Amazon Warranties

JFord047

Hi there I just thought that I would share a warning with you all.

in January 2016 I bought a Mainboard from Amazon.co.uk, on sale admittedly, £309 instead of £539, it appeared to be a bargain and exactly the specific item I was looking for.

I bought it on Amazon Prime, which was a waste of time as the Prime Delivery was worse than the normal. but the board arrived from GERMANY. to me this was not a problem as AMAZON is a global company and if they can buy it in another country and save me money, everybody is happy.... or that's what I thought.

After 6 months The board developed a fault in the network port, I ignored it as it had 2 network ports and was not a big deal, then another fault came along after 1 year in the sound, again not anything t be worried about as I had a SoundBlaster zxr attached, and then last month it started to fluctuate power, and finally the PCIe x1 slots ALL died.

A pain, but no problem, I bought a Mainboard with a three year manufacturers warranty. I checked with the manufacturers site and found the procedure for returning the board for repair. After a couple of conversations it transpired that the warranty is NOT GLOBAL!

if the board is shipped from the factory to Germany its a German board, and NOT a UK Board.. Still not a problem in a lot of ways as I have consumer rights in the UK and AMAZON.CO.UK is selling as a UK site, And has an Office in London. WRONG!!!!


Amazon has on their computer system a 2 year Warranty period , for what I have no Idea, I have loads of things like iPhone cables that have fell apart after 3 months, but you just buy another, does this mean you can actually claim it on the 2 year warranty - Dunno - Pass..

But my board which has a manufacturer warrant until 2019, is not covered by them, it has to go to the manufacturer! I tried explaining that I had went there first, and they had sent me to Amazon as Amazon has sold a Germany only item in the UK, and I would have to use Consumer Rights to have Amazon Repair the Board.


Emails did not do anything, so I called and called again, I was then told a "services Team" would be in touch to arrange the repair of eh board.
They instead took the same line, ITS OUT OF WARRANTY, you can have £100 to your bank account as compensation...

so I replied NO, its warrantied by the company until 2019, but only in Germany, and covered by my statutory rights in Scotland until 2021 , so its still in Warranty.

another version of the same email came back, its out of warranty , £100 to your bank


So once more I called them - in London (if that's even where the call went to), I explained that there were alternatives on sale on amazon, but Amazon PRIME was wanting £748 for a board you could buy elsewhere for £348. and £100 would not cover that.


I offered to accept an alternative board, to have the board shipped to them and they have it repaired in Germany, or to refund the purchase price. they said that the board was no longer on sale on Amazon and could not even if they could be exchanged. and since it was out of "warranty" on thier system thier hands were tied!


I asked to escalte the problem to a manager, i got through and the phone was then muted , i explained everything all over again, the phone was unmuted adn i was told that she was not going to do anything about it, No repair as it was out of AMAZON WARRANTY PERIOD, no exchange as it was no longer on sale, and no refund as it was out of Amazon Warranty Period. Thank you for shopping with Amazon - Goodbye!


I then sent an email to "Jeff@Amazon.com" explaining the situation , I actally got a reply from "on behalf of Jeff Bezos" who apparently is in the UK with an amazon.co.uk email from Shisha, who once more explaind the shock and horror of not being able to do anything as it was out of AMAZONS 2 year warranty period but would now offer insteadof £100 to my bank account it would be £100 in Amazon Vouchers for use at Amazon.co.uk.


I have declined the £100 vouchers, and i am now going to go via the Trading Standards / consumer rights route. Its going to take a lot longer, and I will probably just buy a replacement board in mean time (not from Amazon!). But this is not now about the board, Amazon gets away with Taxes - I dont, they get away with bad work conditions reported in the press, and now they apparently do not have to honour warranties or pay any attention to statutory rights.


So its too late for me, but as a friendly warning , just do not expect everything you buy on amazon, especcially expensive items, to have ANY protection. as you apparently have NO consumer rights in Amazons Eyes.


I was about to build 4 other computers for others, 1 had purchased the parts from Amazon already and they had been delivcered to me, the other 3 were going to do so at the weekend, I am returning all of the parts I have and getting the rest to buy from UK companies instead. I do not want them to possibly end up in this situation, out of money fopr the computer , and then having to fight for thier rights

arciere

On the Amazon website, when you placed the order, did it clearly say that it came with a 3-year warranty?

JFord047

Yes, it was the Standard link to the manufacturers website, with the warranty period at the top

arciere

Can you give the link?

JFord047

The serial number has been checked by the manufacturer, and they agree it is covered by the warranty, in Germany! but not the UK.
Conversations with the service tem, have revealed that this is an ongoing problem with Amazon, who apparently not only redirect warranties after their 2 year warranty has expired, but tell customers to contact the companies in the First year as well as AMAZON have not facilities for repair.

The Service Agents, also inform AMAZON of the 1st Year warranty is by returning the components to the retailer, as well as the customers. But as yet AMAZON seem to ignore this fact continually.

They obviously would not tell me if the actual consumers had been successful, but they did say that they were clear to the consumers "Any repair would be chargeable" as its outside the warranty procedures and in breach of consumer law

JFord047

The link would Just go to the current website for the product, lol, I will have a look on Time machine, and see if I can get an old link and post it up.

But if it helps , its also Printed in the literature that came with the board!

bris

Warranties are not a consumer right so you are bound by their terms. If that says no warranty for GB then so be it. Can you not send it to the manufacturers warranty repair centre in Germany?


Basically it's now up to you to enforce your consumer rights, you need a specialist report to say the fault was inherent at time of purchase.


This isn't an easy thing to get especially after 2 years of use. Even if you do get it they can refuse to accept it. Or if they do give you a partial refund so still you are stuck.


Amazon are usually good with this kind of stuff but they do tend to dig their heels in and when forced into a corner just block your account.

JFord047

The manufacturer says I have the warranty, but this is only valid in the country they distributed the item to. They are in effect digging their heals in against AMAZON as they are fed up of Amazon basically buying items for one price in one part of the world, then jacking the price up to the RRP in another part of the world. They are MASSIVE increases, However the part of the world they are sold in have to buy the components and replacements at that area price band, This is meaning those areas are running at Huge Losses, and the companies are getting fed up of it, so they are putting their own rules into stopping Amazon taking the !!!! basically.

The Warranty is Not technically a consumer right, unless it forms part of the sale, which in this case it does GLOBALY so by deliberately going against the manufacturers instruction of specific sales Areas , Amazon have to take responsibility.


The manufacturer is more than willing to honour the warranty in Germany, however I would need a German Receipt to prove I purchased the item in Germany, which I do not have, and therefor the warranty is invalid in the UK - same Rules.

The Fault was most likley not an inherent fault as such, basicaly one or tewo components have failed causing the knock on effect. repairing those components will most likely fix all of the problems.

The main problem is BOARD LEVEL Repair, unless you ahve the manufacturers test point layouts and reswponse ranges its a long and slow process, to track down the specifics out of range then isolate then replace. and with flow soldered boards this is a real pain. Hence even the manufacturer test the board, if the results are what they expect and as long as there is no damage they simply replace the board - more cost efficient
.And yes, experienced the problem in the past, the baord was faulty, agreed by the manufacturer as faulty, but no longer available, so they offered a sum of money as a refund based on the life expectancy of the board. Joke is on that occassion I knew what the fault was, had the board returned to me and did the repair myself, that was 16 years ago.... and i am typing this on it now!


Blocking my account I will expect, but since I have not stopped paying my PRIME membership, once more they are in breach of contract, and can only use the excuse of breaking rules to make rules, so pot calling the kettle black a little.


Im sticking to my guns - really do not care about the baord anymore, its to be replaced in my mind, but Coming from the manufacturer, this is becoming a NORM with amazon, go against the manufacturers rules and leave the problem with the consumer and as your say DIG in and ignore the situation.

Frozen_up_north

Unfortunately Amazon often list products from 3rd parties, but rarely does it indicate where the item is shipped from. I don't know if the motherboard in question was from Amazon themselves, or a 3rd party.

I can't understand why Amazon doesn't show the address of the seller, in the way that eBay does.

Not only can warranty claims be a problem, but long delivery times and import duty/handling/vat can be on top of the cost.

If I have the slightest doubt, I ask...