stuey said:
pakalolo said:
stuey said:
My objection to this is simply the cost of postage.
How often do you think you'll have to do this?
The thing is tiny. In a bubble envelope the total cost is probably around $3 max. You're getting a brand new device in return.
Paying the postage to return a warranty item is pretty common, and you still are getting the best warranty possible. I don't know about you, but $3 for that is not a big deal to me.
It dosent matter what the cost is.
Any cost is unacceptable.
I dont intend to pay anything if the fault is down to the construction of the LB.
People seem to loose perspective of what the warranty is.
It isn't a favour. The UK sale of goods act means that no seller of the LB could legally refuse issuing a replacement when the fault isnt down to user error.
Hi,
Couple points people might want to keep in mind: 1) The physical and social universe in which we live has certain hard limits built into it -- these
must be accounted for with various inherent and unavoidable trade-offs in the realization of
ANY design, whether it be for a Box or a Business. 2) It is therefore a simple fact that it is truly impossible with any such pattern to satisfy everyone, in every single way, every single time.
Stuey: I disagree your implication that the "problems" you mention are the result of faulty design or manufacture of the Box, rather than of faulty technique or unreasonable expectations on the part of the user. Some trade-offs have been made. You might not like them, but then if it were not you, it would be someone else.
After having been in this business for a while, it has been our continuing and unambiguous observation that (on average) at least more than
three (3) warranty units are issued for clear and obvious cases of user error -- failing to read and follow the directions --
for every one that is issued because there
might be some doubt on our part as to whether the unit sold is faulty. We are currently collecting replaced boxes because we are interested to determine (we theorize) if the proportion is actually closer to 8 to 1 -- something we cannot do without hard data.
Naturally, we have and have continued to trust people -- and for the large majority, this works out just fine. However, such trust is NOT a substitute for our own direct observation and need to remain responsive to changing circumstances. There can be little doubt that an examination of returned units in our lab is going to produce far more reliable statistical measurements then attempting to rely on any amount of indistinctly remembered user reporting of "what actually happened" with the Box (even if discounting the known unreliability of short term memory!).
In addition, it is a clear and widely accepted fact that in any sociological situation that incentives matter. Accordingly, we are interested and motivated to ensure that people have the right incentives to do the right and honorable thing, rather than for us to be unconsciously offering tacit encouragement for a small minority to act unethically. Please accept my apology if you happen to find our efforts to remain ethically responsible to be morally offensive. (Not everyone reading this is going to be expected to understand the clear difference between ethics and morality and the absolute priority of one over the other).
Furthermore, we do acknowledge that international shipping is more expensive, and as a result, we tend to ask for returns from international customers far less frequently, as a general rule, than we do for domestic orders. However, this is not to say that in the future, such returns might eventually be collected by a distributor or other company representative in your country of origin. One thing at least should at least be clear: We
will retain the absolute and sovereign right to do what is necessary to remain sustainable in business, so that we can continue to offer this product to those who want it.
Our lifetime warranty is offered, in part, because we knew going into this that there would be always be
some people would misunderstand, misuse, and abuse/damage their Box, despite any/all attempts on our part to provide proper education and instruction (including and especially
prior to purchase). With the introduction of ANY new product this is an inherent fact, and it is best to reasonably accept it without judgment or prejudice (as we have already done). Everyone has different skills and abilities and it is best to simply accept that as a fact of life. Therefore, early on we decided as a company that we would take that risk and assume that
most people are reasonable and honorable. We maintain a proportion of our capacity to build warranty units (ie, at a total loss on our part). So far, this has mostly been working out (with a few noticeable exceptions). We have no intention of changing our policies in this respect.
Lastly: Given our unconditional action of having already
accepted a of significant loss of profitability on offering you 3X as much product for the price of 1 unit, it seems rather ironic that you would then respond by immediately deeming our choices completely and unconditionally "unacceptable". How loving is that? I find it hard to apologize to you for any possible manufacturing error or omission on behalf of the Company when it seems so likely that your intolerant opinions are more likely to be motivated by guilt than by fact. If I were to offer to pay the total shipping charges for you to return to our lab those two units you have already deemed "unusable", would you also find that also unacceptable? While such action would definitely move this discussion out of the realm of opinion and into the realm of measurable fact, I am sure that there could be offered any number of reasons given for why those previously replaced units could not be returned to us -- and any such reasons would be of little interest.
-- Magic-Flight