Do You Take Warranty's Into Consideration?

Chuggerboom

Chuggerboom

Chuggerboom

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I was just wondering what you guys think? When you buy your bits and pieces do you look at the warranty period of the item?

The reason i ask is because i bought a monitor that had a 1 year warranty and it died after 14 months. Now if i had been more wise i could have got one with a 3 year warranty.

I'm more careful with what i buy now. Just assume i needed a new PSU? Well i would buy one with a 5 or seven year warranty rather than one with 2 or 3 years. Luckily i bought one with 5 years.

Thoughts guys?
 
I always try to get a long warranty when buying new... It's a shame they have decresed in length however... HDD's ised to be 5 years, now they are 3...

GFX cards used to be 3, now most of them are 2...

As for monitors, I try and go for an LED backlit screen as these are more reliable compared to CCFL backlit screens.
 
Never really thought about it, mostly because I haven't had anything go wrong yet (touch wood) apart from one of those nasty IBM Deskstar HDDs, believe they had glass platters or somesuch....
 
EVGA are the warranty kings with most things having a 10 year warranty. I'd pay a little extra just for the warranty and peace of mind.

One of the additional buttons on my old mouse broke after 8 months and I was gutted as it cost me £45. After another 5 months I just browsed the razer website and stumbled across their 2 year warranty and sure enough got it replaced.
 
in addition to length of warranty you also have place of RMA and general RMA service too, I think more and more enthusiasts take this into account yes
 
yes I do.
I also, as mentioned above, take into consideration the RMA service, customer support and such before buying something that is costly.
 
xfx are meant to be quite good, they cover overclocking and give cards a double lifetime warranty which covers the card when sold on to a second owner.
 
Not really. I often buy second hand PC gear, I have been lucky so far!

I buy myself a laptop for work every year or two - This always has to have a good warranty.
 
I also take warranty length and RMA method/location into consideration, but I vary the relative importance depending on the item. For heavy/bulky items like monitors I really want UK based RMA or on-site swap out, but for smaller items like RAM just the warranty length is key.

I try to avoid any reasonably expensive part that doesn't have at least a two year warranty and 3+ is my usual preference.
 
Personally when buying stuff I tend to take into consideration:
Price
Performance
The Whole Warranty package.

By which I mean there is no point in a "lifetime" warranty if that means that the card is only covered for a year or however long the card is made (as I think is the case with at least one manufacturer) when many cards only seem to be in production for 18 months...
Likewise I take into account the rep for the warranty service - if it's going to take 3 months to get something sorted because the manufacturer is so slow it's not worth paying a premium for a longer warranty.
Also where I have to return the item to under warranty - I can't see the point in a good warranty if it means I have to pay a good fraction of the new price of an expensive item to return it to some RMA centre in outer mongolia via an international tracked service.

For that reason with hard drives for example I tend to use either Samsung (RMA centre based in the UK with something like 24 hour turnaround once they receive a failed drive*), or Seagate who have an RMA collection/turnaround point with UPS in the UK I think (which stupidly isn't the first address it suggests when you fill in their online RMA form and tell them you're in the UK, I think it defaults to an EU one).


I'm currently unlikely to buy an Asus video card again, since the last time i did so it took about 2-3 months for them to sort it out.

*Several times I've contacted them for an RMA on a Monday morning, got it that afternoon/Tuesday morning, posted the drive off Tuesday, and had a replacement Thursday.
 
Angelos_n said:
Only in the US, i found this out the hard way this week, 1 month after the warranty finished on my card
Click to expand...

Indeed, xfx only have good warranty in the US, in the UK they dont do anything themselves, if you buy xfx from anywhere other than OCUK you have 1 year warranty that doesnt cover much, from OCUK you at least get 2 years.

on topic: I do take it into account now, if the product is over say, £50, then I care about it being longer than a year, over £100 I prefer 5 years or so. If its under £50 then I dont really care as by the time it breaks it would be cheaper/better to replace with newer hardware or so cheap anyway that it doesnt matter.
 
Not particularly as i never seem to keep stuff more than a year before selling it on. Depends on the price really. If there is only a couple of quid difference then i will go for the longer warranty item providing it has the same or better features (clock speeds etc).
 
Chuggerboom said:
The reason i ask is because i bought a monitor that had a 1 year warranty and it died after 14 months. Now if i had been more wise i could have got one with a 3 year warranty.
Click to expand...
Some chap brought a TV from tescos and when it died out of warrenty they tried to fob him off with the one year malarky, he took them to court and tesco backed down.. There is a 2 year automatic guarantee in the EU (except on perishable goods like food, flowers and such) and under UK law 2 year is minimum. But due to the EU law some sellers argue that the UK law is no longer valid :mad: The DTI still stand by the UK law, it just means you have to be willing to fight for it.

http://ec.europa.eu/publications/booklets/move/64/index_en.htm
"a two-year guarantee applies for the sale of all consumer goods everywhere in the EU. In some countries, this may be more, and some manufacturers also choose to offer a longer warranty period." So basicaly EU law sets a minimum, not maximum..

http://www.berr.gov.uk/consumers/fact-sheets/page38311.html

So, if your monitor is stll under two years old, it shouldn't be to hard to get it fixed.
 
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It might be worth trying as it's worked for some..

Anyhow, what about the SOGA:
"For up to six years after purchase (five years from discovery in Scotland) purchasers can demand damages (which a court would equate to the cost of a repair or replacement)"

With that, I have to nip out so I'll check back later to read through that thread in more depth.
 
I upgrade yearly so i like to get at least 2 years on most components like Video cards so I can sell them with a years warranty
 
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