QUOTE(n0v1ce @ Oct 18 2011, 12:33 AM)
I hv seen few cases of distributors not entertaining warranty claim frm end-user.
I somewhat feel that it is rather unfair esp. for those bought online.
So may I know which distributor will accept warranty claim frm end-user rather than thru reseller?
Hopefully someone could enlighten me so that I know which brand I buy next time.
Thanks for your time

This is what I 'think' or to make it simply, IMHO regarding the matter;
Every item that your purchased may or may not carry a warranty coverage by its manufacturer. The manufacturer deserve the 'RIGHT' to acknowledge or reject any warranty claims that breaches their Terms and Condition and the most common problem when dealing with warranty, is where to send?
Well, certain manufacturers have a policy of 'NOT' accepting direct warranty claims from the end-user because of these several complication:
1. The item may not come from a legitimate source (such as stolen, refurbished items, cloned items, etc) or have a legitimate claim of sale to the consumer.
2. Manufacturer often provide each and every distributors of their product with service manual, repair guide, troubleshooting guides and so on for every item that they carry. Some manufacturer also trains the local distro technician to rectify the problem or to analyze whether or not the product is faulty due to manufacturing problems or consumer error in handling the equipment.
3. Certain manufacturer have 2 or more Distributor for the same brands of their product, meaning Company A is responsible for distributing Asus Notebooks, while Company B only sells motherboards and monitors. FOR SURE you CANT send your faulty notebooks to Company B or vice versa... But this an example for brands without a local Service Center which is usually managed by the manufacturer themselves in respective countries or regional offices (ASUS is just for example not a fact).
4. By sending direct to distro, they cant check the start date of the warranty. Why do I say this? Because, lets face it, you can just simply bring a 1 year plus item to the distro (which hasnt got a serial number on it for instance) and ask them for warranty coverage with a false proof of purchase (dated for example just 6 month old)! This is why, the distro will reject warranty request direct from end-user. Its making their life even harder and its not something that they would want.
5. By purchasing from a NON-Authorized reseller, some Manufacturers will indeed void the warranty of your product regardless if its just 1 minute old. Authorized reseller carry more than just fancy shops decos and a not-so-bargain price. They are the ones who handles your warranty and because you paid 'premium' price, they will happily entertain you (will there are some bad apples dealers which are so stupid to think about it, they just take cash from customer and ignoring when there is a problem). If you pay cheap, you get cheap treatment, and believe me when I say, the service you get from a non-authorized BMW dealer isn't the same as you get buying from Auto Bavaria or other BMW Authorized dealers. You pay peanuts, you get monkeys...
6. By going thru the dealers, the item will be screened by the dealer (who receives a manual from the distro to look for this and that when accepting warranty from end-user) and it will increase the chance of "Error-by-end-user-because-they-are-not-trained-to-service-the-product"....Most of the time, END USERS complain this not working that doesn't work, but in reality, they are just plain lazy to read or understand the true capabilities of their product...like for instance:
-A noob rich college kid wants to impress his friends by purchasing a Corsair Dom GT 2133 to use for his newly acquired i7 rig...but as soon as he finishes popping the ram modules into the slots, he is SHOCKED to see that after booting into windows, his memory speed is just 1333! Furiously he called Distro or Manufacturer to complain, sending emails and print screening it and post it on forums that he lurks...Which in fact, due to his noobness, he should first ask the dealer on how to operate the modules and getting it up to speed, but because he is so ignorant and arrogant, thinking that he is the smartest person on earth, he makes noise, bla bla bla bla....But in the beginning, its his fault because he DRTFM!
#disclaimer: the simply story above isnt about anyone here in LYN so no need to debate on whats what...
7. I cant think anymore...too sleepy, i hope you can understand a bit