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A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
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Previous: Pedestrian mall benches | Main | Next: Unsubscribe button
November 23, 2004 12:02 AM
Broken: "Lifetime" warranty
Mark Makower writes:
I just purchased an IConcepts Optical Mouse. The package says it comes with a "limited lifetime warranty". However, inside the package, it seems IConcepts defines "limited lifetime" as "two years". See attached scan of warranty details.
Yargh! Sounds like they're trying to tell you something, buddy. Better make sure your insurance is paid up.
Seriously, folks - I'm starting to think the joke's on us with This Is Broken. It's THIS IS BROKEN that is broken, not the things it's pointing to -- and that's the joke, get it?
"Lifetime" and "Limited Lifetime" have very specific legal meanings, and ones that have absolutely nothing to do with human lifespans or human lives. Nothing broken here.
Its like "dog-years", but these are "Optical Mouse-years." One "Optical Mouse-year" equals roughly 40 human years.
I'm with Daniel. This site is getting more and more pathetic... I'm starting to think that, hey, maybe a ton of stuff is pretty well-designed since the best usability problem people can find is slightly misleading warranty wording and Amazon advertising.
I'll tell you what's broken, it's when people take the time to whine about things not being broken enough.
Run, man! That mouse has nanobots in it that slowly eat through your desk and make the mouse teeth and arms! After two years it will leap on your neck, kill you, and lay its horrible eggs on you! Aaaah!
Okay, I sound like a bad movie.
My brother and I bought a trainset with a "lifetime warranty," that was restricted to things that were broken straight from the box. So if something was broken to begin with, fine, but if something broke later, the lifetime warranty becomes useless.
Daniel, aren't you the same guy who claimed that there was nothing wrong with a label that said that a product somehow simultaneously contained sodium and did not contain sodium?
If the law allows a product to advertise a "lifetime" warranty, but then defines "lifetime" as two years, then I say the law is broken. Why don't they have to call it a "limited 2-year warranty" right up front?
The implication that this site is "pathetic" because not enough people know that when a company says "lifetime" they actually mean "two years"? Is broken.
i may be stating the obiouse but maybe they just charge for labor after the two years but it is still covered under the warranty?
I just stumbled across this website and thought it was pretty cool....till I saw how snipey some of the "comments" were....what's with the "Getting a little tire of the self-appointed "Broken" police"???? Is this site not called *This is broken*?? Just what did you expect? Why are you here if you don't like it?
And this site isn't pathetic....I like it.
Actually, I think the person who made that comment was as irritated as you are with the sniping. They were referring to the whiners as the "self-appointed police". :)
But I think marian was referring to the fact that everyone seems to be complaining about something, even if they're complaining about the whiners (which makes them kinda hyprocritical, alone with the rest of us).
Could the whiners and whinees please pay more attention to their typing as it's the speeling on this page which is broken.
I worked in promotions and fulfillment for a while (including warranty registration) and even a "full" lifetime warranty is only required by law to cover a product for 7 years. I've told so many family and friends- If you're given the choice beteween a "lifetime" warranty and a 15 year warranty, ALWAYS choose the 15 year.
Hi. I work for a company that´s interested in set a Life Time Warranty for a new and performed product. Could somebody tell me or teach me about this issue? bucause if I read well, this words means problems in a near future. Please if i am mistaken tell me something about it as soon as you can.
Regards
Marco Milan
Unless you have Pituraty Gigantiosis (I read- a lot), I think it means the life of the product, not you.
this product is obviously VERY dangerous and is killing you slowly right now as we speak.
Throw it out of your nearest window and burn it just to be on the safe side
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"Lifetime" I have taken to mean "Lifetime of the product, once it is dead, so is the warranty." That is what it really means...
Posted by: Thorny at November 23, 2004 12:57 AM