Why yes, when I call you with a recurring problem for which you have sent out technicians in the past, it makes sense to start by having me basically disassemble the printer and read out the serial numbers on 8 different parts, and check that 5 Brother Authenticity Seals are intact.
Naturally, this should be followed by a routine request that I fax you the proof of purchase so that you can “escalate this service request”. This, despite the fact that you have already serviced the printer in the past, at which you point you had me fax the PoP. I guess you tend to lose these things, right?
Oh no, wait. When I called back to tell you that last time I emailed it to you instead of faxing it, you helpfully told me that I could email it to the same address. Maybe you deleted the first one to free up your hard drive or something.
If the printer is out of warranty, it’s out of warranty. And if it’s still in warranty, then it shouldn’t matter who the fuck purchased the thing or whether the current owner has proof of purchase.
Ahh but what you fail to see is every hoop could save them money giving them and out to ignore their word of honor on the warranty. Capitalism, not honorablism.
Why would transferring the product matter to the quality of their workmanship? Isn’t the quality of their workmanship what a warranty is supposed to guarantee?
ETA: looks like needless hoop they have to try to screw people when they fuck up the workmanship. Someone should slam their balls in a car door. I hate that shit.
No, the warranty is a guarantee that the product will be repaired or replaced if the workmanship sucked. It’s not a guarantee that the workmanship didn’t suck.
It’s also a guarantee based on typical use, proper care and handling, etc. You can’t very well expect them to guarantee that the previous owner properly cared for it.
Which is, in itself, nothing more than an excuse to get out of their obligations. It doesn’t constitute a reasonable defense of shitty warranty procedures, because it’s just another example of a shitty warranty procedure.
What obligations? How are they obliged to indemnify possible future secondary purchasers of their product?
Their obligations are to the original purchaser of the product, and are spelled out in the warranty card/leaflet/whatever, and/or applicable federal, local and state laws.
Again, if you don’t like it, don’t buy a used printer. Or, you can buy from a company that provides warranties beyond the original owner, if you can find one.
Their warranty is for a fixed amount of time, and that time period shouldn’t change based on ownership. The fact that i buy or sell a printer doesn’t change the quality of the workmanship.
If the company gets the printer and sees that there is evidence of mistreatment, they will void the warranty anyway, even for the original purchaser. Why not simply have the same policy for any subsequent purchasers? If the item is in good conditions, and its failure is the result of the company’s workmanship, the warranty should apply, no matter who happens to be using the printer right now.
Italics mine. How the fuck do they know the current owner didn’t manhandle it or something? Oh right they’d check for damage typical with warranty voiding things, used those tags the OP mentioned, etc. In short how many owners it’s had is irrelevant. Now you might say oh well, you know the rules when ya buy it. And I’d have to grudgingly admit you have a point, however I don’t believe that excuses assholishness. Clearly it’s just an attempt to duck out when one of their techs comes to work drunk or something.
Further read the op, and tell me, do you agree with the resultant treatment from this policy? Do you think the OP deserved this? Would a good decent company not trying to screw everybody else so they can nit pick as Brother is?
Do you believe the OP was aware s/he would be going through this much hassle at purchase time?
I wasn’t discussing the OP. I was discussing mhendo’s specific comment. Yes, I’d be pissed off if they asked me to provide proof of purchase for the umpteenth time - but I wouldn’t be pissed off if they asked for it once.
The warranty is for X months. If they look at the serial number on the printer, and see that it was purchased less than X months ago, and then look at the printer and see that it hasn’t been mistreated, then why should proof of purchase even matter? The only possible reason to care about this is to create an artificial hoop for their customers to jump through, and another excuse for the company not to make good on its warranty.
I’m not arguing that you’re wrong about how things work. What i’m arguing is that things are designed to work this way not for any good reason, but simply to give the company an excuse not to fix its shitty products. You defend the policies as if they somehow excuse the shitty warranty practices; what i’m saying is that the policies themselves constitute shitty warranty practices.
I understand where you’re coming from, but I think there is one thing you might not be considering - warranties aren’t free, even if you don’t pay a specific itemized price for it (i.e. for an extended warranty).
As part of setting the list price of an item that they are selling with an included warranty, the seller/manufacturer will factor in what they expect the average cost of servicing the warranty will be. And they’ll work in some profit margin, so if item X would sell for $1000 without a warranty, and the seller thinks that supporting the average warranty will cost them $150, perhaps they’ll sell item X with the warranty for $1200.
I would assume that the seller factors in that a certain percentage of warranties will be voided because of the transfer of ownership. Therefore, the expected cost of the warranty is less to the seller.
If the warranty was transferable, then the expected cost would be higher, and the price to the customer would be higher.
As long as the seller makes clear that the warranty is not transferable, then I don’t think there is a problem. You’re getting what you pay for.
Now I’m sure that some sellers don’t make this clear at the point of sale - in which case, that’s sleazy and there is no defending them.
But if adding one thing that voids the warranty without affecting the product saves money, why not more? Why not “void if used in January”, “must not use, or store product near a poker game”, etc.?
Shit like this is a dick move, one more of the many dick moves that make life much more of a hassle then it needs to be just to save a few pennies. Asshats like Brother just try to set traps to trick people falling into. So they can wag their finger and counter their dollars.
Or in simpler terms, assuming a good and just world not out to screw people, should the OP be denied the warranty if s/he loses the receipt?
You really haven’t said anything substantive here, other than an odd circular argument that companies don’t allow you to transfer warranties because they charge less for warranties because they don’t allow you to transfer warranties.
As mhendo and tao have said, there’s no actual reason they shouldn’t stand behind their product despite an ownership transfer, and in fact many companies have no problem with it. I’ve transferred Dell warranties in the past without any trouble.
In this specific instance, the printer was purchased new on Ebay. I faxed them the packing slip when I initially had trouble with this machine last winter. At that time, they said it was an authorized reseller and I therefore had warranty coverage. Now they say I need to fax them the packing slip again, because any records from back then “have been shredded by now”, so they won’t stand by their commitment. I don’t know if I still have the packing slip, and at the very least they damn well could have told me they needed it before I crawled around in the bloody printer for half an hour to assure them that each part was authentic.