Is Mailing Little Card Required for Warranty?
“I always mail in that little warranty card when I buy something,” a Los Angeles man says. “I figure if I have a problem with it, and I call them and say it’s still under warranty, they’ll ask, ‘Did you send in the card?’ ”
A lot of people figure that. But then, they also think they have to leave the little tag on a mattress or pillow because it says “Do Not Remove This Tag.” It’s for vendors, of course, who must certify content of both filling and covering, but it intimidates many a consumer who fears that clipping it off means “the pillow police will come,” a lawyer says, “and they’ll kick in your door and take your first-born son.”
Equally compelling is the order to “register” one’s warranty “immediately,” certifying ownership and date of purchase. Some manufacturers even warn that their warranty is valid only if the registration card is “completed and returned to Osrow Products within 30 days” or “effective” only when the product is purchased from authorized dealers and “properly registered (with NEC Home Electronics) at time of purchase.”
They may even explain why. Some want a record of purchasers “in the remote event,” Panasonic writes, “any safety notifications are issued for this product,” or “in the unlikely event your Sony product needs adjustment or modification.” Some allude to “government regulations” requiring such records, at least for television receivers and microwave ovens. Those are subject to government standards, along with medical and industrial electronic equipment that emits radiation, and manufacturers, distributors and dealers are required to keep records of where they go in the event a safety-related defect is discovered.
More Commercial Use
On some cards, the manufacturer’s multiple choice questions about the consumer’s product choice, family composition and income hint of more commercial uses for this “registration.” The resulting demographic profile of purchasers, a Quasar spokesman says, could direct the company’s advertising and “positioning” of the product. It could also help other companies, which buy the records, thereby guaranteeing the obedient registrant what Panasonic calls a “unique opportunity” to “receive important mailings and special offers.”
For all the threat and implied import, consumer response is not overwhelming: Over 30% would be impressive. Moreover, many companies seem not to care. “When the cards come in here,” said one customer service representative, “they’re sent to another department and filed away, but they’re never referred to and not used to verify anything.”
Even companies warning that their warranties require proper registration--NEC, for example--admit that proof of purchase will serve. Says an employee of Krups, which urges “ownership registration” to “assure proper handling of your warranty”: “If you return it, it’s OK. If you just have a sales slip, that’s OK, too.”
There’s also some question as to whether manufacturers can require warranty “registration”--for any reason. Under federal law, a warranty may be “full” or “limited”--a distinction that government lawyers are generally unable to explain for common comprehension, beyond asserting that full warranties are less limited than limited ones, and that limited warranties are recognizable because they must say “limited” at the top. In any case, full warranties can’t impose on consumers “any duty other than notification” of product defect; the duty of returning a registration card is specifically called “unreasonable.”
‘Limited’ Warranties
However, “limited” warranties (commonly offered on consumer products) technically can impose such conditions, but no one is sanguine about how the requirement, if challenged, would stand up in court, “particularly small claims court, where we’d end up,” says Ted Figus, attorney for Litton Microwave, “and where judges aren’t swayed by technical legal distinctions. It’s simply not reasonable to make the card’s return part of the bargain, and if it is a condition, you’d have to say, ‘Your warranty’s only good if you send this in.’ ”
Some states are clearer. Under California law, for example, “even if a written warranty requires the buyer to fill out a form, the warranty can’t be deemed unenforceable solely because the consumer didn’t do it,” says Richard Elbrecht, head of legal services for California’s Consumer Affairs Department.
Even when records of distribution are a government requirement, the burden is on vendors. “Each person in the chain has to account for where a microwave oven went, by serial number,” Figus says, “and we couldn’t satisfy that requirement just by giving consumers a card to fill out.” Indeed, says a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Radiological Products, “the dealer and distributor cannot pass on the responsibility to the consumer.”
Nonetheless, with millions of consumer products sold and thousands of vendors, compliance is low, and consumers might want to return some cards, required or not. “I can see,” says Elbrecht, “where the warrantor’s obligation might be less if the buyer doesn’t file”--for either a recall or simple notification of an available modification.
“By law, manufacturers must take reasonable steps to know who has these products,” he says, “but if the product is complicated, it’s in my interest if they know how to reach me.”
