Reid, the guy with the Playstation that Sony said was too dusty to repair, is getting his system replaced through his Visa card’s extended warranty protection.

UPDATE: VISA Won’t Replace Dusty PS3 After All

For those of you who are not familiar, many credit cards carry a benefit that doubles your manufacturer’s warranty and helps you out of these sorts of sticky situations. When last we saw Reid, he was battling Sony Computer Entertainment for warranty repair because his system was having trouble reading discs. He lost, and Sony shipped the unit back to him. For the record, Reid says that the PS3 arrived much dustier than when he originally sent it. Not knowing what else to do, he bought a dust buster and cleaned the unit up, determined to fix it himself. Then he tried upgrading the PS3’s firmware and the system completely bricked.

Thankfully, his Visa has extended warranty coverage and he’ll be getting a new PS3.

Reid writes:

I just got off the phone with Visa for the third time and they are sending me a claim form to start the repair/replacement process of my system.

They at first said that they would need to attempt to have it repaired in my local video game repair shop, but I let them know that i had already contacted them and the firmware in combination with the blu-ray lens made it impossible to repair economically and it would have to be replaced. They said as long as I had a repair receipt stating that it wasn’t economical to repair, I could walk into a Best Buy, charge a new PS3 to my credit card and they would credit that charge.

Thanks A LOT, for all your help, you guys have more helpful than i would ever imagine. Lets just hope I never need to email you guys again shall we?

Thanks again,

Reid

PS, This was possible because (some?) Visa Signature cards carry a “warranty manager” feature that effectively doubles the warranty on any product purchased on the card up to one year. Because the problem that bricked the system occurred after I was legally out of warranty, Visa is taking care of it. Again, I can’t thank you guys enough, you really put the power in the customers hands in an industry where its customers are generally ignored due to their demographic. I owe you guys.

If you buy a lot of expensive electronics, make sure your card has extended warranty protection. In fact, we reminded a reader yesterday that his broken out-of-warranty TV was probably covered by his MasterCard. It was!

We love happy endings.

PREVIOUSLY: Dust Voids PS3 Warranty
Sony CSR: What? No! Dust Doesn’t Void Your PS3 Warranty!
Is This Playstation 3 Too Dusty To Be Repaired Under Warranty?
TV Breaks Right After The Warranty Expired? Call Your Credit Card Company

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