Why are warranties only good for 1st buyer??

[Jbrook]

I think this rule sucks and lets off alot of companies when they make a shitty product or have an error in production. Come on kite companies stand behind your products. Your prices have raised alot now raise your warranty? Why is this an excuse for bad materials? First question were you first buyer, if no warranty is not valid I think this sucks. What if you bought something with a known problem or breaks often, this should be warrantied right? Also what if you bought something the other person didnt use at all or only once. With many other purchases warranties are transferable why not in kite? As a consumer you have rights.

[Europ2]

2 main reasons IMHO:
- a warranty that is not transferable divides by 3 or 4 the number of valid claims.
- this scheme deprecates the 2nd hand market rapidly and is supposed to push the customers to buy new products as they won't trust 2nd hand product. What happens is the opposite. This discourages people from buying new products.

I think this depends on the country you buy the product in.
In Europe, I've never heard of such practice.

You must be able to bypass this:
What prevents you from asking the original owner to call for warranty in his/her name ?
Before buying a 2nd hand product, you could negociate this with the seller. So get a copy of his ID.
This also means you cannot buy >= 3rd hand if your seller who bought 2nd hand to initial owner does not remember his seller's name (original owner).

As a last resort, you could also pretend you are the initial buyer .... who "has the same address" as you.

Just my 2 cents.

[plummet]

If you buy second hand you roll the dice its that simple. You don't want to pay full price therefore you look for a cheaper deal. The cheaper deal comes with a risk.

If you want a warrantee buy new.
If you want to pay less with a warrantee search for end of year bargans on new stuff to pay less and get a warrantee.

If you want to pay less again..... well second hand and take the chance that the goods are going to work.

When you are buying second hand you have to consider the warrantee side of it. For that reason I will not buy a second hand item for any more that 50% of retail. Even if that item is new and unused and still in the box. The additional saving you make by purchasing second hand usually well exceeds any small errors you have to pay to get fixed.

[JGTR]

Because the original buyer pays for the warranty, the secondhand buyer doesn't.

[Jbrook]

Pays for the warranty, not true.

If you are involved in retail sales this post is not for you, of course you are going to say buy new.

I am more talking about when someone gets something like a surfboard that has had a ton of delam issues, the warranty should be valid for them because it is a known problem, or a bar that has broken for alot of people or really anything that is known to be a problem bad valves, deck peeling up on a twin tip etc!

[Laughingman]

I have to agree with Jbrook. If the warranty was registered when purchased the warranty should be honored regardless of who the owner is unless the product has been removed from the country of which is was purchased in.
I can buy a used car and still use the original warranty, why not kites?
Besides, when you offer a warranty the "accounting" for that warranty is based on an average number of claims over the life of the warranty. So there is an actual liability realized and recorded at the time of sale. I doubt they factor in how many people may sell the kite within the warranty period.
Resistance to allow a claim is just plain greed and ignorance provided you have done your cost calculating correctly this should not be a strain on the company and in fact by honoring the claim you in turn have created brand loyalty and likely promoted your company in a positive light.

[plummet]

Pays for the warranty, not true.

Yes they do.

They have decided to buy the item at the going rate and pay accordingly. At that price they get a warrantee.

The second hand buyer doesn't want to pay the full price...... therefore they have to accept there will be limitations to purchasing second hand.

Now there is a 3rd option and that is buying second off a shop. That shop may be legally obliged to offer a warrantee. Also if they are a dealer of that product they will possible be able to call some favours with the supplier and get a warrantee anyway.

The other side of warrantee is this. The retailer is happy to process warrantee claims for individuals who have purchased gear off him. He has made some money and some of that time it takes to process the claim can be taken out of the margin of the product. If you have not purchased off him why then should he waste his time processing something for someone who hasn't given him business? time is money.

[Jbrook]

Lets keep the posts only from consumers, if you have a kite shop or make money off selling kites let this discussion be between paying consumers.

[randycasburn]

Determining a qualified manufacturer defect must be really, really difficult. I suppose we must not assume that everyone is ethical either. After all, look into a suggestion earlier in this thread! So if stitching comes loose on a kite that is three years old, is that due to "wear and tear" or a defect in how the stitching was put into place? What a dilemma right? If a kite is nine months old and has a leaky valve, is that because it was tomahawked into the beach 97 times - or is it a manufacturer's defect?

I had a warranty claim against a small kite company and their first reaction was "that isn't possible"! I sent pictures and videos of my claim and the company owner was really surprised. The product was corrected without question after I made it clear it was really a defect. As it turns out, the company owner had just been to the factory to review everything. So he thought everything was perfect. The reality is, that quality control is not necessarily carried out by the "brand" as the recipient of the "manufacturer's defect". Their instinct is to question us - the consumer rather than the QC process at the factory. We have to make the right case.

I've had another kite company (OR) treat me just the opposite - without question - fixed the product even when I was admittedly unsure about the cause of the issue.

All that said, although we want warranties to be about customer service, they are purely economic in nature.

[Vin Stefanelli]

I guess if you pay full price 4 a second hand thing
and can prove it you oughta be able 2 make a warrantee claim