Dell LT150 - Don't Panic Yet!

Well those lawyers can talk to each other till they're blue in the face. Won't do em any good though.
Cause we've got Imo on our side

http://members.home.net/bobwood21/IM0.JPG


Bob


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~ The Sultan of Cheap ~


[This message has been edited by RobertWood (edited 07-24-2001).]

Imo what?


Imo' guy wit' a red cape?


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goosystems.com


Ken Hotte

[email protected]

Imo,


Has the authorized dealer/warranty policy ever been tested in court?


I've always held out that this is just a method of price fixing by the manufacturer to "protect the dealer" from someone who would sell the projector for less than the approved minimum amount. This sure doesn't feel legal.


--Les


[This message has been edited by arrow (edited 07-24-2001).]

In my salad years, I worked as a tech for a consumer electronics chain, who shall go nameless. We routinely were stiffed on warranty claims by all the major manufacturers; usually 10% were disallowed. The major reason was that the unit sold to a customer by another dealer was not new at all- it had already been sold and registered under another name.

(The major villian in this shall go nameless, although the phrase "Top of the hill, Daly City" should ring a few bells...)

What did we do? We ate the claims. We also created a lot of good will and future customers. Our service department was actually profitable, something unknown at that time. We did it by volume, and by parts sales. (Did you know that you could buy fuses by the _Case_, at a few cents apiece, and sell them for ~35 cents each- it adds up...)

Back then, warranty service on any electronic device was common, Tuners went out of alignment, output transistors blew often, tape mechanisms jammed easily, and ICs were notoriously sensitive to charge. Extended warranties were actually quite a good deal. Then.

Nowadays, warranty service is rare. Of _all_ the electronics that I've bought in the last ten years, I've only needed one warranty repair. It was handled courteously and expeditiously. (Thanks, Epson!)

If the LT150 has a history of being a turkey, by all means stay away. But from everything that I've heard, it is a well built little unit, and it is unlikely that any forum member will ever need warranty service, regardless of where it is bought.

I would go for the LT150 deal myself, but I have enough toys to keep me busy now, as it is...

apg

I don't know about that issue specifically, but speaking in generalities, there are two types of warranties - those which are express and those which are implied. An express warranty is essentially a creature of contract law, and they can generally contain any limitation the warrantor would like to include, such as making the warranty only valid for original purchasers (e.g. non-transferrable) or for units sold by authorized original vendors (which amounts to the same thing). This would typically be a valid limitation. Express warranties might also be made by the vendor, either in writing or verbally.


The other type of warranty is an implied warranty, which arises as an operation of law -- such as an implied warranty that a device will perform consistent with the intended manner. Usually, these warranties can be disclaimed if done so clearly and explicitly by the vendor (these are usually contained in the user manual or warranty card, and often times come along with a "limited" express warranty).


So the answer to your question is that in most situtations a manufacturer's limitation on an express warranty is valid, but there still may be issues as to implied warranties.


In this case, Dell evidently indicated that the product it was selling came with the 3 year manufacturer's warranty from NEC. If it doesn't, your recourse should be against Dell in contract for tendering a product that does not conform to its advertised specifications (that is, an NEC LT-150 with full warranty). There might also be implied warranty theories if something is, in fact, defective with the unit. Hope this helps.