Longer Speaker Warranties a Given
A recent court case in the UK has struck fear into the hearts of quite a few of the world’s computer software manufacturers, because the court ruled that the creator of a software package was responsible for flaws that ended up causing ‘injury’ to the company that used it. It means, for example, that if an engineer building a bridge used a computer program to calculate the stresses and specify the necessary dimensions, and the bridge later failed (or, in the vernacular, ‘collapsed’) the company that created the program can now be found liable if the engineer can show that the failure was the fault of a bug or error in the computer program. Here in Australia, the courts recently handed down a judgement that should please mobile phone users, (which according to recent figures, is every single person in Australia) which effectively says that if a phone company sells you a phone that is part of a service plan, the company must repair the phone if it fails at any time during the plan you’ve signed up for, irrespective of the extent of the warranty that would normally cover the phone if it were sold without a plan. The court depended on the long-held principle that a ‘Statutory’ warranty exists in every product or service that is sold, whereby a consumer has the right to a refund, replacement or repair if the product doesn’t last as long as ‘a reasonable person’ would expect. In this evaluation, the cost of the product or service is taken into account. This statutory warranty is very important when it comes to hi-fi products, because it effectively means that if you purchase a pair of hi-fi speakers, the warranty period that applies is always five years, irrespective of what the manufacturer might say—even if it’s in writing. This is because almost all hi-fi speakers come with a five year warranty, and also because this is what the industry recognises as a ‘reasonable’ period over which one could expect the speakers to operate without failure. And if you’ve never heard of statutory warranties, don’t worry, because according to a recent Australian survey (National Baseline Study on Warranties and Refunds), 57 per cent of retailers had never heard of it either. The great majority of retailers also don’t realise that ALL warranty claims by consumers, either within the ‘official’ warranty period—or outside it—are their problem, and not a problem for the local distributor or manufacturer. If your speaker, amplifier, DVD player or other component fails, and you have to claim under warranty, it’s the retailer who is legally obliged to repair it, replace it, or refund your money. No-one else. This is why it’s always better to purchase your hi-fi equipment from a ‘bricks and mortar’ retailer who operates a real hi-fi store. Not only will you get a good demonstration, you’ll also know where the store is if something goes wrong.
greg borrowman
July/August 2010
Footnote: The Sydney Morning Herald’s Column 8 does a wonderful line in droll humour almost every weekday, but I was particularly taken by its publication of a contribution by one Daniel Smith of Chippendale, who advised: ‘I was born in ’45, and one day in ’78 I was 33 and a third. I claim these numbers as records.’ Column 8 duly noted: ‘It’s rather sobering to think that no readers under the age of 30 would have the faintest idea of why this is amusing.’
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