expectancy, why should I foot the bill on getting some refurb to replace it.  Grrr.

Refurbished Replacements

This takes me to my next point.  Though I appreciate when a warranty actually does work and I get a defective whatever replaced, why do I have to get a refurb?  I payed for a new, working widget, when it doesn’t work I should get a new one to replacement, not something you sent back for some electronics enema that at least appears to not have been chucked out of the second story window in frustration.  Who knows what the previous owner did before sending it in for their complimentary refurb replacement.  I know I had the inclination to send mine out at some elevation and film it for YouTube audience edification.  Alas, you deal with what you get back…policy is policy you know.

So those are just a few that top my list and come to mind.  Got something that bothers you about warranties?  I am looking forward comments on this one.