This weekend I bought a cheap little blade-grinder for coffee–I had been hand-grinding in an old Zassenhaus mill, but as my coffee consumption has increased, its small capacity (to make my morning cup, I had to grind in two batches) frustrated me to the point of (debatably) upgrading.
At any rate, I was just glancing at the product registration card that comes along with, and wondering: is there any real benefit to sending it in? I can imagine some negatives, mostly in the form of marketers and such. The card claims that it is a benefit because it establishes your date of purchase. Is there anything else to it?
(For the record, I usually send these things in. The question just happened to pop into my head tonight.)
If it really establishes your date of purchase, wouldn’t it be much better to wait as long as possible before sending ti in to extend the warranty period. You often need a receipt to establish a warranty as well – though I seem to recall requiring a receipt may have been found to be illegal.
My understanding is that it does not affect your warranty status, compared to simply saving the purchase receipt. It always seems to be 99.9% about their marketing, with mention of warranty tossed in to make it less obvious. About as less obvious as an elephant hiding behind a lamppost. Unless you think getting promotional literature is a benefit (not saying they all do this), I really don’t think you’ll notice any difference should you not register it.
IIRC it’s requiring *registration * that became illegal. The search terms are so common I have not yet found a cite. Requiring proof of purchase is perfectly acceptable. You will not find any warranty for a product sold in the US that says that registration is required for the warranty to be in effect but you will find language that may subtly suggest it, encouraging you to register, such as calling it “warranty registration.”
Registration is a good idea for products that may be subject to safety recalls, like children’s car seats.