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Security The Courts Hardware

Lawsuit Filed Against Logitech For Delaying Warranty Claims, Hiding EOL (bleepingcomputer.com) 83

An anonymous reader quotes BleepingComputer: A U.S. man has filed a lawsuit against Logitech, a Swiss-based manufacturer of electronic devices, on accusations that Logitech had intentionally delayed and tried to discourage warranty claims for defective products, falsely advertised products, and even hid an End-Of-Life (EOL) announcement from customers. The product at the heart of this lawsuit is a high-definition digital video home security systems named Logitech Alert Systems... The lawsuit alleges that Logitech's cameras had "a high-rate of failure" and the software running on the IP cameras "was rife with bugs and glitches that made the systems unreliable and inoperable"...

The cherry on top came when users complained to the company. "Logitech refused to honor its warranties to remedy the defects while customers' warranty periods lapsed, thereby escaping its legal obligations to provide non-defective replacements or refunds," the lawsuit reads. The lawsuit alleges that Logitech knew its product had a high rate of failure, but instead of issuing a callback, it "responded by designing and implementing a strategy to avoid its express warranty obligations... As a result, Logitech strategically left customers without operable security systems during the warranty period while it ran out the clock."

The proposed class-action lawsuit covers the IP cameras sold between 2010 and 2014, though it alleges Logitech decided to discontinue the products by 2012, and "claims the company wanted to sell current stocks of Alert Systems before making the announcement and allowed customers to buy a product it did not intend to support anymore."
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Lawsuit Filed Against Logitech For Delaying Warranty Claims, Hiding EOL

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  • by Nonesuch ( 90847 ) on Sunday August 27, 2017 @04:59PM (#55094351) Homepage Journal
    I'm wondering how the plaintiffs found out that the company decided to discontinue the line two years before the 2014 End-Of-Life announcement?
  • referred to in sales literature but never properly defined. Customers buy things expecting them to work for a reasonable number of years to find that the manufacturer has decided to End Of Life it. It is not just Logitech that plays games like this.

    The support life should be in BIG letters on the box and the clock should stop ticking the moment that a customer reports a fault.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Under Australian consumer law the customer is entitled to fitness for purpose and a reasonable lifespan for the goods regardless of the express warranty period or conditions. This sort of shit would not play well here and should not require a law suit to resolve. Guess that is why the suit is in the land of the free.

    • The support life should be in BIG letters on the box

      ... just like any Android phone.

      Although my family is all on Android, the whole approach to support for these phones by manufacturers and phone companies is terrible. You are lucky if your phone is supported for 2 years after the model first goes on the market, let alone 2 years after the last sale of that model.

      I don't expect firmware updates to the latest version of Android for the life of the phone, but merely security updates for several years after

  • by aktw ( 4857131 ) on Sunday August 27, 2017 @05:13PM (#55094385)
    They have a keyboard, the K750, that I basically have to replace every year. It's a great keyboard, but the battery life goes to shit after about 6 to 8 months. At first, I was impressed with Logitech's support when I RMA'd mine, because they were very quick to offer a replacement -- took a few days and I received a new one in the mail. Then that one failed, and they were quick to offer a replacement for it as well. I think they know they have a defective product, and are just trying to cycle through some massive inventory until they can EOL it.
    • I've a Logitech K330 mouse+keyboard that I've been using for about 5 years now. The letters have faded from a couple of the keys but otherwise it's all good.

      • Impulse-purchased their Wireless Headset H300 without checking reviews.

        Turns out if you let the battery run down, you can never charge it again, bricking the headset. The other issues are minor in comparison, although it is those other issues (having to be re-paired with their USB wart every few days, using a windows-only utility) that led me to read about this big one.
        • Woops that should be Wireless H600
        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I don't know if you still have those H600 headphones, but I looked them up because that sounded like such an unbelievably bad issue - some people seem to have found a workaround "i found the solution elsewhere on the board that worked for me: while plugged in, rapidly turn the unit on and off, over and over again. somehow it tricks the little brain to reset itself after a few (10?) on/offs. now my headset charges and connects like normal."
          I have no idea how they can continue to sell that product though!

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I'm using a Logitech MX518 mouse right now. It's over 12 years old, works great.

      My other computer has a Logitech MarbleMouse on it. It's over 20 years ago, works great.

      I have two Logitech webcams at my office workstations, can't remember the model but they're over 5 years old, work great.

      I think that's everything Logitech I own and everything works great. Maybe this is the "old" Logitech.

    • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      Logitech keyboards have been pretty mediocre for years. Their mice on the other hand have been pretty good. But it seems like very company that makes a name for themselves, then turns around and decides "well for an extra buck we can gut out of manufacturing costs, we'll make more money" and the quality crashes. The latest in that game was razer until the owner stepped in.

      • by Agripa ( 139780 )

        Logitech's quality and reliability have never been very good. Every Logitech mouse I have had since their BUS mouse has had switches fail and the cord break at the point where it enters the mouse. Check out online the number of third party cord replacements for Logitech mice that are available. Their wireless keyboards have transmission problems and regularly fail for no discernible reason.

    • I have a Y-UY95 ultra thin keyboard from Logitech that I've been using a few years, however the one I'm using is a replacement because one of the springy things on one of the keys broke so I called Logitech and asked if they'd send me a new key or something under warranty but instead they decided to send me a whole new keyboard no questions asked and this one has worked for years without issue.

      Now their headsets on the other hand are a different story. I had a G930 where the battery started failing and the

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I've had a couple RMA with Logitech and they have been the best RMA experience ever. Didn't even need to ship back the products, they just took my word for it and sent new products, free of charge.
    I guess this guy didn't explain his case properly.

  • I thought Logitech was among the companies that died over the last couple tech shake downs. I remember having a really nice mouse from them in the 1990's - their keyboards always seemed overblown though.

    I guess I will be staying away from anything with that name.
    • by jonwil ( 467024 )

      My wired Logitech K120 USB keyboard is great and if I needed a new keyboard I would buy another one no question. (its better than the Microsoft keyboard I was replacing and better than any of the other keyboard options I saw when I was shopping for a keyboard)

      • by wjcofkc ( 964165 )
        I demand a mechanical keyboard.
      • I have that keyboard and it is OK, about the same quality as the Dell keyboards. If you want a decent keyboard get one from Cherry. I have one that I bought 30 years ago and it still works and (after cleaning) looks like on day 1. I retired it because there is not a single decent DIN/PS2 to USB converter on the market. Switched to a Cherry G230. Great keyboard!
        • by jonwil ( 467024 )

          The thing I like about the Logitech (and didn't like about the previous Microsoft I had or other keyboards I tried that were in my budget) is that the top row of keys (escape, f1-f12, print screen, scroll lock, pause) are the same size as the rest of the keys. The Cherry models you mention don't have the full size top row which makes them less attractive to me (I use the f-keys all the time)

    • Re:They still exist? (Score:5, Informative)

      by XSportSeeker ( 4641865 ) on Sunday August 27, 2017 @06:53PM (#55094689)

      What do you mean still exist? Logitech is still the biggest keyboard and mouse company worldwide, they dominate in several categories from business to gaming, and the company itself has never been more profitable than in recent years:
      http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/l... [nasdaq.com]

      • by wjcofkc ( 964165 )
        Clearly we are coming from different Mandela effect realities.
      • If you game only casually and haven't had reason to buy a discrete keyboard or web cam recently, I could see the ignorance. I'm still using a PS/2 keyboard from close to 20 years ago as my daily driver. Even when that goes I have a box of similarly old keyboards to replace it with... Though by that time, it'll be time for a new PC build, which would probably necessitate grabbing one of the slightly newer USB keyboard out of that box. None of this requires going to see the Logitech doodads at Best Buy or goi
        • You should move up to USB now if only because of the risk of damaging something if you accidentally disconnect an AT keyboard while the power is hot. I thought it was a myth until it happened to me.

    • The quite popular UE Boom speakers are Logitech, but for some reason they have a separate brand for some of their audio products.
  • Bought some kind of HID from them - possibly a mouse, but it was so long ago that I'm no longer sure. What I am sure of is that the driver disc also installed some phone-home software which I didn't know about beforehand and certainly never agreed to, and which IIRC I discovered by accident. Ripped that crap out, never bought from them again, and never will. I'd love to see them go down in flames for this, as a caution to all those other fuckheaded companies who think that exchanging their product for a cus

  • Practices to be expected from big corporations... the troublesome thing about this is if that sort of product and practice is what passes for a company as big as Logitech, can you imagine the shoddy crap and stuff that's coming out from smaller brands?
    That's why we end up with Mirai Botnet and the whole problem with IoT devices being used as DDoS fodder.

  • by bezpredel6 ( 1796620 ) on Sunday August 27, 2017 @08:42PM (#55094969)
    I've owned few logitech alert cameras, and all of the ones that had IR illumination dies withing a year or two. The one i was "lucky" to have die withing warranty period was replaced fairly pain-free. I expected for those $350/pop things to live for over a year, but you know, buyer beware and stuff. One thing going for them was that the picture quality was pretty decent,and tgey supported rtsp.
  • My kids went through at least a dozen of Logitech gaming headsets. Luckily, Amazon has a kick-ass return policy and saved Logitech's behind on this one. Still, eventually switched to something less shitty. Logitech should stick to what they know, mice and keyboards. No complaints there.
  • You're far better off going with cameras that support either ONVIF or RTSP and a DVR system that supports both open standards, then you can use quality cameras like Axis, or cheap ones where resolution and clarity aren't as critical. That way you're free to choose from any number of quality or cheap vendors and spend money for quality where clarity matters (ingress/egress points, high-value items, etc.) and cheaper where it's less critical (monitoring movement through an area; you can ID the perps via highe

  • by Zorro ( 15797 )

    I still LOVE my KB800 I have bought 5 of them.

  • I've found Logitech's product quality to have dropped off over the years, so I'm not a surprised to see corporate resistance to doing the right thing.

    Their 1990's mice were incredible. I still remember replacing all the vendor mice with Logitech's and being amazed nobody else could produce one as well.

    These days, I still like the feel of the basic wired M100 mouse and K120 keyboard because they just work. But, WOW, do they have issues keeping the HPDE and rubber pads on. It takes just a week for the keyboar

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