I have read a rather sad story today. Apparently the Best Buy Geeks squad refused to service the machine of someone who had purchased an $80 extended warranty for its netbook just because he had installed Ubuntu Linux. This story not only shows how best Best Buy's Geeks squad is far from having anything even close to the technical knowledge of a geek, but also raises 2 other questions: are extended warranties worth it, and are Linux consumers correctly protected in the US? Let's dig into these two rather important questions.
Extended warranties for netbooks: are they worth it?
Nowadays many electronics shops such as Best Buy will offer you a 2 or 3 year extended warranty if you pay them a little more money, usually around 20% of the price of the purchased item. In my opinion for a netbook this is not worth the money, especially if you are using Linux. First, the Best Buy accountants can do the maths: if they ask about 20% of the price of the computer for the protection plan this means that the probability of the computer failing between the end of the "free" warranty and the end of the extended warranty is lower than that, meaning that the odds are against you from the start. Second, if you use Linux you are probably knowledgeable enough to fix software issues yourself and are protected from most virus damage, leaving only hardware faults to cover. Now it is very likely that most hardware defects would appear during the legal warranty, so the extended one is not very useful. Finally, if you run the risk of having service denied to you because you use Linux or any piece of software that the store owner does not like it is simply not worth the hassle. If your netbook breaks after the legal warranty, you are probably better to buy a new one anyway. The only case where these extended warranties may make sense is if you purchase an expensive computer that you would have trouble replacing if it failed, or if you don't know anything about computers and expect to go back to the store for every little issue (and I don't know if that is even covered).
Are Linux consumers correctly protected in the US?
What is more worrying to me is the concept that changing your OS to Linux could constitute an unauthorized modification of your computer. This would mean that the manufacturer are selling the software and hardware as "one unit". This is very worrying because if that kind of bundling was accepted the consumers would actually lose the freedom of installing and running the software they like on their own computers. This is very bad because not only would that remove consumer choice from the equation when it comes to software (never a good thing) but it would create a virtual monopoly. If Microsoft and Corel got a deal with Asus to have windows and WinDVD
10 Responses to "Why you should not pay for extended warranty if you use Linux":
As Consumer Reports always says, you should never buy extended warranties on most products anyway. These are offered because they are high profit items for the stores and most products, if they fail, do so within the initial warranty period anyway.
I would have tripped over the carpet next to the Geek Squad area and went head first into the shopping carts. I would have howled the most blood curdling scream and pleaded for an ambulance, followed a few days later with a trip to one of the many ambulance chasing lawyers found on tv.
That's just me though...
I actually ran into this with my Acer Aspire One w/ 8G SSD. The system was purchased in December 2008, and because I do OS install testing on it, I am constantly (almost daily) wiping and reimaging the system. In August, the MBR failed to read/write. Nothing in Linux would get it to even read, and trying to wipe it with dd failed. Since it was under warranty, I sent it to Acer's repair center in Texas, after getting an RMA for it. They returned it a week later with XP reloaded on it, but with the first 1M of the drive marked as unused in the partition table. When I tried to install Linux, I was back to the same problem. Even Windows Scandisk was reporting issues and recommending immediate backup. I called their support and was told that the warranty didn't cover Linux as they didn't develop driver support for the system. When I read to them the warranty that I had, especially the part that states the warranty does not cover software installed by Acer or the user, they agreed to replace the drive (and they did).
The lesson here is to read and understand the warranty. In most cases, the warranty has been worded to be at best confusing. If the warranty specifically states that the system will not be covered if the user installs a different OS, get the state Attorney General involved. AFAIK, Apple is the only company allowed to do this, as they build the hardware & the software (similar to the embedded market). Since M$ doesn't build the hardware, they can't force their software on you.
Here is the relevant sections from Acer:
What is covered:
Acer warrants the Product you have purchased ... to be free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use during the waranty period (1 year in this case).
What is not covered:
Acer-supplied software that accompanies the Product is provided "As Is" and Acer disclaims any and all warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranty of non-infringement of third party rights, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
So, based on these sections, I was able to argue that reinstalling software was albeit more extreme, constituted normal wear and tear (read/write) of the SSD, regardless of the OS, since the SSD is designed to be a drop in replacement for a mechanical drive.
As I said earlier, check your warranty. The only excuse I can fathom for Linux voiding a warranty is if the user had either an early beta driver in the kernel or was actively developing a driver that communicated with the hardware in a non-user normal mode (i.e. firmware flashing, etc). It is possible to write software that can cripple or brick a system or component. Very few distro releases have to deal with these issues, if they go through proper QA prior to general release.
I worked at Best Buy for about 3 1/2 years, and would never work there again, if I have a choice. Most Geek Squad Agents at the store level, do not know what they are doing. The Agents that do know what they are doing, are usually in-home Agents and Special Agents (SMB Servers, etc). If you challenge a Geek Squad Agent, it is easy to tell if they know what they are talking about or not.
To the warranty, no warranty that I have ever seen covers any software defects, other than if caused by hardware failure. Best Buy does sell a Vi/Spy warranty that does cover this. If Best Buy is claiming that they cannot work on your PC because it has Linux on it, then tell them immediately that you want to talk to corporate. Because if Linux is failing, it is more than likely a hardware problem in the first place. They can still run all their diagnostics that they have, no matter what O/S it is running, it's a live boot disk, custom built for idiot's in mind (It does work well from some tasks though).
Yes, extended warranty's are worth it in the sense of hardware coverage. That is all that Linux users usually care about anyway. No warranty should be purchased to cover hardware issues, unless stated otherwise. I buy the warranties on my tv's from them, it is going to replace my 50" Samsung that is dying, and it will get me a 52" Sony LCD.
Me experience with Dell has been great. I bought it with Windows Vista, and booted it out completely in favour of Linux. While I can handle most software side defects, they help you independent of the OS. While the person on the phone might have a little trouble _explaining_ steps, the service engineer is well versed in Linux ( You can put in a request for one,if need be ), and the extended warranty covers _everything_ except the battery. I am planning on getting a new motherboard as my input jack is zapped. I'll probably post again with the experience.
Whoever suggested to read the warranty terms and conditions before complaining is 100% right.
"Best Buy" here is a reseller + service provider, so they could add their own terms and restrictions in addition to any terms specified by a manufacturer. You need to be careful there. If your user guide or manual says "Designed for windows" or "XXX recommends Windows", etc, you may be already voiding your warranty by using Linux. I am sure each and every user manual suggests using the product "as intended". So, you have to understand what it is "intended" for as well (in legal terms).
Also, could you define "Linux Consumer"??? If you purchased a PC with Linux installed, I can see it. but if you did not purchase anything Linux related...
Also, if the Geek Squad were to check Linux license you agreed to by installing, I am sure they could point out all the legal text that wanrs you about potetial additional risks to your data and hardware. So you need to read that one carefully as well...
I think the more important question here is...
Why would you shop at Bestbuy?
There is no machine sold at Bestbuy that cannot be ordered online at Amazon (who will take back a modified machine) or from Dell (who has supported and repaired many of my client's netbooks that have been reformatted with linux). Both of these vendors offer lower prices and better support than I would ever expect from Bestbuy.
"Now it is very likely that most hardware defects would appear during the legal warranty"
IMHO most of the hardware defects happen immediately(2-6 months) after the default warranty and therefore it does make sense to buy the extra warranty. If you are a linux geek, you won't have trouble figuring out hte s/w issues anyway.
By Linux consumer, I mean the consumer that wants to purchase hardware, but does not want to use the provided software or operating system (usually by replacing it with Linux). I used the term "Linux consumer" because the definition above would have sounded bad in the title.
Also, I agree with the concept of "check your warranty". Often you do have more rights than what the shop attendant is aware of. Unfortunately the "legalese" these warranty are written in is usually difficult to understand and most people don't bother to read it.
Living in France, I'd like to point a few things and overall tone down your enthusiasm:
While it's true some consumers have gone to court to obtain reimbursement of the bundled OS, and won, the since-installed refund procedure is actually handled by the oem themselves: you have to ship back the purchased computer and have another one in return, with a formatted HDD. Quite unconvenient. Furthermore, not all OEMs have put a RMA circuit for handling those types of requests (namely: HP, Dell, Lenovo, Apple & Sony).
Also, while several court decisions confirmed it is illegal to deny requests for refund, it is not mandatory for resellers to inform buyers of their rights :
"même si cette information peut entrer en ligne de compte au moment de l’achat, elle n’en revêt pas pour autant un caractère substantiel puisque, ce qui importe avant tout pour le consommateur, c’est de connaître le prix global de l’objet proposé à la vente" (while [knowing the price of each separate component] may be helpful in the purchase process, it is not substantial enough [to be mandatory], since what matters to the end consumer is the bottom line.)
Post a Comment