Why is it that computer hardware manufacturers charge us for one-way shipping on RMAs? When I needed to RMA a Western Digitial HDD, I had to pay for shipping. Now, I am having to RMA my Asrock A380 video card, and I have to pay for shipping. Also I am responsible for ensuring that the card is packaged appropriately so that it doesn’t get damaged, but I cannot use the original packaging - what the fuck. I am a little frustrated right now. It’s not like I wanted the video card’s fan to fail so that I could get free a free replacement and free service. From the consumer’s perspective it is highly inconvenient because I have to take my card out and ship it to them for who knows how long. And during that whole time I cannot use that computer. At least, with it being an Arc card it’s not my main system. I got it to encode the media that I rip for backing up to my homelab in AV1. But also, I wanted to use the windows system on it for school exams. (I dual boot between it and Linux).
And while I am at it I want to complain about Google. I have a Google Pixel 6, and before that I had a Google Pixel 3a. When I bought my Google Pixel 6, I ordered Google Preferred Care to go with it (which is essentially insurance). When I dropped my phone and broke the screen, I was surprised to discover that I still had to pay a deductible. That is bullshit in my opinion.
Now let’s talk about my justification for these complaints. First, I have had extended warranty + accidental damage protection since I bought my Lenovo ThinkPad T480 in July, 2018. It just ran out as a matter of fact. Every time I have sent my device in for repair, it has been free - even if it was a case of accidental damage protection. I have even been able to convince them to send me parts instead of me having to ship my device to them a few times. Conversely, I have Apple Care+ on my iPad. Originally, I went to Best Buy when my Apple Pencil failed. They told me that it wasn’t covered since I didn’t buy the Apple Pencil at the same time I bought the iPad. That didn’t track with what I read when I bought the coverage, so I went directly to Apple instead. Part of the Apple Care+ service is that you get priority support from Apple. I felt that I received that from Apple when I contacted them about the issue. They took me to an Apple store to get the serial number from the Apple Pencil where I was then able to call Apple Care support and get it associated with my coverage. Then they replaced my Apple Pencil with no deductible. Also, I had noticed something during all of this that made me ask the Apple Store associate if my device’s battery would be covered under Apple Care. He told me that, yes it would if it failed their test. As a person that follows Louis Rossmann, I know we often give Apple a lot of well-deserved criticism; but this, at least, they do right and they deserve to be acknowledged for it.
Your contract is with the store that sold you the goods, not the manufacturer. So your first port of call when stuff fails, is the store you bought it from. You don’t have a contract with said manufacturer, even though their logo is on it, they made it and shipped it out to the store you bought it from. Legally, they have nothing to do with you, it’s the store that’s responsible to get the defective good(s), send them to their contract upstream to have it either replaced or repaired. If the store fails to do that for any reason, even/especially if legally obligated to do so, you may try to claim your costs from said store. But that’s a legal swamp I’m not going in to! (besides: IANAL!)