[IP] Purchasing through EBay invalidates warranty, according to PalmOne
Many manufacturers restrict their warrantees -- like many cameras --
thus "grey" market. But all, I believe, tell you that.
Dave
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 24, 2004 7:10:58 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Purchasing through EBay invalidates warranty, according to
PalmOne
Dave,
This is remarkable enough to be worth wider consideration.
A little over two years ago, I bought a Handspring Treo 180, with the
view that
it embodied a significant chunk of mobile-office heaven. By an large,
that
opinion persists. I really do love using the thing... When it works.
However shortly after running past the 1 year warranty deadline, I
found that
the built-in speaker (in the flip-up cover) stopped working.
Given that replairs are expensive, I wound up buying a new replacement,
just
under 1 year ago. Sure enough, the speaker stopped working this week.
I have
since found documentation of this problem on the web, of course.
I called Handspring Customer Service and they informed me that because
I bought
it through EBay, they would not honor the warranty!
I ran up the chain in the front-line support office and they then
directed me to
Corporate. Shaun, on the PalmOne corporate escalation team assured me
that this
policy was in fact true. The fact that I went through EBay meant that
I did not
purchase the product through an authorized retailer.
Interesting, there are no provisions for these exclusions in the
warranty that
PalmOne publishes on their web page. The language in that document is
simple
and clear: "The warranty period is one (1) year from your date of
purchase."
There is no language in the warranty that restricts where you may
purchase it
from or when.
As often happens when one objects to such explanations, the support
staff
started inventing a number of new reasons, as time progressed. The one
I liked
the best was that PalmOne does not honor the warranty if the purchase
is made
more than 1 year after manufacture.
I had planned on getting a Treo 650, but it is difficult to justify
spending
that much money, nevermind having my professional communications rely
on a
company with both technical reliability problems, coupled with
capricious and
unreasonable customer service policies.
d/
--
Dave Crocker <mailto:dcrocker-at-brandenburg-dot-com>
Brandenburg InternetWorking <http://brandenburg.com>
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