August 8, 2006 |
ISSN 1550-9214 |
Peripheral Warranties:With computer printers and monitors, older technologies frequently get longer warranties than new. And while one would think higher prices mean longer warranties, that doesn't seem to be the case.As is the custom with truck engines, transmissions and chassis, computer monitors and printers usually carry their own warranties, separate and distinct from the central processing unit to which they attach. That is, unless the CPU is a notebook or tablet PC, in which case the monitor is built into the package. In our continuing tour of the warranted product landscape, this week we take a look at the surprising variations in two types of computer peripherals: printers and monitors. What's most surprising is that, depending upon the vendor, the product's warranty can last anywhere from 90 days to four years. And the products carrying the longest warranties aren't always the most expensive or the most richly-featured. What's also surprising is that sometimes, the most expensive units in a particular vendor's product line carry shorter warranties than some of the midrange units. For instance, with LCD computer monitors in particular, a 23-inch screen might have a shorter warranty than a 17-inch screen, and it might cost two or three times as much. And some of the longest warranties are attached to the old tube-type CRT monitors, which frequently are among the cheapest units of all. Oldest Technologies Last Longest?It's as if the manufacturers are telling us that CRT monitors last the longest and are the cheapest to make. LCD models cost more and don't last as long, and the largest LCDs cost the most and have the shortest lives. A similar story can be seen with printers. What some call impact printers and others call dot-matrix printers are the oldest technology on the market. Yet some have the longest warranties in a given product line, along with some of the lowest prices. Ink jet models are somewhat more expensive, and LED or laser printers are the most expensive of all. Yet there are numerous cases of units priced well over $1,000 that carry one-year warranties, and there are a handful of units priced at a few hundred dollars that carry two- or even three-year warranties. Let's start with monitors. The list that follows contains a sampling of the wares of 12 of the largest computer monitor vendors. The vendors are listed alphabetically. Their products are listed in ascending order, based first on the length of their warranties, and then on their price. But the prices aren't listed, because some are manufacturers' list prices while others are actual retail process. And some of those prices include rebates. And this is not a shopper's guide as much as it is a warranty guide. In addition, none of these lists are comprehensive. What we tried to do was collect a representative sample of CRT, LCD, and plasma units -- low end and high end, small screen and large screen -- to illustrate a the variations in a given company's warranty periods. In some cases, all a given company's units carry the same warranty period. Some feature on-site repairs and/or exchanges, while others require drop-offs or mail-aways. So while it appears that three years is the standard monitor warranty, there are other differences for a customer to consider. One Warranty Fits AllIn the following list, six vendors assign the same warranty period to all their monitors while the other six blend a mixture of one-, two-, three-, and even some four-year warranties. It was somewhat surprising to not find any monitors with 90-day warranties, because there are some such cases in the television category that we'll get around to detailing in a future consumer electronics list. Also unlike in the consumer electronics industry, there were no monitors found that carried different warranty periods for parts and labor. However, there were a handful of cases where specific components carried shorter warranties than the rest of the unit. For instance, Sony offers a two-year warranty on parts and labor for some of its large LCD and plasma display models, but only a one-year warranty on the actual screen. Rather than load this list up with asterisks and footnotes, we listed just the overall parts and labor warranty periods. And then there were a few vendors that went into some detail about exactly when a defect becomes a warranty claim. Samsung, for instance, has a specific policy concerning the point at which bad pixels rise to the level of a warrantable repair or replacement. "Since a 15 inch LCD display contains 2,359,296 pixels, a 19 inch LCD display contains 3,932,160 pixels, and a 24 inch LCD display contains 6,912,000 pixels, having a few bad pixels is not considered a defect," the company states. For it to be considered a defect, a 15-inch monitor must have at least seven bad pixels. A 17- or 19-inch model must have at least 10 bad pixels, and a 21- to 24-inch monitor must have 17 or more bad pixels. Computer Monitor Warranties
There were a few curious cases among these entries. For instance, HP sells the FS7600e for $100 with a one-year warranty, and sells the s7540 and the v7650 for $139 and $159, respectively. The first carries a one-year warranty, while the second and third carry a three-year term, despite their comparable bargain prices. Meanwhile, all four HP flat screens carry higher list prices than any of the CRT units, yet only two of them have three-year warranties. However, most of these differences have more to do with the way HP segments its products into separate business and consumer lines. The company assures Warranty Week that it has nothing to do with the relative reliabilities of tube vs. flat screen. Gateway's FPD2185W monitor carries a $500 list price and a one-year warranty, while the FPD1785 and FPD1985 sell for less and have longer warranties. NEC gives all its 15- to 20-inch screens a three- or four-year warranty, but its 23-inch units get only a year. ViewSonic has a "value series" unit that sells for $179 yet has a three-year warranty, and has three units priced higher than that which carry a one-year warranty. Planar has six units selling for less than $1,000 and four selling for more, but three of those four carry only a one-year warranty, including the largest of all, the 42-inch PD42ED plasma display. It's a similar story at Sony, where three large screens sell for $2,000 and up with a two-year warranty, and five sell for less than $1,000 yet carry a three-year warranty. And unlike NEC, Sony gives its 23-inch SDM-P234/B unit a three-year warranty. Printer WarrantiesIt gets even more curious with computer printers. Here, we did find a unit with only a 90-day warranty, and both came from Dell Inc. Granted, the units also are bargains with list prices below $100, but Epson, Canon, HP, and Lexmark have each assigned at least one-year warranties to their sub-$100 units. No doubt, such a short warranty makes it easier to sell an extended service plan, but then the unit's no longer such a bargain. This list also is displayed in alphabetical order in terms of vendors, and then in ascending order for warranty periods and prices. That's why Oki's Microline 320 Turbo impact printer is listed first, because its $156 street price is the lowest in the line. But notice that its Microline 590 and 421 impact printers are listed last, because of their respective two- and three-year warranties. This happens in spite of their $249 and $309 street prices, which are lower than six of the eight units that carry one-year warranties. Unlike with computer monitors, there aren't many printers that carry a three-year warranty. In fact, the Brother and Canon units with three-year warranties are so-called all-in-one units that combine printer, copier, scanner, and sometimes fax functionality. But there are numerous other vendors whose all-in-one units carry only one-year warranties. And there are 13 printers and/or all-in-ones with list or street prices above $1,000 that carry only one-year warranties, including the Lexmark X854e MFP, priced at $16,999; the Oki C9800hdn color laser printer, priced at $6,111; and the Xerox Phaser 7750 color laser printer, priced at $6,799. And then there are the numerous exceptions to the stated warranty periods. Brother International covers some of its high-end printers and all-in-one devices with a three-year warranty, but it will allow for an exchange of a defective unit for only the first two years. During the third year, the unit must be dropped off for a repair. In a more positive direction, some of the units with three-year warranties have five-year terms for certain components. And there were a few units that limited their warranties in terms of both time and usage, so that a heavily-used unit could go out of warranty long before its 12 months is up. As with computer monitors, though, there were no units found that covered parts and labor for different periods. Computer Printer Warranties
Some of the manufacturers sell direct through their Web sites, while most also use retailers and/or dealers to move their product. Most of the vendors also sell service contracts -- some on their own behalf and others on behalf of third parties. We'd suspect they're more successful selling service contracts for printers than for monitors, which are perceived to be more reliable and longer-lasting. It's much the same case with notebooks and desktops, although ironically some of the perils expected for notebooks (drops, spills, etc.) are not covered under any traditional extended warranty plans (but are covered by accidental damage policies). Finally, we must note that while most of the vendors did in fact list their warranty policies along with other product specs, some made no mention of their warranty policies at all. And some of those who omitted such a mention nevertheless found room in their spec sheets to detail their extended warranty offerings. Also, some included warranty as the last spec of all, though we hope that had more to do with its alphabetical ranking than its importance to the customer. Other Stops on the Warranty TourAutomotive WarrantiesComputer Warranties
Consumer Electronics
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