William Sommerwerck wrote:
There is a separate issue, of course, which is whether an appliance
should fail when it's just out of the manufacturer's warranty, given
that such warranties tend to be absurdly short anyway. The mere
fact that a piece of gear is out of warranty doesn't mean that the
manufacturer is off the hook. Depends on the jurisdiction, though.

The US has laws (derived from British common law) that protect customers,
and also specify the minimum time parts have to be available. These laws
have been weakened over the past 20 years, and are generally not
well-enforced, anyway.

No, they're not And as somebody pointed out upthread, they often get
around it by only stocking sub-assemblies at huge prices.

When a complex Silverlit toy needed repair parts, and the importer couldn't
supply them, I pointed out their legal obligations, and Silverlit USA was
quick to swap out my unit for a new one. (I had threatened to complain to
the FTC.)

Foreign companies apparently aren't aware of their obligations. If you can't
stock spare parts (or at least sub-assemblies), you shouldn't be doing
business in another country.

I don't know what the rules about that are in the USA, but here, the
responsibility falls to the local reseller.

--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
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