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"Lifetime" warranties

Is Dysan still around? :) I saw a box recently and wondered about surprising them :) I also have a 'free subscription to Macworld Magazine' card I was going to fill out and mail to see what would happen.
 
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I've had some surprising lifeitme warrany experiences, such as with Le Creuset cookware. A 30-year old Dutch oven developed a chip in the porcelain and LC paid shipping both ways and send me a new pot. My water heater has a "forever" warranty on it (transferable if you sell your home) so I wonder how good that will turn out to be. I note that Sears Craftsman no long offers the "no questions asked" on their hand tools.

I recall that for a short time, Kodak offered free data recovery services on their floppies.
 
I remember seeing something on twitter or youtube where somebody did send in, to 3M I think it was, and got a replacement set of disks.
But personally I would've expected "Oh we meant the lifetime of the product, which is actually 5 years, lolz to you".

I've seen a few "Lifetime" warranties where that has been the case, in small print.
 
Well, considering that "Lifetime warranty" doesn't actually mean the lifetime of the owner.. it means the lifetime of the product (or product line, at best). I thought that was a joke first, but that is how it works. So if that particular product went out of production five years after you purchased it, no more warranty.
Those (very few) *real* 'Owner's lifetime warranty' specifically state so. I believe my Les Paul guitar is of that kind. But I'm not sure.. must double-check.

-Tor
 
It's purposely misleading so consumers don't check the warranty period and/or to make it sound better than it is. I'm aware of it, but I'm sure the average consumer isn't. Most people I say "lifetime of the product" to are genuinely surprised it's often the case.
 
It's a bit like the car warranty which is '3 years or until the car fails, whatever comes first'.

-Tor
 
I recall someone doing that before for a floppy but I think they had to pay for the s&h or had to send it to them first or both. The result in most cases would be lost income for the user.
 
I sent in a laptop memory module to Kingston (IIRC) under their lifetime warranty a few years back. It was a non-standard module for an older Toshiba so it would have been hard to replace so I figured it couldn't hurt to try. I had to pay shipping to them but they sent me a replacement no questions asked.
 
Supposedly Radio Shack still honours the Lifetime warranty on tubes no matter who bought them. I haven't put that to the test lately.
 
Non computer thing, but my current Craftsman socket set was retrieved from about 45 feet of water about 15 years ago. I brought it all rusted and messed up into sears and they gave me a new set. All it cost me was a couple of refills for my scuba tanks and if I recall correctly, a minor repair to my dry suit. One of my best deals on tools yet.

Cheers,
Corey
 
Corey986 said:
Non computer thing, but my current Craftsman socket set was retrieved from about 45 feet of water about 15 years ago. I brought it all rusted and messed up into sears and they gave me a new set. All it cost me was a couple of refills for my scuba tanks and if I recall correctly, a minor repair to my dry suit. One of my best deals on tools yet.

Cheers,
Corey
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I had the same experience with Craftsman tools. I broke my grandfather's 1/2" ratchet. The clerk in the Sears tool department was suspicious because the ratchet was so old that it was never chromed, and called the store manager. The store manager approved the replacement, and kept the ancient broken ratchet for his collection.
 
I have had similar luck with Craftsman tools while in the States. I used to search flea markets for broken Craftsman, Mac, and Snap-On tools that cost next to nothing. Then I'd return them for replacement. he only time the tool wasn't replaced was when it was a ratchet with a stripped gear. Instead of replacing the ratchet they gave me a replacement gear set for it.
 
Koss has lifetime warranty on their headphones. You pay to ship your broken headphones to them, and $9 for them to ship the repaired or replaced headphones back to you. That's great on a $100 pair of headphones, but the Koss headphones I use cost $14 brand new with free shipping, so it makes no sense on something that cheap.
 
Ive always wondered if theyd carry out free warranty service on my Koss-made Realistic-branded phones. I guess I could drive over there and ask them and maybe I should.
 
I've heard that Craftsman lifetime warranty procedure is a lot harder to get replacements with in the last few years. Back in the day, I remember trashing a wrench that I had sitting between the clevis and body of a 10-ton pneumatic cylinder that I was testing (didn't even slow the stroke down, just snapped the wrench as if it weren't even there). The guy at Sears looked at it for quite a time (I didn't offer an explanation) and then returned with a replacement.

I went to Sears recently for some tools and was not impressed with the quality. I asked about the lifetime warranty and was told that only applied in the case of manufacturing defects.
 
Sears has changed their classes of tools around several times since the 1990s; the cheaper "Companion" and "Evolv" stuff has a limited warranty on it like most tools, but I think the actual Craftsman stuff may still be guaranteed forever unless they changed the policy recently. I took a Craftsman brake spring tool in for exchange last summer, and they replaced that no questions asked.
 
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