What product warranties have you ever used?

[pete6032]

Just curious, what are some product warranties that you have used that have been worthwhile?

For me I have used sennheiser headphones warranties multiple times and had mixed experiences. They usually end up replacing my headphones with any random new pair they have lying around. Definitely not a one for one replacement.

Another one I've used that has been better was Hondas car battery warranty. My battery died within the warranty period so I got a free new battery.

Third, I have used Motorola's warranty service. Phone had a problem so I sent it in and they sent me a brand new phone same model no questions asked.

I have also used the price protection warranty on my credit card once. The price of some furniture went down by $100. Sent in the invoice and new price and they mailed me a check for $100 within a few weeks.

 

[lxskllr]

Waaay back in the day, an extended warranty for a boombox. Must have had a premonition. It's the only extended warranty I ever got, and the only time it would have been useful. A Logitech mouse. I would have made a warranty claim on some shitty Ballistix ram, but I'd have just gotten shitty Ballistix ram again. Easier to simply write off Crucial as a supplier.

 

[biostud]

Sennheiser headphones and a Nad amp.

 

[mikeymikec]

Crucial Ballistix - kudos to them for the decent service though.
2x Logitech mice - easily the best customer service I've encountered, they just refunded each mouse which allowed me to buy a similar mouse with a new 5-year warranty.
Western Digital hard drive - Black, 5yr, 6 months old: the replacement came with a 6-month warranty which I thought was a tad cheeky.
Asus GeForce 750Ti - Asus insisted that my supplier (Amazon UK) handle the shipping back to them, and Amazon refused to. In response, I don't buy high-value electronics from Amazon, and no graphics cards from Asus.
Kingston RAM - no problems with the return.
Crucial standard RAM - no problems with the return.
Samsung 850 PRO SSD - Samsung took a bit of convincing as the drive generally only screwed up when doing a large amount of writes.
Seagate HDDs - more than one, no problems with the returns.

 

[Brainonska511]

Totes umbrella- the thing broke after several years. Sent a $5 check in and the umbrella tag and explanation of what was wrong. They sent me a brand new umbrella.

Warranty on my Nexus 5x when it bootlooped after after a year and a half.

AmEx accidental damage coverage on my Nexus 4 after I somehow cracked the glass back in the first 3 months.

Asus motherboard - but I'm not sure they ever fixed the problem. I may have also had a processor with a known errata that only arose when you had 4 sticks of RAM (I originally built with 2 sticks, later adding 2 more. Downclocking the RAM after did help with stability, but I eventually scrapped the board and processor for a cheap switch to an Intel i3 with a MSI board)

I've also used Citi's price protection a lot - $700 back over the last few years, but now that program is ending.

 

[13Gigatons]

APC UPS: Replaced the entire product after it failed after only 1 year. It was pretty painless which surprised me.

Super Talent DDR3: Took 2 months for them to send out the replacement. Never bought Super Talent memory after that.

 

[mindless1]

Hard to keep track of them all. There are most often things that fall under a warranty of merchantability, some of which I got a refund for, like miscellaneous things on ebay (and Amazon to a lesser extent) that arrived DOA or not as described, and a few things that fall under this I bought at local stores years ago, and a few Newegg refurbs that were DOA or missing significant pieces.

There have been some car warranty repairs though some were minor recalls.

A Viewsonic computer monitor, that they returned to me still unrepaired and had to try a 2nd time.

Hard drives, I couldn't tell you how many, probably less than 10.

Microsoft Mouse, the left click button wore out lol.

Samsung Printer, I don't recall what was wrong with it.

HP Laptop (mainboard replacement, notorious nVidia chipset solder bump issue)

Lexmark Printer, but a screwy resolution where a replacement wouldn't have done any good, the firmware caused massive toner waste and they replaced the (very expensive) cartridges as the resolution and I had to downgrade the quality settings to keep it from wasting (as much) toner.

A few Craftsman hand tools.

GE Fridge/Freezer Ice Maker

A few Autozone car parts, once a new water pump but mostly things that just wore out or at least lasted a few years, but had a lifetime warranty anyway. Especially Autozone hood struts, I only get about 2.5 years a pair out of those, and they no longer offer a lifetime warranty on them so it's a good thing I scanned the receipt that states Lifetime Warranty because their thermal printed receipts fade away over time.

A few memory modules but it's been years since I got a bad one, but I haven't been building systems nearly as much as I used to. Most had errors new out of the box, at least one died after use.

A Dorman plastic intake manifold that broke its sensor mount within a few months.

A Diehard (Sears) car battery.

GE LED Light Bulbs. They never got back to me on my warranty request so technically I never used that warranty.

A video card and a motherboard, different years and I don't remember which makes or models, maybe MSI video card and Asus motherboard.

Samsung Camera - but only because I bought the extended warranty.

Misc Delta and Moen faucet cartridges and spray hoses.

The above is stretching over several years and I'm sure there were other things I can't think of at the moment. In some cases, I have repaired things still under warranty so I didn't count those, and couldn't even begin to list all the things I've repaired and figure out what was inside the warranty period still, but it would be mostly small items that had little more value used than the cost to mail them wherever the manufacturer wanted them sent.

 

[sdifox]

E350 wood trim cracked. Got them replaced. And brake master boost cylinder.

 

[Paperdoc]

In Canada the Canadian Tire auto parts / hardware chain had a policy for many years of including a multi-year warranty on their car batteries. Failure within a couple of years gave you full free replacement; thereafter failure within a further 4 years or so gave you a pro-rated credit towards purchase of a replacement. Several times over many years and vehicles I used the latter to replace a battery that failed in 4-5 years at reduced cost.

Had a Frigidaire dehumidifier a few years ago, and it worked very well - for one year. The second summer it failed to demunidify even though running constantly. I had purchased from Amazon.com in the USA even though I live in Canada, and Frigidaire gave me a run-around about honoring the warranty. Amazon stepped in and sent a free replacement of the same model, allowing me to return the failed unit in the same shipping box after receiving the new one. It worked fine - for one year. Same problem the next summer! I quit then - obviously there is a design flaw, and I did not want to go though the hassle repeatedly of transporting it back into the USA for return.

A few years back I bought from a local auto parts shop a replacement Alternator for my car. After installation is did even worse than the failed unit I had removed, so I took it back to the shop. They diagnosed a faulty component and replaced that part immeiately - they do some of their own rebuilding work. The repaired unit is still working just fine.

 

[local]

EVGA - Sent my failed GTX 285 in and they sent back a GTX 470. Petty much a customer for life now unless they screw it up some how.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

An AGM Battery that failed after 2 years.
Over 10 Seagate HDDs that failed over the years (and their replacements would fail).
2011 Macbook Pro that failed 2 weeks after purchase (logic board failure).
LG G3 that had the audio cut out issue about a month after purchase.
Logitech DiNovo Edge keyboard that had some scissor mechanisms crack after 3 years or so. Asked support if I could buy some of them and they instead said they'd send me a new keyboard free of charge.

 

[BoomerD]

Automotive, appliance, tools, tools, tools, misc. computer related stuff, Corsair RAM, EVGA video card, mobo, etc.)
Lots of smaller things that require me to pay shipping to return for warranty...just get tossed because the shipping cost is as much...or more than the replacement cost...and the companies know this.

 

[Iron Woode]

an old Sony 8x CD burner died on the last month of the 1 year warranty. Was replaced with a 10x CD burner for free. Still have that drive somewhere in my junk box.

Asus H81M-E motherboard had a dead NIC after 6 months. Received the replacement board with in 1 week. Sold it as part of a budget build to my friend where it is still running fine.

Lifetime warranty on my Monroe shock absorbers. I had to replace one when it broke off the lower mounting stud. Only had to pay for labour.

 

[stargazr]

Several hard drives, and a few times I ended up with something better because my item was discontinued.

 

[kn51]

Over 10 Seagate HDDs that failed over the years (and their replacements would fail).

Had to chuckle. At the time is was anecdotal that they were crap, but was confirmed. I never had one that went the distance.

As for all the other items listed, my latest return were a set of steak knives. Kind of blew me away it was a no mess no fuss type thing. All it took was me shipping them for a brand new set.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I don't think I have ever, in the history of purchasing things, ever used the manufacturer warranty.

There have been some computer parts that I picked up from Fry's back in the day where I used the store's 30 day policy (motherboards, gpus, etc) but never the manufacturer warranty.

 

[ultimatebob]

I got the road hazard warranty for the wheels and tires on my 2018 Mustang when I bought it, and that ended up paying for itself.

I hit a curb and destroyed two of those tires, and the warranty company paid for both of the replacements.

The best warranty return I ever had was for Microsoft's Sidewinder Pro joystick back in the 90's. It died after a month, and Microsoft sent me a free replacement no questions asked. I didn't even have to return the old one, which was cool because I was able to take it apart and repair it.

I doubt that you would get that level of customer service now!

 

[spacejamz]

I had to use the square trade on 70" LG when the sound (both TV and HDMI out to sound bar) stopped working...

they ended up just giving me a new 70" vizio a year later since they couldn't get the part to fix it...

Also had a Garmin fitness tracker that stopped working a month after the garmin warranty expired but AMEX covered one additional year so they credited my account for the full amount I paid for it...I have started keeping digital receipts for stuff like this which saved my a$$...

 

[esquared]

My car.
It was leaking coolant but no visible area was wet. After talking it back a couple times
I told the dealer that either I had a blown head gasket or I had a hole in my cylinder.
They kept me coming back a couple more times to check, until Headquaters gave the ok to
tear the engine down.
Yes, it had a pin sized hole in one of the cylinder walls.
They replaced the engine at 23K miles, along with the catalytic converter.

I've also turned back Corsair USB drives (2-3) and the just sent me new ones.
Stopped buying them after the third one.
Turned back an EVGA video card that went out. Sent me a new one
Had an Antec power supply go bad. They also gave me a new PS.
Cree 3-way LED lights. ($25 each). At the time they had a 10 year warranty, which has since dropped to 5 years.
They replaced them multiple times and still all of them died within a year.
Most recently, a 1TB, Sandisk SSD. Replaced with a better model, without fanfare.

 

[Muadib]

I couldn't read my Seagate HDD. They exchanged it with no issue.

 

[balloonshark]

Samsung 840 ssd died on me and they sent me a refurb.

Cyberpower UPS died during an ice storm right before the warranty ended and they replaced it without much trouble.

 

[rommelrommel]

Hmm Arcteryx coats twice, maybe three times. Once a stitch got repaired and twice outright replacement/credit for a new item.

AppleCare for an iPhone screen.

Jet hand tools several times. Quite a few other tools, never had an issue with hand tools from other brands either.

Zero Tolerance knives, they’ve sent me parts a few times. Offered to replace some discontinued models with small issues with full value credit on new ones.

Lexus did a 10 year extended warranty for dash cracks which I used.

Asus motherboard.

Trijicon sights.

Marathon fixed my automatic watch twice under warranty.

Triple Aught Design for a t shirt that developed holes.

Sharp claims to have fixed my air purifier but I think it still has the same issue.

Linkyo toner cartridge... a plastic tab fell off and jammed my printer. They not only replaced the toner, they replaced the laser printer.

Costco refunded me for a Lukas dash cam that was still under warranty but Lukas wouldn’t fix.

Many other Costco returns.

Visa warranty for a brand new coat ruined by a spilled coffee.

RCBS replaced at least two vibratory tumblers for me.

Fenix warrantied a flashlight for me.

Peltor electronic earmuffs.

I tried to get warranty from both Morel and Morel USA over different speakers, shot down both times for flimsy reasons.

Zagg screen protector.

Overall most good, more of a shock when one goes bad.

 

[SKORPI0]

$380 Alternator still under the 3 year warranty. Had to pay labor to replace it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I haven't had to RMA or warranty much over the years, but I did take advantage of a Honda (dealer-installed) car battery, that had issues into year 2 or 3, IIRC. They replaced it at no charge.

Most PC parts, if I do have a failure, I just trash it, and buy another one. Life's too short to deal with the mental stress of an RMA dept of most major tech companies. EVGA probably the exception to the rule.

 

[Six]

Brand new Craftsman toolbox was missing a latch. Called Craftsman, only to be transferred to Stanley. Stanley said to email them the receipt and a picture of what's missing. Didn't hear from them again. Thought about returning the toolbox to Lowe's, but didn't want to go through all the effort. Then two weeks later, bam...brand new latch at my doorstep. I googled Stanley and looked at all their products. Customer for life....along with HP, Lexmark, Logitech, Microsoft, and Dell.