Back in February, we posted the story of a reader who got a great deal from an online discount vendor on a Samsung MP3 player, but learned that there was a reason why the deal was so fab. It had been manufactured for the Chinese market, not the United States market, and made its way to her pocket through gray market channels. That meant that it didn’t have a warranty through Samsung USA: if she wanted to fix it, she had to send it for repair in Hong Kong. Okay, but what’s the “gray market?” [More]
Presenting Best Buy And The Case Of The Phone That Vanished For 3 Months
By March 29, 2013
November, 2012. Seems like it was only last year. So much has happened since then that it’s hard to remember exactly how this whole mess got started. And like a lot of cases involving a runaway cellphone, it didn’t strike anyone as such a big deal back then. Boy were they mistaken. [More]
Why Rechargeable Batteries And Durable Water Piks Don’t Mix
By March 28, 2013
The Waterpik Cordless Plus Water Flosser is a great product, which lists for $50 and usually costs about $40. For that price, though, you aren’t buying it: you’re renting it. That’s what Jeff found out when he bought one. The rechargeable battery stopped working just past the warranty expiration date. He bought another: maybe that was a fluke. The new toothbrush lasted a whole 13 months. [More]
Samsung: If You Want Us To Fix Your MP3 Player, You Have To Fly To Hong Kong
By March 25, 2013
The beauty of shopping online is that it’s easy to bring products from all over the world into our homes with a little bit of typing and a major credit card. The problem with buying from abroad, though, is that products for different markets don’t come with the same consumer protections. And sometimes you don’t know that you’re buying a product destined for a different market at all. That’s where Cassi’s cautionary tale comes in. From a small discount site, Cassi bought a Samsung MP3 player. Samsung tells her that it was made for the Chinese market and that if she wants them to honor her warranty, she has to fly to Hong Kong. Being a sensible person, Cassi does not want to fly to Hong Kong over a $200 MP3 player. [More]
Westinghouse Digital Offers Two Little TVs Instead Of Replacing My Big One
By February 6, 2013
Joe has followed our posts about Westinghouse Digital TVs with interest. When his 46″ set broke after only eight months, he used consumer ninja methods to get a refund, and went nuclear on the company. He wanted to warn other consumers not to do business with the company. [More]
How A Tip From Consumerist, A Credit Card, And Some Determination Got Me A Brand-New Nook
By January 24, 2013
Kyle really liked his Nook…until it decided to freeze up and no longer work. He was unhappy: it was only two months out of warranty, and he didn’t like the only option that Barnes & Noble presented: trading the non-working device in for a relatively small discount on a brand-new replacement. He had purchased a lot of books he uses every day for work on the Nook platform, and decided to take a loss on those and get a Kindle instead. Unhappy with the whole experience, he vented to us about it. [More]
Luxottica Has Had My Broken Ray-Bans For Two Months, Won’t Answer The Phone
By January 15, 2013
Luxottica may be the world’s largest eyeglass manufacturer and the owner of brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley, along with retail chains like LensCrafter, Sunglass Hut, and Pearle Vision. But you’d probably get better customer service from the guy on the corner selling knock-offs for $5. [More]
Maytag Has A Weird Concept Of ‘Soon’
By January 10, 2013
How do you define “soon” in terms of a one-year warranty? Howard doesn’t have an exact timeframe in mind, but he imagines that it’s not “more than nine months from now.” Yet when Maytag sent him a letter urging him to extend his appliance warranties, that’s how much time he had left. [More]
Verizon Uses Warranty-Voiding Photo To Sell Protection Plan
By October 25, 2012
The Verizon/Asurion Total Equipment Coverage Plan looks neat sitting there on the shelf, with its pretty photo of a smartphone making a splash in a cool bin of water. As tipster and photo-taker Eric points out, though, why are they showing the phone plunging into a bin of water when the protection plan doesn’t cover water damage? We’ve heard from some people who know the plan well and who have pointed out that the plan has separate components: the Verizon part doesn’t cover liquid damage, but the insurance component from Asurion does. . However, intentionally throwing your phone in water in order to take a picture is still a bad idea. [More]
Lowe's Tries To Replace Busted Fridge, Whirlpool Says No
By September 10, 2012
We’ve written before about people who, after having no luck getting an appliance fixed by the manufacturer, successfully turned to the retailer for a replacement. But here’s the story of a New Jersey woman who thought Lowe’s had thrown her a lifeline to pull her out of the hellish swirl of Whirlpool’s horrid customer service, only to find that even the hardware giant was no match for the appliance company’s incompetence. [More]
I Can't Shut My Business Down For 3-4 Weeks While HP Repairs My Only Computer
By August 24, 2012
Here is the lesson that everyone who telecommutes or runs a computer-based home business learns at some point: you need more than one working computer. Otherwise, when something goes wrong with that computer, you will be stuck the way that Meredith is right now. Her HP laptop needs repair for two relatively minor problems. Wanting to get it fixed before the warranty is up, she inquired about sending it in for service. Of course! She would just need to wait 15-20 business days to get her computer back. Shut down her business for a month, that’s all. [More]
Help! Neither Best Buy Nor Asus Will Give Me A Laptop That Works
By August 16, 2012
For the month of August, consumer advocate Christopher Elliott will occasionally be sharing some of the questions and problems he receives from readers. In this week’s case, Giovanna bought an Asus laptop at Best Buy that startedly began shutting down at random times. Since then, she’s been caught in a cycle of unsuccessful warranty replacements — but now that warranty is about to end. Will either party step up to just provide her with a working computer? [More]
Uh, My Laptop Screen Wasn't Broken Before I Sent It To Toshiba
By August 15, 2012
William’s laptop wouldn’t boot. He went to Toshiba for help, since it was still under warranty, and they charged him for software help, since his warranty didn’t cover that. Fine. Only they wouldn’t refund him the $100 when the problem didn’t turn out to be software-related. He sent the machine in for a hardware repair, and Toshiba sort of did the opposite of that. He says that the screen was just fine when he sent it in. Toshiba says that it wasn’t, and that he should pay them $500 to repair it. [More]
Introducing The First Ever Warranty Shrink Ray
By August 1, 2012
We’ve seen many different variations on the Grocery Shrink Ray over the years, but somehow never anticipated this: a Warranty Shrink Ray. A sneaky tipster who works at Best Buy noticed that the same product, a Seagate hard drive for notebook computers, had a lovely redesigned box. And a few years lopped off the warranty. Much like how other products change the size of an item just a tiny bit rather than raising the price, Seagate cut back on the warranty. [More]
A Mobile Phone Warranty Isn’t The Same Thing As Insurance
By July 26, 2012
S. went to buy an iPhone from Best Buy, and let the salesperson talk her into Best Buy’s warranty rather than AppleCare. That more expensive warranty covers accidental damage, but it’s not an insurance plan, which would cover lost or stolen phones. The salesman didn’t make this clear to S. And that’s really too bad, because as she left the store with her new phone, she was robbed. The warranty, of course, didn’t cover the theft. [More]
Your Skullcandy Lifetime Warranty Is No Good If You Move Out Of The Country
By July 18, 2012
The phrase “limited lifetime warranty” is about as open to interpretation as “all you can eat.” Just ask one Consumerist reader who found that he was up a creek sans paddle because his Skullcandy headphones crapped out after he moved out of the country. [More]
Samsung Provides Out-Of-Warranty TV Repair After I Express My Disappointment
By July 10, 2012
When your TV conks out, there is that moment when you play the “When Did I Buy It?” game to try to figure out whether it is still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. And when you realize it’s several months past the warranty date, that when you begin playing a different game: “Should I pay to fix it or just go to town on it with my old golf clubs?” Luckily for one Consumerist reader, he found a Samsung rep who understood his pain and decided to do something about it. [More]
Dell Will Sell You A 5-Year Warranty, Not Actually Honor It
By April 30, 2012
M. bought a five-year Complete Care Warranty from Dell, and this somehow led him to believe that he would receive five years of warranty coverage. Crazy, right? Consumers can be so foolish. But just because the site will sell you a warranty, and documentation on the Dell site says that you have almost a year left on that warranty, that doesn’t mean that you actually have that warranty, because the Complete Care warranty that includes things like accidental damage is only an add-on to the regular warranty that has already run out. [More]
