FTC Says 'Warranty Void If Removed' Stickers Are Bullshit, Warns Manufacturers They're Breaking the Law

[SteveGrabowski0]

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne9qdq/warranty-void-if-removed-stickers-illegal-ftc

FTC Says 'Warranty Void If Removed' Stickers Are Bullshit, Warns Manufacturers They're Breaking the Law

Federal law says you can repair your own things, and manufacturers cannot force you to use their own repair services.

Matthew Gault
Apr 10 2018, 12:30pm
 

As we’ve reported before, it is bullshit and illegal under federal law for electronics manufacturers to put “Warranty Void if Removed” stickers on their gadgets, and it’s also illegal for companies to void your warranty if you fix your device yourself or via a third party.

 

The Federal Trade Commission put six companies on notice today, telling them in a warning letter that their warranty practices violate federal law. If you buy a car with a warranty, take it a repair shop to fix it, then have to return the car to the manufacturer, the car company isn’t legally allowed to deny the return because you took your car to another shop. The same is true of any consumer device that costs more than $15, though many manufacturers want you to think otherwise.

Companies such as Sony and Microsoft pepper the edges of their game consoles with warning labels telling customers that breaking the seal voids the warranty. That’s illegal. Thanks to the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, no manufacturer is allowed to put repair restrictions on a device it offers a warranty on. Dozens of companies do it anyway, and the FTC has put them on notice. Apple, meanwhile, routinely tells customers not to use third party repair companies, and aftermarket parts regularly break iPhones due to software updates.

 

"The letters warn that FTC staff has concerns about the companies’ statements that consumers must use specified parts or service providers to keep their warranties intact," the FTC wrote in a press release. "Unless warrantors provide the parts or services for free or receive a waiver from the FTC, such statements generally are prohibited by the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a law that governs consumer product warranties. Similarly, such statements may be deceptive under the FTC Act."

 

The FTC hasn’t said which six companies it sent letters to, just that they “market and sell automobiles, cellular devices, and video gaming systems in the United States.” When we originally wrote about the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which prohibits the “tying” of a consumer good to a certain type of replacement part, several people suggested that maybe consumer electronics companies weren’t covered under the law. With Tuesday’s action, the FTC has made clear that all consumer electronics that cost more than $15 are covered.

“Provisions that tie warranty coverage to the use of particular products or services harm both consumers who pay more for them as well as the small businesses who offer competing products and services,” Thomas B. Pahl—Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection—said in a press release.

 

We asked the FTC for more information about the companies that it sent the letter to, but it would not say. It’s a safe bet that Sony and Microsoft are two of them, though—the Playstation 4 and Xbox One video game consoles both come with stickers that claim opening the device voids the warranty. Apple’s slick design precludes such stickers, but Apple Geniuses are trained to look for the signs of consumer meddling and will sometimes decline warranty service if it’s been repaired by an owner or third party (we’ve heard mixed things on this; customers have had many different experiences at Apple Stores. In any case, Apple does discourage people from having third parties fix their devices.)

 

The companies have 30 days to update their websites and comply with U.S. federal law before the FTC takes further action. The commission hasn’t enforced warranty law with an electronics manufacturer yet, but it has used MMWA as a hammer in court before. In 2015, it settled out of court with BMW when the car manufacturer forced consumers to use authorized dealers to get repairs on its MINI line of automobiles.

 

I bought an Xbox 360 when it first launched and ran into the infamous “red ring of death.” I attempted to fix the problem myself and had to use online video tutorials and a hair dryer to keep the seal intact because I was terrified Microsoft wouldn’t repair my system if I needed to send it in. Back then, I felt as I was breaking the law, but it was actually Microsoft that was in violation.

 

I hope these warning letters are a nail in the coffin of stickers that freak out people who don’t know any better and just want their devices to work.
 

 

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My commentary: About freaking time we see some kind of action on the right to repair. It pisses me off so much that I have to break these stickers just to open up my PS4/PS3/360 and clean the dust out in order to keep them in top working order. These consoles can have the most trivial and cheap to fix problems, like when my 360's disc tray wouldn't open. The fix was pulling a band off that connected two gears on the opening mechanism and cleaning the band with a Q-tip and some rubbing alcohol. I was able to do it without opening the system but it was a huge pain in the ass to do it that way and would have been much easier if I could have just opened the system and removed the drive. But I couldn't imagine paying $100 plus for someone to clean a fucking band and put it back in place.

[dcgreen2k]

It's about time...

[iamdarkyoshi]

Dammit, I was just about to post this

 

This is awesome though.

[GDRRiley]

great. Stick it to them FTC, don't get bought like the FCC

 

[DrMacintosh]

I'm going to go against the tide here again. 

 

if I were a company and I was forced to service people who open their device, break it, and send it back to me and expect me to fix it without knowing what the hell they have done to it and being unable to rule out their hand in breaking the device.....I would not be very happy. 

 

Not so sure how I feel about this. 

[Arika]

note: the FTC didn't actually say the stickers are "Bullshit" in their warning letter and official releases. though that would have been quite amusing

[Drak3]

Quite frankly, these companies should be able to exercise their right to refuse warranty claims on products that have had unverifiable parties work on them. There is no way to assure who's competent with a soldering iron and who's a jack jawed moron that can't tell his dick from Bach's works.

[ARikozuM]

5 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Not so sure how I feel about this. 

Unless the item is broken beyond doubt by the owner's hand, warranty should still apply. Any company that puts a product out, and derives profit from it, should be able to fix things without charging exorbitant amounts of money (i.e. Asus wanting $90 just to replace a BIOS chip, not including the actual installation). 

[DrMacintosh]

5 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Quite frankly, these companies should be able to exercise their right to refuse warranty claims on products that have had unverifiable parties work on them. There is no way to assure who's competent with a soldering iron and who's a jack jawed moron that can't tell his dick from Bach's works.

Yeah, I think this could become a major thorn in companies sides. 

[WereCatf]

11 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I'm going to go against the tide here again. 

 

if I were a company and I was forced to service people who open their device, break it, and send it back to me and expect me to fix it without knowing what the hell they have done to it and being unable to rule out their hand in breaking the device.....I would not be very happy. 

 

Not so sure how I feel about this. 

Companies aren't required to do jack shit about any failures that result from the owner and/or another 3rd-party doing something to the item, only defects that originate with the manufacturing company, and it's usually pretty easy to tell the difference, so this doesn't really change that much in that regards.

[DrMacintosh]

8 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Unless the item is broken beyond doubt by the owner's hand, warranty should still apply.

That is what these stickers were for. The user can't have been responsible if the sticker is intact or the water damage sensors have not been set off. (In theory)

 

Without those typed of measures its impossible to know if the user opened the product and broke it themselves and sent it in expecting a in-warranty repair when they should not be getting one. 

 

The more I think about it the less I think what the FTC is doing is the entirely the right thing. 

[Zodiark1593]

6 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I'm going to go against the tide here again. 

 

if I were a company and I was forced to service people who open their device, break it, and send it back to me and expect me to fix it without knowing what the hell they have done to it and being unable to rule out their hand in breaking the device.....I would not be very happy. 

 

Not so sure how I feel about this. 

For items such as automobiles, such a ruling makes sense, as the components are distinctive enough that it is easy enough to tell what has been messed with, and what hasn't. Likewise, if the customer had borked something themselves and went in for warranty repair, it would also be easier to uncover, and charge accordingly.

 

A small, highly complex and integrated device would be more difficult to put under the same laws. Physical and liquid damage are easy enough to assess and make a judgement upon, however, in the event that board-level repairs have been made, an employee may be required to read through schematics (potentially for numerous devices) to see what has been tampered with, and determine if the third-party repairs are the cause for the device coming in. Not exactly rocket science, but certainly above the pay grade of the average "Genius".

 

In all cases however, I would favor an " innocent until proven otherwise" approach be taken when it is at question as to whether or not the device was damaged by the customer/third-party. With warranty work, the warranty will cover the repairs unless there is definitive evidence of damage for reasons other than a defect or design fault. In the latter event, customer gets charged for repairs and diagnosis.

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

A small, highly complex and integrated device would be more difficult to put under the same laws. Physical and liquid damage are easy enough to assess and make a judgement upon, however, in the event that board-level repairs have been made, an employee may be required to read through schematics (potentially for numerous devices) to see what has been tampered with, and determine if the third-party repairs are the cause for the device coming in. Not exactly rocket science, but certainly above the pay grade of the average "Genius".

True, these measures are there to essentially save the companies the time and the money of paying people to go through the devices shipped to them to check if the service request is legit or not. 

[ARikozuM]

3 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

That is what these stickers were for. The user can't have been responsible if the sticker is intact or the water damage sensors have not been set off. (In theory)

Water-sensors: I've had them go off just by being in my pocket in tragically wonderfully humid Florida.

 

If the companies won't hold themselves responsible for servicing, they need to make parts accessible both on price and quantity, i.e. not charging $300 for a laptop screen. 

 

If third-party well-renowned repair stores aren't capable of providing service that keeps the warranty active, we lose out on a major market and we give more power to larger corporations. As electronics become more complex and privatized, we need a bigger push for openness of inner workings (schematics, troubleshooting, and repair methods) from companies so that we aren't left to their whims only. 

[Blebekblebek]

Stickers usually just indicator (a hard prove) to indicate how or when warranty ends/start.

 

it is bullshit, specially when the stickers it self is fragile or put in critical spot such as cmos battery or worse, processor latch.

I've seen all spots that are actually stupid to put stickers on and yet they do it anyway

 

" Have problems? we put stickers on top cmos battery so you can't reset it, still want to do it? you'll break your warranty, and it's not our problem anymore "

" You buy motherboard from us, great... so we put stickers on processor latch, so if you installed processor which didn't came from our store/products you are no longer eligible for warranty "

 

Some even goes further by putting warranty stickers on the case it self.

 

[suicidalfranco]

Just do what Apple does and brick the device with an update

[Guest The Viking]

This is a good thing.

 

There's also two sides to it:

 

If you, the consumer, decides to mess around with your stuff and break it even more, then your problem. But maybe you're used to fixing your own stuff? Not many of us have the actual knowledge (more like, the actual balls) to play around with our expensive phones or tablets or laptops and would prefer going to the warranty first before voiding it on a 700+ euros device.

 

Where I see this being a good thing is for third-party repair shops. I've been already in a situation where I had to have a power supply checked, but had the stupid sticker on. Took it to a random repair shop (which I used to visit in the past anyway so I know it's not run by some weirdos) and got the issue fixed, but I wouldn't have been able to go via official support, being in a different country than the country of purchase. Obviously, now the sticker is broken so for the manufacturer the warranty is voided, but, common.

 

Manufacturers are now going to start doing things the Apple way: put glue EVERYWHERE.

4 minutes ago, suicidalfranco said:

Just do what Apple does and brick the device with an update

or that. Or even better, do both.

[vorticalbox]

1 hour ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

Apple, meanwhile, routinely tells customers not to use third party repair companies, and aftermarket parts regularly break iPhones due to software updates.

 

Advising customers that third party repairs may break ios on updates (which it can due to changes is touch ID, I believe) is not the same as voiding a warranty becuase of a thirs party repair.

[Dionyz]

There are very few cases that a consumer opens the device to fix it and breaks it... To be fair the problem shouldn't be up to the consumer to fix, but they are being nice about it, so they are not wasting the other person's time or they do not want to pay return shipping to fix their device. 

 

I am for the FTC doing this. I always thought it was a stupid to deny people from opening up their devices. It's your device, so if it's poorly put together that something can break in the process of opening up then the manufactures should use better materials. If it's breaking the casing then it's fine since the product is 100% functional but it's your dumb ass fault for breaking it.

[8uhbbhu8]

Hahahahahaa! Finally!! Good!

[vorticalbox]

6 minutes ago, Dionyz said:

If it's breaking the casing then it's fine since the product is 100% functional but it's your dumb ass fault for breaking it.

Not always sometimes you get the dump pressure clips that break when ever you unlock them.

[Canada EH]

Signs are made for dumb people to not sue its that simple really. So a sticker is no different. For instance, I was walking downtown today and there were signs on the sidewalk that said "Be Careful, Falling Ice and Snow" I still walked where the ice/snow would have fallen. Now other companies go as far as putting up signs and a Caution ribbon along entire length. Either way they are 100% to blame because they did not shovel the snow and ice off the sloped roof.

 

I believe they will still use the stickers to scare people off.

[Doobeedoo]

That's great, those annoying stickers that are on places like over screws or door lids. 

[TechyBen]

7 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

That is what these stickers were for. The user can't have been responsible if the sticker is intact or the water damage sensors have not been set off. (In theory)

 

Without those typed of measures its impossible to know if the user opened the product and broke it themselves and sent it in expecting a in-warranty repair when they should not be getting one. 

 

The more I think about it the less I think what the FTC is doing is the entirely the right thing. 

In theory they can still use the stickers. They just cannot write "warranty void if removed", they can only write "warranty void if removed and you trash the system". So now they will have to check if any parts touched/replaced. Where as before, the sticker falling off/tearing is enough to refuse warranty.

 

(I guess, I'm no layer )

[NMS]

Good. The stickers are pure garbage anyway. Not only it's easy to remove them, but I had quite a few stickers falling off on their own over time.

I'm looking at you MSI for putting a small sticker over one of the 4 screws on the GTX 1050 that falls off in few weeks>.>