According to a survey published today by consumer group U.S. PIRG, 45 out of 50 appliance manufacturers automatically void the warranty of a device if it has undergone “unauthorized” repair. And worse, they aren’t even upfront about it: 31 of the companies surveyed discourage independent repair in the language of their warranty, but don’t explicitly disclose whether or not doing so actually voids the warranty. PIRG reached out to the customer service teams at each of these organizations and found that 28 of them would still automatically void a warranty. They even included a couple of screenshots from a customer support chat with leading appliance brand Bissel, where they asked point-blank:
“So independent repair would void the warranty?”
“That is correct.”
Warranty agreements exist largely to give manufacturers a monopoly on repairing your stuff. And their scare tactics are working: When I talk to people—at repair events, on our site, in the comments of our Youtube videos—their number one fear about trying a repair for the first time is that they’re afraid of voiding their warranty. That fear has translated into a fear of fixing our stuff—and it’s become so deeply ingrained in us that we’ve become increasingly disconnected from our stuff.
Un-stick it to the Man
If I had a nickel for every time I came across a “warranty void if removed” sticker, I could easily buy the newest iPhone. Manufacturers have been heavy-handed with slapping warranty stickers on all of our stuff, including: Xboxes, the PSP Go, Asus laptops, and even NVidia graphics cards. And I’d bet my nickels that you’ve run into a few warranty stickers at some point, too.
Most consumers don’t know that these stickers are actually illegal—and that’s because manufacturers don’t want you to. Under the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, the Feds mandated that you can open your electronics without voiding the warranty, regardless of what the language of your warranty says. That makes all of that inconsistent (albeit crafty) language used by the 50 manufacturers surveyed by the U.S. PIRG illegal.
Manufacturers have been waging a quiet war against tinkerers for years. That’s terrifying. It challenges the very idea of ownership. It runs counter to the very human trait of identifying a problem and figuring out what’s wrong—just like when you get under the hood of your car to see why it won’t stop making that gurgling-noise. Fixing is a part of our legacy—and we’re letting manufacturers ride roughshod over our repair rights.
Up until April of this year, manufacturers have enjoyed this repair-monopoly uncontested. But consumers found their first warranty win when the FTC sent letters to six major manufacturers warning them to knock that “warranty void” shit off. A small victory in the ongoing battle for the right to fix our stuff, but apparently not enough to scare manufacturers from scaring us out of our right to repair.
Scary stickers to share in the dark
We’re lending the FTC a hand in giving those manufacturers a fright—by re-opening our #VoidIfRemoved contest. When the FTC sent out their first round of letters in April, I fueled their fire by calling for a good ol’ fashion witch sticker hunt—asking netizens to post photos of illegal warranty stickers on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #VoidIfRemoved. We collected those submissions and turned them over to the FTC—but apparently, the fight is just getting started.
So from now until All Hallows’ Eve, I’m asking everyone (again) to post photos of “warranty void if removed stickers” using the hashtag #VoidIfRemoved—so we can easily find it and send it to the FTC. In addition to your photo, please let us know what device you found the sticker in so we can categorize our entries by manufacturer. In exchange for your photos, I’ll be passing out a few treats—in the form of iFixit toolkits—to the best-dressed entries. Enter as many times as you want. The more entries the better.
We want everyone to know that warranty stickers are just crafty trickery from manufacturers. Don’t fall for it. The Feds have granted you a license to tinker—now let’s make sure we use it.
6 件のコメント
Honestly, as a repair tech at a small shop, I understand the use of these stickers. Getting an included warranty with your device is great and if it craps out on you in that warranty period, take advantage of it. However, if you decide to fix it yourself or just want to open the device for yourself and you break something, that shouldn’t be the manufactures problem. My shop has a similar policy. We offer a 90 day warranty on our repairs, provided that the customer doesn’t break the phone, dunk it in water or have someone else tinker with it. We guarantee our handiwork, not someone else’s.
To put it simply, the manufacturer should put stickers in at a certain point in the device, but I do believe that on some things, like laptops, you should be able to open them to upgrade storage or ram without voiding warranties. If you open you’re phone though, and you break that water resistant seal, you’re on your own. Take advantage of warranties when you can, then take matters into your own hands.
Brandon Boyd - 返信
Point of this if something breaks that isn't covered under warranty, you can fix it, then if something breaks that IS, they will still honor what they have to.
IE, I break-a switch off something, that's me, but then the chip inside later fries because of a bad component, that's them
Julian Weiss -
I hate warranty stickers too. I remember the time that my LaCie D2 FireWire external drive failed, I just opened it up anyways since the warranty had already expired.
The one thing that is a bit tricky is something like a memory module. Some sellers (including iFixit) provide a warranty on something like a Samsung or Micron memory module. But it’s a seller’s warranty, where the only thing that really proves that it was sold by iFixit (or whoever) with that warranty is that sticker. I noticed that iFixit doesn’t put any kind of “warranty void if removed” message on the sticker, but some competitors do. OWC stickers say “Warranty void if S/N removed”. However, memory modules aren’t really anything where repairing makes much sense, especially with a lifetime warranty. The whole thing would be replaced with an equivalent module.
Y YPW - 返信
As a tinkerer/electrical engineer, i often read these labels as "warranty void if NOT removed" ;)
Victor Titov - 返信
Samsung is a habitual offender here and will fight you tooth and nail if you remove the label from your SSD.
Kerry Co - 返信