FTC Warns Three PC Tech Companies of Potential Warranty Violations (pcworld.com) 22
The FTC has issued warnings to several tech firms, including PC manufacturers ASRock, Gigabyte, and Zotac, regarding potential violations of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. The agency expressed concerns that the companies' warranty and repair policies may be infringing on consumer rights. PCWorld adds: While the specific concerns vary by company, the FTC reminded the three companies that they can't, for example, place stickers on a laptop that caution consumers that opening or repairing the laptop violates warranty policies.
Neither can they state or imply that their products can only be repaired via an authorized service from the company. In the letter sent to Gigabyte (PDF), the FTC said that its staff is "concerned" by the Gigabyte written warranty, which includes the phrase: "If the manufacturing sticker inside the product was removed or damaged, it would no longer be covered by the warranty."
Neither can they state or imply that their products can only be repaired via an authorized service from the company. In the letter sent to Gigabyte (PDF), the FTC said that its staff is "concerned" by the Gigabyte written warranty, which includes the phrase: "If the manufacturing sticker inside the product was removed or damaged, it would no longer be covered by the warranty."
Gamers Nexus (Score:2)
Steve has entered the chat.
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+1
-bZj
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If they're following his lead, they should be dropping the hammer on Asus before long as well.
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"Concerned" ?? (Score:2)
"Concerned"? What are they "Concerned" about? It's a direct violation ... IN WRITING. Sue them to get other manufacturers to take notice and stop this shit.
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Better hope the case doesn't get to the Supreme Court. They'll laugh and tell the FTC to eff right off.
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Magnuson-Moss clearly states that you can do whatever the fuck you want with your property. Warranty continues to apply regardless, unless manufacturer can show that whatever you did when you opened your thing was what caused the failure.
I.e. even though you'd really like to claim that me opening a laptop and putting more memory in is what caused the charging port to fail six months in, rather than the fact that you picked the cheapest shit you could find and it has an inherent problem that is on you... My
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Supreme Court case being referenced clearly stated that if Congress expressed its views on this subject, that takes precedence.
Magnuson-Moss is just that. Congress expressing that it wanted manufacturers to not be able to void warranty because of someone "not authorized" doing repairs. Remember, it was written with cars and mom and pop repair shops in mind.
Stop repeating pundit nonsense, and read the actual Supreme Court decision.
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Please try not to be a corporate blow boy. I know that's a heavy lift, but try. Going all the way back to when the Supremes decided money was speech, they've been unflinchingly pro-corporate. They always manage to find a way.
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Please try not to be a midwit incapable of thinking for himself and observing reality by himself, and only capable of regurgitating slogans.
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"Concerned"? What are they "Concerned" about? It's a direct violation ... IN WRITING. Sue them to get other manufacturers to take notice and stop this shit.
This is a federal agency with finite resources. If a shot across the bow is all it takes to deter the bad behavior, enjoy the win. There's no need to pull out the nukes.
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Specific citation needed.
So when will they warn Apple? (Score:3)
(Or did I miss it? B-) )
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They have stock in Apple, so will never go after Apple, the way Intel got away with so many things over the years.
Gigabyte motherboards (Score:3)
I'm on my second sub-$100 Gigabyte MB. First one was well over a decade ago, and I should have learned my lesson and never bought another one (I had an asrock in-between, which was pretty good to me overall) though on the old one I chalked it up to a mains power issue (i.e. my problem) on a fairly old board. This new one developed the exact same issue as my first one: the on-board Ethernet port failed, along with the two USB ports next to it. Presumably the power shorted out on that pad. The board was about 2 months old when that happened, whereas the first one was at least a few years old when it happened. I guess they haven't changed their power designs in donkey's years.
On topic: It was totally under warranty (still is) and I went to RMA it and discovered that they won't cross ship like almost everyone used to. Not even if you're willing to pay for shipping. You have to send them the board, and 12-24 weeks later you might get the repaired board back, an identical part or even a *different board*. That doesn't violate any warranty laws, but maybe it should.
Problem was that this is my primary system, which I had *just* gotten fully up and running with all my stuff so I could retire my aging old box. I wasn't going back to my old box for 12-24 weeks with the possibility of ending up with a different board and have to start all over again, so just like with the first board (which failed *just* out of warranty) I bought a PCI-e NIC for $15 and haven't looked back and am crossing my fingers that the power issue will stay isolated to the onboard ethernet and those 2 USB ports until I replace it.
I considered just buying another one and RMAing the first one, so I'd have a spare, but never did it. I probably should do it, but I guess I'll just upgrade sooner than I usually do and make better choices (not buy Gigabtye anything) though (of course) I realize the same thing could happen with just about any board, but I was pretty annoyed with the whole thing.
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>> my second sub-$100 Gigabyte MB
Sometimes you get what you pay for. I recommend spending an extra $150 or so and get a midrange board that features beefed up capacitors and power management.
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That's one of the biggest problems with buying bottom barrel stuff. Everything is underspec or barely to spec, and you should expect high chance of random failures.
These are the things you can afford to buy only if you genuinely don't care if the thing you're getting works or not, and can go without if needed. In case of motherboards, it means the system should be some kind of secondary/backup system you can go without for a while if necessary.
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Sure, I get that, but I've bought MBs like that, since, forever, and in days of yore, getting a cross-shipped RMA was usually how it went with in-warranty parts, especially with early failures. Just because a part isn't "high-spec" doesn't mean we should accept bullshit customer service.
There's no guarantee that a $400 "gaming" motherboard won't have issues either, but it used to be that these companies would stand by their products when they inevitably shipped bad ones, but now, not so much.
Hell, I had an
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Service for mobos was always "you have to tear your system apart and send it back and then wait several weeks for replacement mobo to arrive" for lower end parts and even higher end parts in many cases. This is why comparing it so something that's not a central piece everything else attaches to and that requires logic board repair knowledge to diagnose many problems is silly.
Faucet is at best comparable to a drive. It just attaches to one thing in the system, is fairly easy to remove, and replacement doesn'
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Over the past 20 years or so, ASRock went from cheap with some interesting features to being a decent motherboard maker overall. The X670e Taichi is a very solid motherboard, and the only complaint I have is the shortage of 1/8th inch(3.5mm) audio connectors for 5.1 channel audio, where you need to use the front panel microphone input as the output for the rear audio channels. It's just a bit odd, which makes me feel that I should just get new speakers that use the digital audio out instead.