OT: who's responsible for a Lifetime Warranty?

I bought a pack of two Kingston-branded SD memory cards from Ebuyer.

With little use, less than two years later, the've both failed in the same way: the plastic at one corner has cracked and disintegrated exposing the c ontacts.

( I have an older Kingston card that's been used in the same devices for lo nger that is still fine.)

I still have the packaging as it mentions a Limited Lifetime Warranty in th e UK (which it specifies as 10 years in France, Germany and Austria) for "r eplacement or refund of defective product".

I know there have been discussions here before about whether "lifetime" ref ers to the remainder of the purchaser's three-score-years-and-ten or some n otional expected lifetime of the product, but I'm assuming that if the prod uct is good for ten years at the other end of the Eurostar, there's no reas on to think it wouldn't be here.

So this is what K Thank you for contacting the Returns Department of Kingston Technology.

In order to expedite the replacement of this defective product(s) quickly a nd efficiently, please follow the chain of sale and contact your point of p urchase directly with whom the parts were originally purchased. They should be willing to deal directly with you for a replacement.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

I FWDed that reply to Ebuyer and this is what they said:

Thank you for your response.

After checking your order I can see that your item is now out of the one year Ebuyer warranty period. Please contact the manufacturer who may be able to offer you a further warranty on the item.

I apologise for any inconvenience and annoyance this may have caused.

So who is responsible? My understanding is that Kingston are right, the co ntract is with Ebuyer and they should sort it out; that you would ordinari ly have six years under SOGA for a reasonable-quality brand that failed and that Kingston is reasonable-quality and not some no-name ebay tat; and tha t a lifetime warranty would trump the six years anyway.

I can see that Ebuyer could accuse me of causing the damage through mis-use /abuse and proving substandard manufacture is difficult or impossible. And the value isn't sufficient for a lot of aggro.

But if, legally, Ebuyer should be sorting this, I'm prepared to send a cou ple of strongly-worded emails to see if I can get them to do the right thin g (before I add them to that list that has MachineMart at the top).

Reply to
mike
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Just email kingston with the details and say ebuyer are being uncooperative and kingston will sort it for you.

Reply to
dennis

You'd need to know how they've defined the lifetime warranty. It very likely excludes wear and tear. Which can be anything they decide.

I had a keyboard with a lifetime warranty. The lettering on the keys wore off - actually with little use, but after a year. 'They' said that was fair wear and tear. So in other words the lifetime warranty only applied to unused goods. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

I work in the Computer Hardware game & have a lot of experience in warranty & returns. Ebuyer will have been supplied by a UK Kingston distie, most probably Computer 2000.

Ebuyer are sort of right, this is the warraty info for Kingston from C2000s reseller website (Joe Public can't see this):

"The first year of wrranty(sic) is through Computer 2000, product will be taken back as return and replace only (not for credit). Any warranty queries outside of this time please contact Kingston directly on 01932

738888"

Under the SOGA Ebuyer are responsible & they should be going to Kingston direct not you but, how much time & effort do you want to waste with this? A few hours on the phone & ebuyer will probably sort it. I have done this in the past: go back to Kingston & say you bought the memory from a local computer shop, but they shut down a year ago, they'll then deal direct with you. Send back the faulty & get a new one by return.

CD

Reply to
CD

and that a lifetime warranty would trump the six years anyway.

The law in England requires the retailer to deal with any claim made within six years of the date of sale. That does not mean that the product need last for six years, but the retailer must deal with the claim, irrespective of guarantee periods.

The quality of the product is irrelevant to the six years in which to make a claim, but would probably be relevant in deciding what a reasonable product life would be.

As you have had the items for more than six months, then the onus is upon you to demonstrate that the goods were faulty at the time of purchase.

Strictly, they should but I suspect it would be more effective to go back to Kingston, outline the problem of getting EBuyer to accept responsibility and hope they send you replacements as a goodwill gesture.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

A friend returned some 'lifetime guarantee' tools that had broken. He was told 'sorry, they've reached the end of their life and the warranty no longer applies'.

Reply to
RJH

everyone knows a lifetime warranty means 'until it breaks'

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Well the sales of goods act means the supplier, but if you also say that the manufacturer is extending that warranty, then its the manufacture who has to either enable the vendor to replace them or replace them themselves. Its not a new problem after all, we had the Scotch Video tape thing in the

80s and some shops would not replace them and 3M did without question. I thus think a word in the Ear of Kingston explaining that the seller does not support the Kingston warranty might resolve the confusion. Of course a mention that this might end up on a well known TV program can help enormously. Brian
Reply to
Brian Gaff

I should have asked earlier, what size cards? It could be the cost of sending them back to ebuyer/Kingston may be more than just buying new cards. I treat MicroSD cards as disposable myself.

Reply to
CD

Im pretty damned sure that the courts don't know that

the problem is, who can be bothered to find out

tim

Reply to
tim.....

Thanks for all the replies. I FWDed Ebuyer's response to Kingston so hopefully they will sort it out. Will update when I hear back.

Reply to
mike

They were under a tenner when bought and you are right that they're probably worth peanuts now but I'm slightly miffed that I had to spend half an hour picking the crumbled remains of one of them out of a media player with a needle.

Why do you treat MicroSD as disposable? Are they generally unreliable? I've just ordered a SanDisk from Ebay so I'd be interested to know if there's a way of differentiating genuine from fake.

Reply to
mike

Just because they're so cheap now, I remember paying about £70 for a 32Mb (yes Mb) Smart Media card in 2001. I just bought a 16Gb SanDisk for the phone for peanuts, if/when it fails I doubt I'll be looking up who I bought it from, I'll just get another thats probably 4x the size for the same or less money.

Reply to
CD

If relying upon statutory rights, yes. But in this case a lifetime warranty was promised at the time of sale, and to make a claim against that doesn't involve statutory rights (unless the vendor refuses to honour the promised warranty).

Reply to
Steve Walker

h2testw is incredibly useful for detecting fake or defective flash memory. Anything bought off ebay is suspect and should be tested on arrival.

Reply to
Steve Walker

The vendor only offers a one year warranty, which means it is now the statutory rights that apply when dealing with them.

The lifetime warranty is offered by the manufacturer and relates only to items that 'prove defective by reason of improper workmanship or materials', which basically comes down to the same problem.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Kingston replied this morning that if I send them the product part codes an d date of purchase, they'll send an RMA number and replace the cards... whi ch, if it happens, is pretty good service.

Reply to
mike

Thanks. Just Googled that, found F3 to be the Mac equivalent and will try it out when my Ebay card arrives.

Reply to
mike

Yes, IME they are very good. Until a few years ago, as a reseller I could send anything back to them for replacement, only recently have they introduced the requirement to do it through the reseller.

I had a PC that had 4 x 4Gb sticks in & 1 failed. The Kingston part had been discontinued, so they replaced with the newer equivalent. On fitting this the clock speed dropped from 800Mhz to 667Mhz, I told them & they replaced the other 3 with the newer part. Excellent.

Reply to
CD

I would have thought that lifetime warranty on memory is offered because the useful life of the medium is inherently uncertain and has northing to do with manufacturing "faults"

tim

Reply to
tim.....

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