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Warranty - Can seller just refer buyer to the manufacturer?

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I had bought a network drive from OcUK last year, and in short it quit working.

Yesterday I sent them a webnote, expecting the usual answer where they give me an RMA number etc.

Instead I got this:
please contact the manufacturer directly via www.lacie.com/uk/support/ they will cover the warranty for you.

Can they do this? Isn't my relationship only with the guy from whom I bought? And not with the manufacturer from whom the seller bought?

Lol what next? Lacie will then tell me to contact the manufacturer of their pcb in china or whatever? Or some guy who manufactured the hdd plate in singapore?

:shadedshu
 
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Maybe they are the company responsible for importing and distributing said products. It works like that in my country, don't know for the EU though.
 
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I had bought a network drive from OcUK last year, and in short it quit working.

Yesterday I sent them a webnote, expecting the usual answer where they give me an RMA number etc.

Instead I got this:

Can they do this? Isn't my relationship only with the guy from whom I bought? And not with the manufacturer from whom the seller bought?

Lol what next? Lacie will then tell me to contact the manufacturer of their pcb in china or whatever? Or some guy who manufactured the hdd plate in singapore?

:shadedshu

This is typical. Take Newegg for example. They may cover a 30 day refund or replacement warranty for a particular product, and then the manufacturer warranty kicks in. In some case Newegg will cover longer, but not always.
 
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It depends on where you buy it and how you buy it.

If you did not pay for extended warranty, yep, that's normal. They can and will do that.

Newegg does it. NCIX does it. All major computer retailers in my country do it. Few offers "Extended warranty" where you need to pay a certain amount of money. Advantage of 3rd party warranty is that the store where you bought your stuff will handle RMA directly and normally replaces your defective goods right away even after initial 30 days.
 
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Ouf this is going to get complicated...

I sent an email to LaCie support, and this is the reply I got:

Afternoon

Below is a link to a trouble shooting section for this product on our website.

http://www.lacie.com/uk/support/index.htm

If you are still finding that you cannot solve the problem then you would need to raise an online ticket and our support team can assist you.

In order to raise a ticket you will need to go to the support and downloads drop down menu and click on my account. You will need to raise a new account entering your email address and a password. You will be asked to register your product and then click on the tab support tickets and then on the right you can create a new support ticket. Here you will be required to complete information about the drive. You will then be given a ticket number. The technical team will reply to the ticket within 24 hours, add on your response and they will help as much as they can

To register the product they ask you for the serial number. Now the serial number was on a sticker on the cardboard box containing the drive.....
I can't find the box now, I fear it's been thrown away :(

It would suck if my proof of purchase from OcUK is not sufficient to rma the drive and they continue with this red tape!
 
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Hm, there should be a serial number somewhere on the enclosure ... Well, should be.

I own a few external USB HDDs as well and they all have a serial number either by a sticker or painted. My NAS drives also have their serial numbers on them.
 

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Don't know how it works in the EU, but that is pretty common in the US. Even with newegg, they only will deal with product RMAs for a certainly period of time, then you have to take it up with the manufacturer for any warranty issues. The warranty after all is from the manufacturer, not the place you bought it.

There definitely should be a sticker on the drive itself also, I don't think I've ever seen an external drive not have the sticker on the drive itself.
 
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Hm, there should be a serial number somewhere on the enclosure ... Well, should be.

I own a few external USB HDDs as well and they all have a serial number either by a sticker or painted. My NAS drives also have their serial numbers on them.

:ohwell: There is nothing.

It did have a code which I had to verify online through their website in order to get it to function as a NAS. It's a code like the key code of a game which you verify online - and I had done that. I still got the sticker stuck to the manual. But it wasn't the serial number obviously.
 
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Email them again and tell them you simply can't provide them with a serial number as THEY did not affix one to their product.
 

PC-Myths

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...There definitely should be a sticker on the drive itself also, I don't think I've ever seen an external drive not have the sticker on the drive itself.

I've actually come across a few people who have These WD's and I've never noticed a sticker on the drive.
 
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I encountered the first glitch even before arriving to the serial number issue!

To rma with LaCie UK I have to register the product. To register they demand my UK address and zip code.
I cannot even register the HDD since I'm not in the UK!

I contacted OcUK once again sending them this:

Please forward this to Mr Dean Hillier.


Dear Mr Hillier, I followed your instructions. However rma'ing with LaCie UK is not possible for me. I sent them an email and they specified that to rma I have to register my product, a prerequisite for which is giving them my UK address and zip code. This is not possible for me since I live in Malta and not in the UK.
Please advise.
 
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:ohwell: There is nothing.

It did have a code which I had to verify online through their website in order to get it to function as a NAS. It's a code like the key code of a game which you verify online - and I had done that. I still got the sticker stuck to the manual. But it wasn't the serial number obviously.

Darn, when some brands go for looks, they sometimes omit such important things as serial numbers. :shadedshu
 
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Darn, when some brands go for looks, they sometimes omit such important things as serial numbers. :shadedshu

And to think I'd have preferred a black one instead of the white.... :ohwell:

I also replied back to LaCie...

I was never able to register my product since to register I have to provide a UK address and zip code.
I live in Malta (EU) so it's not possible for me to register with a UK address and zip code.

Can you kindly advise on what I should do?

I remember now that I had tried to register the drive when I received it. I arrived at the point of opening an account (I found my email address already used and asked for my lost password to be emailed to me) and now I remember that I had given up on the registration because they kept asking me for a UK address....
 
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I do sympathize, however the rules are pretty simple on my side of the world. (I've had my share of nightmares trying to get Samsung to take responsibility for anything they have ever made)

It is a well accepted trade practice where I live that your warranty is with the devices manufacturer, and not the retailer who has nothing to do with its design or construction.

The retailer usually has a short 14 day return policy in the event that the device was SOLD faulty to begin with, however failing this, its between you and the people who made it, to sort out the issue.

It can be a real bitch depending on who, and how customer services oriented that manufacturer is, but honestly if the retailer had to carry any and all costs of returns and faults over the entire warranty lifetime of every product they ever sold, could you POSSIBLY imagine what kinds of prices they would have to charge?

It would be totally unreasonable - see the recent rash of US electronics stores who DID try and take on this responsibility at standard rates, and are collapsing in on themselves.
 
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Nice link Panther, was just going to say that they should have an international site.
 

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Ouf this is going to get complicated...

I sent an email to LaCie support, and this is the reply I got:



To register the product they ask you for the serial number. Now the serial number was on a sticker on the cardboard box containing the drive.....
I can't find the box now, I fear it's been thrown away :(

It would suck if my proof of purchase from OcUK is not sufficient to rma the drive and they continue with this red tape!

I made a habit of keeping the boxes of products i bought (electronic stuff only): it helps with re-selling, RMAing and with SNs as well. If you have no room to keep the boxes, break the bottom of them and simply fold them. Replacing the styrofoam could be a problem if you plan on sending by mail heavy stuff such as a CRT monitor, though (i sold my 19" CRT after having it for over 4 years and sent it by mail: had the box and the styrofoam to send it in).

I hope you manage to sort out this problem.
 
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OK I"m getting to someplace thanks to Pantherx12's link.

To register the hdd and open an rma ticket I need either to input the serial number (which I don't have) or the Item Number (SKU).

Now if I only knew what "Item Number (SKU)" means....
 
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SKU = Stock-keeping unit

Not very handy in this situation if you have no numbers printed on your piece of hardware.
 
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The laws are different per country, in .nl it's always the stores problem. They can not refer you to the manufacturer. Perhaps there is some European regulation on this, comparing the States (newegg) is pointless though. Their lwas are 100% irrelevant outside of the US.
 

vbx

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You bought a product from said company last year, and you expect them to cover you? If a product craps on you after 1 year, the seller isn't responsible, unless you purchased a warranty thru them.

So yes, the right thing for them to do was refer you to the manufacturer.

I purchased a monitor from TigerDirect. I complained about "blacklight" bleeding right when I got it. They told me to contract the manufacturer.
 

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Be persistant with OCUK. They told my friend they had to go RMA it with AMD because they couldn't replace it. If you keep causing them an inconvenience they will RMA it.
 
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You bought a product from said company last year, and you expect them to cover you? If a product craps on you after 1 year, the seller isn't responsible, unless you purchased a warranty thru them.

So yes, the right thing for them to do was refer you to the manufacturer.

I purchased a monitor from TigerDirect. I complained about "blacklight" bleeding right when I got it. They told me to contract the manufacturer.

I ordered on 22nd April and product arrived early May 2009. Covered with a one year warranty ( doubt if it was 2 years but let's assume it was 1 year for the argument's sake)
On their website when I placed my order it just stated the warranty, making no mention of the manufacturer being liable in any instance.

The laws are different per country, in .nl it's always the stores problem. They can not refer you to the manufacturer. Perhaps there is some European regulation on this, comparing the States (newegg) is pointless though. Their lwas are 100% irrelevant outside of the US.

That's the way it is here too, being also EU members. I import car body repair products myself (paints/fillers/hardmetals/sealers and the like). If one of my clients has a problem he always deals with me. I can't just tell him to contact Greece, Italy, France or Spain!
I deal with the problem myself, verify whether he had the product on the shelf for too long and it expired, if not I verify whether the product was misused (like wrong mixing ratio, or mixing with the wrong product or not allowing the suggested curing time for the paint, or using the wrong product for the suggested ambient temperatures), by sending samples to our laboratories...

@ vbx, the product didn't crap on me after one year but well before.

This drive quit working for me since January 18th when I first made this post.
It was only after I had no choice on how to get it to work again that I started worrying and considering rma possibilities.

Now time's running tight and I'm risking both OcUK and LaCie saying that my 'warranty' expired and I just got to bear the brunt of it all... :/
 
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