It's time to cast your vote! No, not that vote -- I'm talking about my latest GripeLog poll on which hardware manufacturer readers think provides the worst warranty support.
Be the vendor big or small, consumer- or corporate-oriented, or even tech or non-tech, one common thread seems to run through most of the warranty gripes I see. Manufacturers like to insist that their warranty policies leave virtually everything to their discretion. If you're expecting them to provide the service without charge, to replace a broken product that's nearing the end of its warranty period, or to actually send a technician when you've paid for on-site service, sorry ... it's up to them to decide if it is, so to speak, warranted.
The classic bit of manufacturer discretion -- one that readers have reported being applied to everything from lawn sprinklers to banjo tuners -- is the ability to re-define what a "lifetime" warranty is. "'Lifetime Replacement Warranty' is what it says on the outside of the PNY Verto Graphics Card box," one reader wrote recently. "Inside, on the instructions, it says 'Lifetime is defined as the lifetime of the product on the market.' As fast as the market changes, that's more like a two-week warranty!"
Another choice for the manufacturer is to decide that the damage is something you can live with. "A few years ago I bought an NEC 19" Accusync monitor," another reader commented recently. "About eight months into using it, I casually went to wipe the screen with a damp cotton cloth. To my surprise, a swath of the anti-glare coating came off the screen! This made the screen hard to read and looked horrible. I called NEC warranty repair and they told me that I shouldn't clean my screen with harsh chemicals. When I reminded them this was a cloth that had been dampened by just a bit of water, they then fell back to the claim that this is cosmetic damage and not covered under the warranty. No matter how much I argued that 'cosmetic damage' to the anti-glare coating makes the screen difficult to use, they wouldn't back down. The supervisor even suggested that I try to remove ALL the anti-glare coating with some acetone to make the surface appear more even. Give me a break! I replaced that monitor with one from Sony."
Hardware vendors have also learned the software industry's trick of charging you for the support call whenever they feel like it. "My recent experience with Adaptec's tech support has convinced me to divert my business elsewhere," wrote another reader. "We had some problems with an Adaptec 3200S in systems we built for a customer about two and a half years ago. The problem was identified, documented and a case number assigned. But it seems like there are two Adapted warranties, one published and one unpublished. The second 3200S was still in the three-year warranty period, but suddenly Adaptec wouldn't talk to us without the payment of an $80 upfront charge. We pointed out the previous example and supplied the case number, but we still had to pay $80 just to speak with them. So much for their warranty. We paid the $80 and Adaptec determined the second product had the same defect as the first. They shipped a replacement -- a $20 charge -- and it took us a few weeks to get the $80 back. Goodbye Adaptec, hello LSI."
In the end, there is always an excuse if the manufacturer doesn't want to honor your warranty. "This is why you should never buy an extended warranty, particularly for a high-ticket item," wrote another reader. "It's always been this way, and not just for computers. A friend of mine some years back took out an extended service contract on a new dishwasher from a major department store. Within a year it broke down, and the store refused to honor it, claiming that he had 'abused' it and thereby voided the warranty."
OK, with that in mind, let's see if we can have a little fun and maybe learn something in the process. Attached to this story on my website, I've posted a reader poll asking which manufacturer's warranty support is the worst. Just to make it interesting, I thought I'd include manufacturers from different industries, not just computers. And, sorry, you can only choose one. Yeah, that could make it a tough choice, but at least it's one where you get to exercise some discretion of your own.
Read and post comments about this story here.
11:58:09 AM 
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