Product warranty a subtle deceit
Isabel P. Ball
April 22, 2006
A used car barely in its midlife I recently purchased from a dealership manifested detectable signs of mechanical problem that I noticed in the first month. Fancying to drive a manual shift after having been bored by the automatic models, the gears on my car were not shifting smoothly. As well, the gas pedal temperamental as a woman with periodic cramps would not depress easily. So the car jolts when I would step on the gas applying pressure harder than most, or it would stall sometimes. Other complication soon emerges in the form of hard starting.
The preemptive daily routine of having to make a living, and the fact that I have purposely procrastinated with intention to observe whether the defects were simply my own cause from the lost dexterity with stick shift cars, constituted the factual reasons for the delay in reporting them to the dealership. Finally, I reached the point of surrender having been too much encumbered with the defects, and a haunting fear of an elapsing warranty that I finally contacted the dealership.
On the third month, I finally called the dealer. “But Mam” your car was only given a one month warranty, the most that we accord to used cars, and that has run out as you may know,? rebuts the salesman whom sold the car to me. “We can fix it for you, but you have to pay the $100 deductible,” he suggested.
Stung by the cost, I balked and argued banking my refutations on the simple principle that the car should have at least some warranty, which it had, but only for one month, to me is much too short a trial period by which to detect pre-usage or for inherent factory defects. An extended warranty would have kicked in functionally on the one month with a deductible.
Few weeks back, I received in the mail the paperwork on the extended warranty they had purchased for me. It was something I was not totally aware of discussed with me at length by the salesman or by the finance officer about during the purchase. Easily, it got buried in the seeming reams of paperwork typical during a purchase, and the hassle of having to do a hurried signature. To this time, I have not pored on the stack of contracts I had signed at the dealership.
On the point that the car was covered for one month, and which technically has expired, I hammered the company against the payment of $100 claiming that the defect had, in all honesty, manifested within the warranty period. To a rational and highly trained manager on customers care, my arguments, he found, contained merits that he uncommonly hears from a griping customer. He eventually relented to fix the car without any cost to me.
It is my suspicion that the car had the preexisting conditions, as might have been noted in its history record that nowadays are a protocol stored in database. Easily, it could have been the main reason for the manager’s accommodating demeanor with me. Otherwise, the total repair could have cost me between $1500-$2000.
Product warranty is a fairly new added cost attached or either sold separately to customers covering just about any merchandise sold these days, especially in the electronic products.
I recall the first time I was offered to buy a product warranty when I purchased a brand new unit of Walkman by Sony. The world knows about Sony products as being irreproachable brands. Instead of buying, the salesman got back an earful from me. I found it illogical and insulting that a brand new product would need to be covered from any defect in the manufacturing, and that I have to pay for it? How absurd, I thought.
What has happened to the quality control being flaunted so much as behind every product that companies make? Have these companies eliminated the entire quality control division in an ever cost-cutting measure, thus furthering their profits, while passing on to customers the burden and cost of quality? Astutely, products fresh from factories should have in them longevity of service, guaranteed by the manufacturer just like in some past periods. Except in cases that the customer has unduly been reckless in the care and handling of a bought product, such as dropping on hard surfaces compromising its manufacturing integrity, that a warranty would have its merit.
Judgingly, warranties are mere business ideas with one motivation that is to outwit, befuddle, and rip off customers. Noticeably, with warranties being sold to unsuspecting and less witty buyers is an evident decline in manufacturing quality. We hear this scenarios quite so often reported in the news about product recalls, ranging from foods due to contamination, to cars for problems in mechanical or in the interior like air bags that would not activate.
So heed all ye refrain. Customers Beware!
The preemptive daily routine of having to make a living, and the fact that I have purposely procrastinated with intention to observe whether the defects were simply my own cause from the lost dexterity with stick shift cars, constituted the factual reasons for the delay in reporting them to the dealership. Finally, I reached the point of surrender having been too much encumbered with the defects, and a haunting fear of an elapsing warranty that I finally contacted the dealership.
On the third month, I finally called the dealer. “But Mam” your car was only given a one month warranty, the most that we accord to used cars, and that has run out as you may know,? rebuts the salesman whom sold the car to me. “We can fix it for you, but you have to pay the $100 deductible,” he suggested.
Stung by the cost, I balked and argued banking my refutations on the simple principle that the car should have at least some warranty, which it had, but only for one month, to me is much too short a trial period by which to detect pre-usage or for inherent factory defects. An extended warranty would have kicked in functionally on the one month with a deductible.
Few weeks back, I received in the mail the paperwork on the extended warranty they had purchased for me. It was something I was not totally aware of discussed with me at length by the salesman or by the finance officer about during the purchase. Easily, it got buried in the seeming reams of paperwork typical during a purchase, and the hassle of having to do a hurried signature. To this time, I have not pored on the stack of contracts I had signed at the dealership.
On the point that the car was covered for one month, and which technically has expired, I hammered the company against the payment of $100 claiming that the defect had, in all honesty, manifested within the warranty period. To a rational and highly trained manager on customers care, my arguments, he found, contained merits that he uncommonly hears from a griping customer. He eventually relented to fix the car without any cost to me.
It is my suspicion that the car had the preexisting conditions, as might have been noted in its history record that nowadays are a protocol stored in database. Easily, it could have been the main reason for the manager’s accommodating demeanor with me. Otherwise, the total repair could have cost me between $1500-$2000.
Product warranty is a fairly new added cost attached or either sold separately to customers covering just about any merchandise sold these days, especially in the electronic products.
I recall the first time I was offered to buy a product warranty when I purchased a brand new unit of Walkman by Sony. The world knows about Sony products as being irreproachable brands. Instead of buying, the salesman got back an earful from me. I found it illogical and insulting that a brand new product would need to be covered from any defect in the manufacturing, and that I have to pay for it? How absurd, I thought.
What has happened to the quality control being flaunted so much as behind every product that companies make? Have these companies eliminated the entire quality control division in an ever cost-cutting measure, thus furthering their profits, while passing on to customers the burden and cost of quality? Astutely, products fresh from factories should have in them longevity of service, guaranteed by the manufacturer just like in some past periods. Except in cases that the customer has unduly been reckless in the care and handling of a bought product, such as dropping on hard surfaces compromising its manufacturing integrity, that a warranty would have its merit.
Judgingly, warranties are mere business ideas with one motivation that is to outwit, befuddle, and rip off customers. Noticeably, with warranties being sold to unsuspecting and less witty buyers is an evident decline in manufacturing quality. We hear this scenarios quite so often reported in the news about product recalls, ranging from foods due to contamination, to cars for problems in mechanical or in the interior like air bags that would not activate.
So heed all ye refrain. Customers Beware!
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