How to get the Manufacturer's Warranty?

[kaibacorp*]

I lost about $600 some years ago from eBay because I did not get the manufacturers warranty on 2 expensive electronic items.

The items were an expensive "gaming" mouse and keyboard.

The keyboard was pretty much faulty out of the box with non-responsive keys and a button on the mouse jammed up after a few weeks of use.

The seller only gave a refund option of about a week and at the time I did think to kick up a fuss about it with eBay.

I then contacted the manufacturer "Razer" and they told me that eBay is not an "official Razer seller" and thus I am not eligible for the manufacturer's warranty.

I just bought a new GPU and the day it arrived I asked the seller about gettting the manufacturers warranty. I waited some days and got no reply. I then left neutral for him and then I got this message back "We handle the warranty."

I then contacted the manufactuer, in this case it was a GPU maker called "Sapphiretech." They told me I must contact the seller here on eBay to get the manufactuers warranty. So, I contact the seller back and asked for the details to get the manufacturers warranty and again I get no response.

Has anyone had this problem before? How can I get my warranty in the future when buying off eBay?

[padi*0409]

Warrantees for items bought on-line (not just eBay) are rarely worth the paper they're written on unless the seller is either the manufacturor or an authorised seller in Australia.

[kaibacorp*]

So what you are saying is that I should seek out the authourised resellers and buy only from them in the future?

Yes, I am familiar with the warranties that aren't worth the paper they are written on. I've claimed warranties from my local electrical store beause my air conditioner broke down after about 9 months use. They took the air conditioner and said they would get it fixed, I waited 6 months in the blistering heat and then gave in and bought a new airconditiner. They took close to 1 year to repair the airconditioner. Imo it should be illegal. <--- not the only warranty horror story I can tell.

[digital*ghost]

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@kaibacorp* wrote:

How can I get my warranty in the future when buying off eBay?

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Product warranties are voluntary, and there are a lot of things that can void them. The reason many manufacturers will not honour manufacturer warranties if the item is purchased from an unauthorised seller, is because the manufacturer can not determine or verify the supply chain, and ensure the product is actually eligible for their warranties. 

Warranties can be offered by entities other than the manufacturer, too, so the supplier's (eventual) response of "we handle the warranty" is (in general) a perfectly legitimate response, unless the item was advertised as including a manufacturer warranty (however, I note that there is no mention of a warranty of any sort in that seller's wall of text description).

In most cases, consumers should be contacting the supplier rather than the manufacturer for warranty claims anyway (if a warranty applies - retailer or manufacturer - an Aus retailer is literally not allowed to palm you off on to the manufacturer). 

That being said, while warranties are voluntary, consumer guarantees are not, and in a lot of cases, manufacturer and retailer warranties don't tend to offer anything in addition to consumer guarantees, which you are automatically entitled to when purchasing goods from an Australian seller, and requires no warranty at all (eg say a product like a washing machine is expected to last 5 years, and has a 12 month warranty, if it develops a major fault 2 years after purchase, consumer guarantees can still apply and give the buyer right to remedy - this is one of the reasons why "extended warranties" that can be purchased from retailers can be a complete waste of money, it all depends on the product, what's determined to be a reasonable expectation in so far as quality and longevity is concerned, and any manufacturer / retailer claims to that effect). 

The seller you bought from appears to be located in New Zealand, though list the product location as Australia, which (if correct) might make enforcing things like warranties and/or consumer guarantees more difficult. 

[kaibacorp* · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your response.

Yes, the seller is in NZ selling on Australian eBay.

What took place was:

The manufacturer (Sapphiretech) said they will only deal with the original purchaser of the product.

The seller did eventually contact me back and sent me an invoice which *I'm assuming* I can use to get the warranty if things go south.

After my experience with losing a lot of money with buying electronic goods from eBay beacuse of no access to the warranties I have decided just to cut down on the electrical products I buy on eBay. I've turned to local stores now who assure me their warranties are good.

It seems after asking many questions and contacting many people about this topic I am none the wiser than I was in the beginning.

All I know is that I must be more careful now than I was in the past about warranties.

[shoptillyapop]

Consumer guarantees are not liable to the the reseller, they are soley enforced through the manufacturer. I have made countless claims for electronic goods directly through manufacturers and hav e items repaired ornr0wlcaed. A couple of times I have done this without a receipt an ld used the barcode as proof for purchase.