Warranty

[Goity]

My entire PSP nub ended up breaking, but I was able to replace it easily enough.

 

[Megatog615]

Well ours are totally custom made and designed for the Pandora, they are unique thus if any flaw should be found after say a year we can work to address the fault and improve them.

I should hope, considering the money spent developing them, that won't ever happen

Say hypothetically an issue does occur and most if not all units are affected. Would you issue a recall even for out-of-warranty units?

 

[Monk]

About warranty - the warranty is voided on a lot of electronic boxes if you open them up and have a poke around inside. How's the Pandora warranty if we open it up?

 

[mali]

About warranty - the warranty is voided on a lot of electronic boxes if you open them up and have a poke around inside. How's the Pandora warranty if we open it up?

ED said something about that, I don't know if it was here or on the German board, though. If the fault isn't related to opening the case, it is still covered by the warranty. So just opening up the case doesn't void the warranty. Opening up the case and doing stupid things that lead to a fault does void the warranty

 

[Monk]

About warranty - the warranty is voided on a lot of electronic boxes if you open them up and have a poke around inside. How's the Pandora warranty if we open it up?

ED said something about that, I don't know if it was here or on the German board, though. If the fault isn't related to opening the case, it is still covered by the warranty. So just opening up the case doesn't void the warranty. Opening up the case and doing stupid things that lead to a fault does void the warranty


I should hope it would too! I wonder how they will determine if the user did something stupid, or whether any hardware mod will automatically invoke the "stupidity" clause.

 

[Squidge]

It will most likely depend on what fails, how, and if it's related to your modifications.

For example, if you decide to install an internal usb hub and one of your analog nubs fail a month or so later.

I like the Asus approach to EE warranty. They have a "Warranty void if broken" sticker underneath the unit, but the official word from Asus is "If your sensible with the unit, you can ignore that sticker - we'll still honour the warranty. However, if your stupid, then you'll have to pay for a repair." (or something along those lines - they may not have actually used the word "stupid" )

 

[Kyo]

It will most likely depend on what fails, how, and if it's related to your modifications.

For example, if you decide to install an internal usb hub and one of your analog nubs fail a month or so later.

I like the Asus approach to EE warranty. They have a "Warranty void if broken" sticker underneath the unit, but the official word from Asus is "If your sensible with the unit, you can ignore that sticker - we'll still honour the warranty. However, if your stupid, then you'll have to pay for a repair." (or something along those lines - they may not have actually used the word "stupid" )

hopefully, they're referring to the sticker being broken, not the EEE

 

[Monk]

Although politically the wording MIGHT be best to avoid the word "stupid", I kinda like having a "Stupidity clause warranty". I have one on my desktop, too

 

[Chip]

There's nothing wrong with opening your Pandora. If you fiddle around and break it though, you're on your own.

 

[Karel Jansens]

There's nothing wrong with opening your Pandora. If you fiddle around and break it though, you're on your own.

How exactly is that different from putting a sticker on it "Warranty void if opened"?

 

[Alpha2]

The real question is how do you determine if a unit is defective because of the user or because of a fault in building it? I mean if people are going to be opening it to put in new key mats at some point then a sticker is useless, every one of those units will be warrenty voided.

Sure you can say that having a new key mat is a clear reason for opening and breaking the sticker but if while it was opened they fried something that killed the system you might end up fixing a system for free that you rightfully deserve payment for fixing.

 

[Asmo]

There's nothing wrong with opening your Pandora. If you fiddle around and break it though, you're on your own.


How exactly is that different from putting a sticker on it "Warranty void if opened"?

Because "Warranty void if opened" implies that if they can tell that you opened it - even if the problem is unrelated to you having done so - they won't repair or replace it under warranty. They are going to assume you did something stupid, and wash their hands of you. In my experience they rarely check though, especially since the policy these days is often to give a refurbished unit regardless of the problem.

 

[Chip]

There's nothing wrong with opening your Pandora. If you fiddle around and break it though, you're on your own.
How exactly is that different from putting a sticker on it "Warranty void if opened"?Because the warranty is not void if the Pandora is opened. It is void if you break something. The whole point of a "manufacturer warranty" is that it guarantees against manufacturing defects. You shorting out something trying to solder in flashing LEDs is not a manufacturing defect, and won't be covered.

 

[second exodous]

I think everything but the logic board, screen, and maybe the case should be covered no questions asked. This is because I can't see a mod that would break any of the buttons or the nubs. A mod could fry the logic board or if you were adding something to the case and it broke that would be an unnecessary mod. The screen because why the heck are you opening that half anyway? I guess to replace the film or the speakers.

The board, screen, and case should be sent in so whoever honors the warranty can look at it and determine if it broke because of mod, trying to replace a part, or manufacturing defect.

I dunno, this is just an idea. I can see people abusing it, asking for nubs when they aren't broke just to use them in their own projects. Plus, I think the board and the screen are by far the most expensive parts, so they should be checked out.

 

[Squidge]

I dunno, this is just an idea. I can see people abusing it, asking for nubs when they aren't broke just to use them in their own projects. Plus, I think the board and the screen are by far the most expensive parts, so they should be checked out.

There's an easy way around that. If your nub is broken, you send the entire unit back. They test and if the nub is confirmed faulty, it's replaced for you.

It would be daft to have a system where you go "My nub is faulty, send me a replacement" without first sending the faulty one to prove it (or even better, the entire thing, so you can't claim to fried the board whilst attempting to remove a nub).

 

[second exodous]

Yeah, I see the 'no questions asked' isn't a good idea. I just don't like the idea of sending in the entire unit for a replacement part, especially for a nub. Maybe if it isn't critical to operation like the nub then just the faulty nub could be sent in? I don't know, it all depends on where you live to where you need to send it to. I live in the US and if I need to send it to the UK I'd rather just buy the part and replace it my self if the unit still is usable. Now if the board was fried, yeah, I'd send it in.

Edit: oops, I didn't see your second part about sending just the faulty part in, I must not have been scrolled down all the way before I responded.

 

[fireball87]

The standard warranty method here (in the USA) for fairly low cost user replaceable tech is to send the part no questions asked and then send the faulty part back. If no faulty part is returned you send them a bill and never cover them with the warranty again if they don't pay. Most people are honest and the most anyone can ever steal is a low cost piece. Probably not much more expensive to operate that way then to operate where the user has to wait 2 shipping periods for his part. Though its not necessarily affordable to operate that way with screens and other more expensive parts, it just depends.

--edit-- how much are these nubs and buttons and such again (only buttons that seem user replaceable would possibly be the triggers, the other buttons are on the keypad from my understanding so a break would almost certainly be a sign of misuse more then anything if the quality is decent..., theres NO reason the keypad should ever break really)? I can't see the raw nub component being more then 15USD. The increased shipping weight alone would cover a decent chunk of that (especially seeing as most customers are going to be fair customers)... plus there's always a chance for the full unit to be damaged in shipping, what do you do then?

--double edit-- Though I suppose its important to actually track that the people getting warranty items are actually people who own a Pandora if you're not going to receive the part though so everyone doesn't start claiming a broken nub to get a free one... not that I believe that would happen. May not be cost effective to have a serial numbering system in effect this late in the game I suppose... but if there is one and the devices have tracked serials like alot of devices it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Monk]

I think everything but the logic board, screen, and maybe the case should be covered no questions asked.

I once had a cheap eastern-import notebook whose case cracked around the hinge due to repeated opening and closing. I don't work much so it didn't get opened and closed THAT frequently, and the model was in fac t(by the time my fault occurred) well known for "hinge area" case fractures. A bit like these DS failures:

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http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=broken%20hinge%20ds&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi]http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&am...sa=N&tab=wi


If the case is made of the right/wrong material, it can be more or less prone to such splitting. These bits of kit are intended to be opened and closed frequently - I rather hope that the case material will withstand years of daily opening and closing.

--edit-- how much are these nubs and buttons and such again (only buttons that seem user replaceable would possibly be the triggers, the other buttons are on the keypad from my understanding so a break would almost certainly be a sign of misuse more then anything if the quality is decent..., theres NO reason the keypad should ever break really)?

Well, maybe the keymat shouldn't REALLY ever break but IMHO much the same goes for the case, for much the same reasons. The keymat should be made of a material which will flex nicely for hundreds of thousands of times without cracking, but at this point we don't KNOW that will be the case, we hav eno history of that EXACT design (using THOSE materials at THAT thickness).

Which is much the point of warranty, of course. It's basiclaly a bet between the manufacturer and the customer - the manufacturer bets that the quality of materials and manufacturing are sufficient to ensure that the electronic equipment will last longer than X years (usually 1, 3, or 5) and customers are theoretically protected by that bet. Generally speaking, the more confident the manufacturer is the longer the warranty period - it makes poor business sensce to offer a 3 year warranty if the unit will probably only last 2 years, but on the other hand a 5 year warranty offers potential customers considerable peace of mind. There's considerable "feel good" factor behind your manufacturer believing they will not be out of pocket due to you shipping a unit back for repeair in 4.5 years time.

The "bet" situation is sometimes extended with purchaseable "extended warranties". These usually extend the warranty period into the period that a manufacturer considers to be pretty safe (in as much as the unit is unlikely to fail) but manage to get customers to pay a bit more for it.

The andora1: warranty period is 1 year RTB. I do not beleive extended warranty has been offered thus far.