
Most Amazon-Owned Private Label Brands Have No Warranties - nwcs
https://www2.shaftek.org/personal/writing/most-amazon-owned-private-label-brands-have-no-warranties/
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m463
Most amazon private label stuff is disposable, low cost, I-don't-need-a-
warranty stuff.

They compete directly against no-brand or unknown-brand chinese imports.

Seriously, who cares about a warranty on a $6 thing? As long as it works when
you get it, it will probably continue working.

Amazonbasics cables or camera tripod DOA? Amazon will ship you a replacement
and you can send back the broken one.

By the way, all the amazon label clothing comes in bag already set up to
repackage and return.

~~~
ilikeatari
Ok, what about environmental considerations? This seems very inefficient.

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marpstar
Even if they had a warranty they'd just send you a replacement item and throw
your old one away. What's the difference besides the money for the new one is
coming out of your pocket instead of theirs?

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dec0dedab0de
I think the idea is that there would be an incentive for them to make the
product last

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jiggawatts
This is illegal in Australia due to consumer-protection laws that
automatically apply. I wonder how Amazon is getting around this, because the
agency that punishes vendors tends to come down like a ton of bricks if they
get wind of this kind of behaviour...

~~~
djsumdog
When I lived in New Zealand, there was a cellphone shop in Auckland that
refused to warranty a Nexus 4 that broke (neither Google nor LG warranty this
device, unless you buy it from the Google store). The shop refused to fix it
because I had unlocked the bootloader and installed LineageOS. They then told
me it would cost $12 to ship the phone back to me! People at work told me,
"Don't let them get away with that. We have consumer protection laws."

I had to take them to a tribunal. It was like 2 hours for the first session,
and they wanted a second one (another 1.5 hours). I made the argument that I
can buy a Windows laptop and put Linux on it; showed stats how many people
install Lineage, how the mobile data failed first, then the Wi-Fi, and then
the phone refused to boot, which is an indication of hardware failure (not my
software modifications).

I fucking hate that company. Hours wasted and the judge awarded me my $450.

What's really stupid? Why didn't Google/LG warranty the devices themselves?
This should have been as simple as the company just shipping the device back
to LG and shipping me a new one. Pushing the warranty down to the individual
vendors to repair is fucking assassin.

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pkaye
I had a Nexus 6p bootloop on me after about 14 months of use. Neither Google
or Huawei would accept responsibility because my 1 year warranty just ran out!
Fortunately I paid with a credit card that came with extended warranty feature
so I called them and they returned back all my money once I provided the
evidence of failure.

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rahimnathwani
In California, goods sold without express warranties have implied implied
warranties of one year. If goods _do_ have an express warranty, then the
implied warranty is as short as the express warranty, but no less than 60
days.

[https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1791.1).

"(c) The duration of the implied warranty of merchantability and where present
the implied warranty of fitness shall be coextensive in duration with an
express warranty which accompanies the consumer goods, provided the duration
of the express warranty is reasonable; but in no event shall such implied
warranty have a duration of less than 60 days nor more than one year following
the sale of new consumer goods to a retail buyer. Where no duration for an
express warranty is stated with respect to consumer goods, or parts thereof,
the duration of the implied warranty shall be the maximum period prescribed
above."

~~~
colejohnson66
How does this deal with things like open source licenses which explicitly
state there’s no warranty, expressed or implied?

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rahimnathwani
Remedies are only applicable to "Any buyer of consumer goods injured by a
breach of the implied warranty".

I suppose software might count as a consumer good when sold in tangible form
(e.g. a boxed copy of TurboTax), but you're not a 'buyer' when you get
software for free. And IANAL but a software licence (what you pay for when you
'buy' software online) doesn't seem like a consumer good. And even if the
licence were a consumer good, the licence probably won't malfunction.

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JMTQp8lwXL
As someone who both uses AWS professionally, and as a consumer of goods on
Amazon.com, I'm really surprised by the dichotomy in quality. Perhaps I
shouldn't be, and that's just how corporations are.

If AWS was as shaky as Amazon.com goods, nobody would use it.

~~~
Cephalopterus
AWS is quite literally a printing press for Amazon that prints it $$ and let's
it devour other competitors in the retail eCommerce segment by selling at
close to no margins. They need to keep the AWS quality decent because unlike
their retail customers, corporations using them can vote with their wallet
and/or possibly sue if there's any actual misselling

~~~
lawnchair_larry
I think you mean figuratively

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JMTQp8lwXL
In informal usage, "literally" is used to provide emphasis. Literally, in this
context, doesn't mean literally true. It's a figure of speech.

Example: You might've heard a phrase like "I was literally blown away by the
response I got" (probably from a vlogger). Nobody in English would say, "I was
figuratively blown away by the response I got", because it's obvious the
person is speaking figuratively.

Here, literally is meant to emphasize just how effective AWS is acting
analogously to the Treasury's money printing presses.

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Buge
When there's a word with 2 meanings that are almost opposites of each other,
that's confusing. I think it's good to avoid using words in confusing ways
like that.

[https://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc?t=163](https://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc?t=163)

~~~
Stratoscope
English is full of words and phrases that mean something different from their
literal meaning. Another classic example is "I could care less."

Steven Pinker wrote about this in detail in _The Language Instinct_.

[https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/01/i-could-care-
less...](https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/01/i-could-care-less.html)

When someone says "I literally could care less", everyone listening knows what
they mean. There is no confusion and no need to worry about whether they are
literally correct.

This is just part of the fun and wonder of the English language.

~~~
BLKNSLVR
I'm not sure if you intentionally chose a phrase that's usually mistakenly
used to also mean the opposite - and then add literally to it.

When I hear someone say "I could care less" when they mean "I couldn't care
less" then I tend to understand that they value their words, language, and
meaning less than I do mine. They're unintentionally signaling to me that what
they're saying isn't necessarily what they mean, and so I factor that into my
understanding of, belief in, and reliance upon, whatever they may say.

~~~
Stratoscope
I am glad that you value words, language, and meaning. So do I.

But people who say "I could care less" are usually _not_ mistaken. They know
full well what they mean, and that the phrase seems to say the opposite of its
literal meaning.

It's a great example of irony and sarcasm, both of which have a rich history
in English, and probably in most languages.

Pinker has a fine discussion of the phrase in the book I mentioned. I can't do
it justice here, but consider how the phrase is spoken. I will use italics to
indicate emphasis:

 _I_ could _care_ less.

Try saying that out loud a few times with emphasis on the italicized words.
You may start to hear the ironic and sarcastic intent.

English would be a much poorer language if we could only use words and phrases
in their most literal meaning.

Also consider the context. "I could care less" is used in casual speech, where
it's perfectly OK to play with the language and have fun with it.

That is quite different from, say, a manual on how to operate a piece of
machinery, or any other kind of technical documentation. There of course you
want to be as clear, explicit, and unambiguous as possible.

But I wouldn't judge someone's ability to write a clear technical manual based
on their enjoyment of irony in more casual speech or writing.

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EvanAnderson
The average person I know who says "I could care less" would also say "For all
intensive purposes".

They know what they mean, but they're not expressing some deep irony or
sarcasm. They're just parroting back something they've heard someone else
say-- incorrectly.

~~~
Stratoscope
For all intensive purposes, it is best to use powerful tools and know how to
use them. For less intensive purposes, you may get by with a Swiss Army knife.

But yeah, sometimes we just make a mistake.

Haven't we all uttered a malapropism at one time or another?

I love watching a flamingo dance!

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asdff
No warranty, but you can probably use a pair of amazon basics underwear for a
year and return it with free shipping for it being _insert random reason from
drop down menu._

Imagine if a car manufacturer offered unlimited halfway fraudulent returns,
warranties would feel like a ripoff.

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clement_b
Will happen to Amazon what has happened to the other big techs assuming U.S.
laws / principles could just be applied world-wide without taking local laws /
principles into account.

Amazon is getting under the scrutiny it deserves, and it will lose some of its
current competitive advantages by being forced, fairly or not, to (over)
comply with local requirements.

Easiest card to play for countries trying to defend their historic, local
players 'who pay their taxes in [insert country] and comply with its laws'.

~~~
hoistbypetard
>Amazon is getting under the scrutiny it deserves, and it will lose some of
its current competitive advantages by being forced, fairly or not, to (over)
comply with local requirements.

Forcing them to comply with warranty/consumer protection laws in a
jurisdiction feels very fair when they're selling their own private label
brands to customers in that jurisdiction.

~~~
clement_b
Completely agree. What you describe, is fair. There is a law. They must
comply.

What I had in mind is that countries will come up with unfair actions against
Amazon. By unfair I mean that with regards to the actual action, not the
general situation or the end outcome.

For instance, Airbnb or Uber, who are disrupting markets by flirting with
legality in many cities, are often targeted by regulations aimed at them,
specifically. These regulations are not always fair since their purpose is to
reset, if not invert, a situation to help struggling local players.

The end goal is to have a fair market, but when fairness is about defending
local, less competitive players at all cost then the regulation is unfair.

Maybe the word 'fair' is not exactly the right one. 'appropriate' might be
better.

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JakeAl
Do they need warranties? Doesn't Amazon have a return anything, anytime
policy? I thought I read stories about people just buying stuff, using it, and
returning it years later after it's worn out for a refund or replacement. I
think I heard this in one of the many Amazon returns mystery box videos on
YouTube.

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byoung2
If the item is still available, it is possible to purchase it again, and
return the broken item during the 30 day return window of the new purchase.

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jedimastert
This is definitely fraud, yeah?

I wonder if they have fraud detection for this kinda thing. Or if it's just
not worth the expense for most things.

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dsfyu404ed
Fraud requires mens rea. They are going to have to have a hell of a time
proving mens rea when the local law expressly allows a consumer to exchange a
defective product in the time limit when the supposed fraud happened. Ethical
or not it's expressly not criminal.

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slg
The old two wrongs make a right defense. I have a feeling this will be as
successful in court as it was against my mom when I was 6 years old.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
>The old two wrongs make a right defense.

Where the hell did you get that from my comment?

I'm saying that no prosecutor is going to take a fraud case where the fact
pattern is of a consumer manipulating a return system in order to achieve an
outcome that was identical to one expressly allowed by their state law (return
or exchange for non-defective example within 90 days).

~~~
slg
If a store overcharged you $5, are you allowed to break into the store after
it closes to steal your $5 back? Because that seems to be your argument that
you are justified in breaking the law as long as it returns you to some
natural state of evenness.

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sjg007
There are legal implicit warranties. Manufacturers like to reduce your rights
by offering limited warranties. This is why they want you to sign the card and
send them in to register because it helps them.

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TylerE
Not in the way you seem to be meaning it. There is an implied warranty of
merchantability, but that's not a consumer warranty.

Warranty of Merchantability mainly means that the seller must abide by any
contract terms and that the product should match any claims or specs on the
packaging.

~~~
sjg007
Statutory warranties.

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chadash
This isn't very helpful info without knowing what the item is (I didn't see
the article specify this). I mean, if I'm buying a cheap pair of underwear and
I can return it within 30 days if it has any initial problems, then I'm 100%
fine with no warranty. The chances of me using it are basically zero anyway.

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phamilton
The movie tommy boy has a great scene about guarantees/warranties.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEB7WbTTlu4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEB7WbTTlu4)

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purplezooey
Warranties these days are shit anyway. You have to jump through a million
hoops to get anything and they often are "pro rated" over the time period so
they decay over time.

~~~
Marsymars
Pro-rated warranties aren't necessarily bad - it's too short warranties that
are bad.

e.g. Costco's warranty on car batteries in Canada is 100% for four years, 50%
for the next 1.5, 25% for the next 2.8 years, (100 months total warranty) and
claiming the warranty is just a matter of bringing your battery to the returns
counter.

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kyriakos
If they are sold in EU warranty is a legal requirement. Sooner or later this
will get them in trouble.

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wiggler00m
Does consumer protection legislation not impose minimum standards?

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theqult
Are those items sold in Europe too ? By law there is a two years long warranty
on item sold in EU, no matter what

