Laws do not ensure automatic protection
Many people do not realize, a company can end up not following a law and actually lie to you about it. They depend on you not knowing the truth and not demanding your rights under the law.
When you know the law and attempt to demand your right protection under the law, the company may or may not comply with the law because even if they refuse to comply, the chance that you will actually file suit against them is so slim, it is often cheaper to deal with the 1 or 2 lone people who will file suit, than it is to do the right thing and follow the law with everyone.
A specific example
Have you ever bought a product that had a sticker placed in a location in which the sticker would be ripped if you attempted to fix the product yourself? These stickers tend to say something like "Warranty Void if sticker is destroyed or removed."
Many electronics have similar stickers. They are also fairly common on major and kitchen appliances. The company is attempting to trick you into thinking they will not repair your product, if you opened it to add an upgraded part, or to fix some other problem you were capable of fixing.
Those stickers are unenforceable in the US
Way back in 1975, Congress passed an act called the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. The act lays out very specific rules designed to protect consumers from manufacturers and sellers.
The sticker itself is not illegal. It is only illegal when they refuse warranty work based on the fact that you removed the unenforceable sticker. (and they wonder why people try to get away with any and everything, lol).
How many times have you purchased a computer then later decided to upgrade the video card? The sticker is designed to make you think if you upgrade the video card yourself, the warranty would be voided. They want you to purchase and pay them to install your new video card and will probably charge 3 times as much as the cost of the video card alone.
It also means that huge numbers of people who installed an upgraded video card and later had problems with a different part, probably did not take advantage of their warranty, again saving the company money simply because you did not know about the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
FTC recently informed 6 companies of their violation
On April 10th, The Federal Trade Commission issued letters to 6 major suppliers of equipment that included these stickers, informing them their warranty practices violate federal law. No mention was made on which 6 companies received the letters, however it is not hard to determine who the top culprits probably are, or at least part of them.
Today is April 12th, just 2 days later and Chrysler is running a major ad campaign informing customers they have a right to demand original equipment replacement parts and that is the only way to sure they will get a part the fits and works correctly and will last. Anyone that has ever repaired a car knows that statement is not true. Many replacement parts outlast the life of a car.
The speed at which Chrysler moved to get this ad filmed and to the market leads me to think they are very worried their profits are going to drop if they don’t do something quickly.
Sony and Microsoft both have game systems which have these stickers on them. So chances are very good they where one of the ones who received the letters.
Who were the other 3 companies?
The FTC only stated there are 6 companies and they “market and sell automobiles, cellular devices, and video gaming systems in the United States.” We will probably see something that points out the other 3 in the near future.
How to demand your rights
The first step to demanding your rights is to know your rights and be capable of communicating to the service tech that you know your rights. Bookmark the following link so you can share it with the tech. Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act
If they still refuse, you are within your rights to tell them they have a choice of repairing your product or giving you a refund and paying for you to return the product to them. In most cases, that is all it will take. They will either repair your product or issue you a refund.
If it does not work, you are within your rights to demand to speak to a supervisor. Explain the situation to them, again stating the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and demanding the fix your product or refund your money.
If that does not work, don’t give up hope just yet. Wait a few days and call back at a different time. Your aim at this point is to end up talking to a different supervisor. Explain to this person that this is a final attempt to get his company to do the correct thing and your only recourse if they don’t is to file a complaint with the FTC.
The chance of the situation getting this far is slim. Most companies will do the right thing rather than risk the bad publicity. If they are particularly obnoxious, you may have no choice but to hire a lawyer.
The days of crappy products and taking advantage of consumers need to end.
As a society, we have forgotten about the fact that we are all just people. Race, religion, sex, national origin and sexual orientation doesn’t matter, we are all members of the human race. Intentionally misleading people, stealing, selling products you know are crappy and so many more of the things we do to each other needs to stop.
We should not accept it when our leaders and business owners do these things. We have the power to create change by simply refusing to do business with them.