Caution: breaking this seal will void your radio's warranty.... NOT!

Hi Fred,

At my job we put he warranty void stickers on the equipment that we sell.

Our equipment is very specialized and users really have no business in there in any case.

We dont often exercise a voi of the warranty even if the seal is broken, bu we have from time to time. When so e jerk with a golden screwdriver and soldering iron gets in there and royally screws things up, warranty void.

Off to read that article...

 

Warranty void not because the seal is breached, but because the DIYer made it possible for the manufacturer to claim the botched repair attempt could have been the cause of the failure.

Note that the law applies to consumer products, and may not apply to commercial or industrial products.

 

This article is heavily biased on the "can't perform service" and "service monopoly" stand point. This is really not the reason the stickers are on there.

I've worked for major computer companies for 20 years and there are reasons we have put the stickers on the products. One reason is preserving the integrity of the working contents of the product. Warranty investigations acctually happen at companies to see what caused the warranty. If the product has been opened there is no way to tell if the failure is caused by manufacturing, component failure or other instances. The second reason labels are put on devices is Warranty Fraud. If everyone was honest there wouldn't be a need to use "VOID IF OPENED".

Warranty MONOPOLY is a line of crap used in this article. Companies don't necessarily care if they don't repair their product. What they care about is "Giving Away" a new product because it is "claimed" to be defective. Warranty costs are based on a statistical percentage of "failures" applied to an install base (the number of units in the field). That "cost" is a dollar amount that is added to the base manufacturing cost of a product raising the retail cost to the customers. ALL customers.

For instance, When you drop your phone in a sink full of water and try to claim it stopped working under warranty that is fraud. The manufacturer is expected to "give" you a new phone because, well...it stopped working. Because there is a large part of the population that thinks companies are ripping you off and you should get it free, the cost of the products have now taken into account fraud as well as general warranty for "true manufacturers defects".

By the way, that's why there are little indicators in the phones that show if the phone has been wet. And you can't claim it is from sweat at the gym. The indicators are designed in such a way that the manufacturers can tell what type of moisture has damaged the phone. And, putting it in the oven to dry it out doesn't change the indicator once it has been activated.

I've been involved in cell phone design and manufacturing as well as accessory manufacturing for phones and electronics.

There is nothing in a cell phone that is user serviceable. The likelihood that you will further damage your phone by opening it is quite high as you don't have the proper tools to open said phone. If you think I'm kidding go ahead and open your iPhone and see if the you can put it back together and have the same reception/transmission quality as prior to opening it. As a matter of fact the case around the iPhone is part of the antenna and if it is not assembled correctly the capacitive coupling of the antenna to the cases metal band is detuned and will likely not function as well or at all like it had out of the box.


For some products, as soon as a product that works is opened by the consumer the likelihood that it will become non-functional rises to almost 95%. Most products are not "designed" to be opened and have items added or removed from them by the customer. Desktop computers and very few laptops "are designed" to be opened and have the customers add/change hard drives, memory, audio and video cards.

If it's broke send it in unopened. IF you choose to open something you can't fix, why do expect the manufacturer warrant it? If it's out of warranty take it where ever you want to have it fixed.

 

I think youre right... seems to be talking about consumer stuff only, but in principle I don't see why it wouldn't apply across the board...

 

No user serviceable parts inside. Pilot lamp soldered in place.

I always took that as an invitation!

 

If a product breaks under normal use, the company --wants-- to know, and fix it.

If you open my latest product you will void warranty---and break it deliberately and blatantly. No reason, ever, to open it.

One guy actually tried, unsuccessfully, to re solder, and re glue.

Except the 're-glue' was putty and the product is solderless ROHS.

Ooops!

Companies provide solutions. Thats where their obligation ends.

If you want an education in noodling snd reverse engineering, dont hold the manufacturer responsible.

 

I beg to differ. Believe it or not, some people actually have the skills to repair things themselves. Every once in a while, better than the company does

 

VICE is a well known joke of a "news outlet" right up there with Gawker.

 

Its not about skills. Its about the responsibility of the buyer to the seller.

There's plenty of fraud out there with returns, ripping off parts, replacement with non standard parts on returns, you name it.

I was shocked to see that there are, apparently, some hams who buy equipment, replace the tubes with duds, claim defect, and then insist on refunds....

 

As someone who does actually repair such devices from time to time as a hobby for friends and family, including iPhones, (and who knows others whom do so for an actual living) I do not get why some would insist on propagating absolute bullshit such as the above. There is nothing, even in an iPhone, that defies the known laws of physics or electronics and, as such, they, as with most things, are perfectly serviceable provided you know what you are doing. Not every repair is worthwhile depending upon the age and extent of damage, but to say nothing in them is user serviceable when they are simply PCBs with SMDs attached and board to board interconnects is utter nonsense. And, yes, if I elect to service the item then it will be a fully functional device when I am finished with it provided I can secure the necessary parts (which sometimes necessitates a donor board since Apple does not make available proprietary ICs, an artificially induced scarcity, I might add, designed to interfere with the right to repair), they are not that difficult to disassemble and reassemble correctly provided you properly document your work with a good quality camera and take your time to do the job right to begin with. Keep in mind that these devices are typically assembled by unskilled labor and are designed to facilitate assembly by such unskilled labor.

Just because an average Joe, who is lucky if they even know which end of an AA battery is positive, may not be qualified to service an item does not mean that a device is not serviceable by a user with the necessary parts, test equipment, and skill. So long as there exist users with the means to service an item then the item is, by definition, user serviceable no matter how much some manufacturers may wish to propagate the myth that such devices are unserviceable and can only be "repaired" by buying a brand new unit from said manufacturer,

 

KW4EK, what you say is true for yourself but it is also true that 99.9999% of consumer electronics users should not open their modern electronic device because they do not have anything approaching your knowledge or ability.

As far as Apple not making repair parts available, I don't suppose we can force them to do so, just as we are not forced to buy their products.

 

I don't think anywhere near 99.9999%. Not even close.

In fact, I know it. I know a large number of people doing repairs to cell phones that I wouldn't even tackle.

 

As much as I hate the "No user serviceable parts inside" label, there is a reason for it no one has mentioned.
U-L sometimes has different requirements as to accessibility of internal parts ( possible shock hazard) if the case can easily be opened giving access to dangerous internal voltages.

For microwave ovens, if we gave instructions on opening the case say to replace the lamp or fuse the internal insulation requirements were more strict than if we secured the case with tamper proof screws and said there were no user serviceable parts inside.

Not sure how effective that all was.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

 

Most of us would still screw with it.

I think I have every tamper proof tool made, so that I can tamper with stuff.

I am a special User.