What to Ask About Warranties
I thought I’ve seen everything about warranties possible. I read these things and know the stipulations usually. A good warranty can make the difference between me opting to buy an item or not. But recently I came across a new (at least to me) policy that I’d not previously seen. As I seem to get no response from the company, I’m opening this up for grabs on here. Please feel free to respond if you have any clarifications for me on this topic. I bought a Linksys Router about 8 months ago from a local Wal-Mart. As always, I declined the service agreement that every retailer seems intent on shoving down consumer throats.
I’ve had a few issues with my Internet provider requiring a few tweaks of the router. When I wasn’t able to make these changes myself, I promptly contacted Linksys toll free number for assistance. Upon giving them my model number, it was determined that the particular model I had was out of warranty. I’d have to pay either $29 for a “one time” fix or $39 for six repairs or a six month period. What???
Since my router only cost $50, paying over half of its value to “tweak” the settings seemed like I was being robbed at gunpoint of my cash.
How could this be, since Linksys gave free product support for a full year after purchase? (And in fact, one of the reasons I purchased from the company)… I had registered the product promptly after purchasing. Linksys, according to what I was told, keeps no record of this date. A shocking fact, since registration is the key element of most warranties. According to the customer service representative I spoke with, if you purchased a product that was had been sitting on the shelf for over a year- you might be buying a brand new item with an expired warranty!
Of course, there is no way a consumer would know this before purchasing. You’d need the model number and you’d have to call the company to discover the details on warranty coverage. Is it just me, or does this seem like a huge rip off? When I explained this to the customer service agent, he informed me that he knew I’d bought it at Wal-Mart, but had no date for the purchase. Did I have a receipt? Unfortunately, my receipt was at the accountants, in preparation for taxes- along with all my other business information. Even with a receipt, he contested, that the model was too old for the free tech support. We argued for perhaps ten minutes on this verbatim. I asked for a manager and was put on hold for 27 minutes and then my call to outer Nepal (or wherever it was routed to) was disconnected.
When I called back, expecting to repeat the process, much to my shock a tech took the same model number and promptly aided me in fixing the router’s speed and efficiency. No questions asked about date of purchase. It was like the earlier conversation didn’t transpire.
The questions keeping me up late at night about this are:
1. If we register Linksys items online, doesn’t the company keep a record of this date? What’s the purpose of registering online if not for upholding the warranty terms?
2. Does our warranty expire before we buy an older model product?
3. Or was the first customer service agent wrong? (Or possibly trying to squeak $30-$40 out of me?)
4. Which customer service rep acted correctly? The one who fixed my item free or the earlier one?
5. Even if I’d had my receipt, would it have mattered according to their policy?
If anyone can shed some honest light on this, I’d love to hear from you. In the meantime, if you are making a Linksys router purchase, hold on to your receipt and be prepared to contest the terms with techs offering costly support assistance.