5 year warranty in other countries , but only 1 year warranty in India

[Nitin K]

Hi Fm's,

The warranty clause for India pertaining to electronic equipments has always been an enigma and quite confusing at least for me since many years. Most of the mainstream gear especially amplifiers will have a 5 year warranty in US, Canada, UK and other european countries but only 1 year in India barring very few companies . There have been quite a few cases I have heard where the component has conked off just after a year and the person is unable to claim any warranty on repairs especially on televisions.

Is this because the manufacturers feel :

1) Indians are the lesser privileged ones as compared to customers in other countries.

2) Indians pay way less than others .( Actually in most cases, the opposite is quite true thanks to high taxes, duties , logistics and in some cases high dealer margins).

3) Indian users don't know how to treat and use their gear.

4) We come in the dishonest category where the user will try to go to any extent to get the gear repaired at the company's expense even if it is his/her fault.

If there is any well informed user who knows the real logical reason behind this 1 year warranty mystery, then kindly enlighten us and would be grateful for the same.Thank you.

 

[Dinesh Menon]

Hi Fm's,

The warranty clause for India pertaining to electronic equipments has always been an enigma and quite confusing at least for me since many years. Most of the mainstream gear especially amplifiers will have a 5 year warranty in US, Canada, UK and other european countries but only 1 year in India barring very few companies . There have been quite a few cases I have heard where the component has conked off just after a year and the person is unable to claim any warranty on repairs especially on televisions.

Is this because the manufacturers feel :

1) Indians are the lesser privileged ones as compared to customers in other countries.

2) Indians pay way less than others .( Actually in most cases, the opposite is quite true thanks to high taxes, duties and logistics).

3) Indian users don't know how to treat and use their gear.

4) We come in the dishonest category where the user will try to go to any extent to get the gear repaired at the company's expense even if it is his/her fault.

If there is any well informed user who knows the real logical reason behind this 1 year warranty mystery, then kindly enlighten us and would be grateful for the same.Thank you.

Either they are selling inferior quality ones and playing safe; As Indian consumers accept it and never complain or demand, so they continue this double standards.
It's my take after some research

 

[donmathew90]

Hi Fm's,

The warranty clause for India pertaining to electronic equipments has always been an enigma and quite confusing at least for me since many years. Most of the mainstream gear especially amplifiers will have a 5 year warranty in US, Canada, UK and other european countries but only 1 year in India barring very few companies . There have been quite a few cases I have heard where the component has conked off just after a year and the person is unable to claim any warranty on repairs especially on televisions.

Is this because the manufacturers feel :

1) Indians are the lesser privileged ones as compared to customers in other countries.

2) Indians pay way less than others .( Actually in most cases, the opposite is quite true thanks to high taxes, duties , logistics and in some cases high dealer margins).

3) Indian users don't know how to treat and use their gear.

4) We come in the dishonest category where the user will try to go to any extent to get the gear repaired at the company's expense even if it is his/her fault.

If there is any well informed user who knows the real logical reason behind this 1 year warranty mystery, then kindly enlighten us and would be grateful for the same.Thank you.

It's apparently due to the low quality of electricity plagued with power cuts and voltage fluctuations that we get.

 

[AP@1992]

Hi Fm's,

The warranty clause for India pertaining to electronic equipments has always been an enigma and quite confusing at least for me since many years. Most of the mainstream gear especially amplifiers will have a 5 year warranty in US, Canada, UK and other european countries but only 1 year in India barring very few companies . There have been quite a few cases I have heard where the component has conked off just after a year and the person is unable to claim any warranty on repairs especially on televisions.

Is this because the manufacturers feel :

1) Indians are the lesser privileged ones as compared to customers in other countries.

2) Indians pay way less than others .( Actually in most cases, the opposite is quite true thanks to high taxes, duties , logistics and in some cases high dealer margins).

3) Indian users don't know how to treat and use their gear.

4) We come in the dishonest category where the user will try to go to any extent to get the gear repaired at the company's expense even if it is his/her fault.

If there is any well informed user who knows the real logical reason behind this 1 year warranty mystery, then kindly enlighten us and would be grateful for the same.Thank you.

My experience has been the same. I had used various Rega products in past. Whilst outside of India, Rega offers life time warranty on manufacturing defects, it's India warranty is misleading and bizzare. The office Rega India site say 'limited life time warranty', however the dealer will also say warranty is only for one year. This is a very sorry situation and I haven't been able to figure out if it's the company/or dealer who is at fault

 

[Nitin K]

It's apparently due to the low quality of electricity plagued with power cuts and voltage fluctuations that we get.

This could be a probable reason which is true in some regions. Though quite a few fms do have stabilizers, ups and power conditioners as safety measures.

This is a very sorry situation and I haven't been able to figure out if it's the company/or dealer who is at fault

Totally agree with you on that.

 

[Nagaraj S]

The quality of power supply in India is often quoted as the reason for 1 year warranty but I suspect that the general absence of the culture of customer-centric support in India (just tickets and 1800 numbers do not qualify as one) is the reason that the manufacturers get away with it. But with the e-commerce and the mobility revolution in India, I see customer support slowing changing, but 1 year for expensive electronic equipment just doesn’t seem enough.

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

Apart from the reasons mentioned in replies above, could it be to do with the distributorship available here in India? I’ve seen that distributors for key international brands (eg Cambridge, Macintosh) keep changing frequently. Since warrant administration is usually done through service centres of the distributors, perhaps the manufacturers don’t feel sure of continued service by the distributor who sells, after a year or so?

 

[Nitin K]

The quality of power supply in India is often quoted as the reason for 1 year warranty

Apart from the reasons mentioned in replies above, could it be to do with the distributorship available here in India? I’ve seen that distributors for key international brands (eg Cambridge, Macintosh) keep changing frequently. Since warrant administration is usually done through service centres of the distributors, perhaps the manufacturers don’t feel sure of continued service by the distributor who sells, after a year or so?

The 2 reasons of unstable electricity and changing distributorship for brands do seem logical for a shorter warranty much to the dismay of the Indian users though. I guess it can't be helped from a general manufacturer's perpective.

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

Hi Fm's,

The warranty clause for India pertaining to electronic equipments has always been an enigma and quite confusing at least for me since many years. Most of the mainstream gear especially amplifiers will have a 5 year warranty in US, Canada, UK and other european countries but only 1 year in India barring very few companies . There have been quite a few cases I have heard where the component has conked off just after a year and the person is unable to claim any warranty on repairs especially on televisions.

Is this because the manufacturers feel :

1) Indians are the lesser privileged ones as compared to customers in other countries.

2) Indians pay way less than others .( Actually in most cases, the opposite is quite true thanks to high taxes, duties , logistics and in some cases high dealer margins).

3) Indian users don't know how to treat and use their gear.

4) We come in the dishonest category where the user will try to go to any extent to get the gear repaired at the company's expense even if it is his/her fault.

If there is any well informed user who knows the real logical reason behind this 1 year warranty mystery, then kindly enlighten us and would be grateful for the same.Thank you.

For a company to actually provide warranty, they need their actual presence in the country by having authorized service centers. In the case of India, Hifi equipment is sold less in numbers compared to Europe and US. On the top of it the country is large and considering the size, we need more localized service centers which adds more cost. Most of the time the service center will be therefore shared across multiple brands or even dealers themselves will have the technicians who may not be authorized by all the brands they are dealing with. Considering everything the distributors know it’s a headache to coordinate the warranty thing and they keep it for a shorter period. It’s sad, but if everyone buys more speakers and amps things would change.

 

[donmathew90]

Btw, SVS provides 5 years of warranty in India and I think that's remarkable!

 

[Nitin K]

For a company to actually provide warranty, they need their actual presence in the country by having authorized service centers. In the case of India, Hifi equipment is sold less in numbers compared to Europe and US. On the top of it the country is large and considering the size, we need more localized service centers which adds more cost. Most of the time the service center will be therefore shared across multiple brands or even dealers themselves will have the technicians who may not be authorized by all the brands they are dealing with. Considering everything the distributors know it’s a headache to coordinate the warranty thing and they keep it for a shorter period. It’s sad, but if everyone buys more speakers and amps things would change.

Marantz has a dealer cum service center " MZ Audio" in Mumbai , yet warranty is 1 year only in India. In fact a lot of Denon - Marantz avr's are sold in India compared to other brand avrs.

US, Canada and Australia too are bigger countries than India , but the logistics is taken care of. Infact they can try products and return them if they are not satisfied within the stipulated period for a lot of products.

Btw, SVS provides 5 years of warranty in India and I think that's remarkable!

Hence I had mentioned barring few companies in the post. Infact if I am not mistaken, Arendal has a 10 year warranty here which is rare & simply superb and shows their confidence of quality and reliability in their products.

 

[donmathew90]

Marantz has a dealer cum service center " MZ Audio" in Mumbai , yet warranty is 1 year only in India. In fact a lot of Denon - Marantz avr's are sold in India compared to other brand avrs.

US, Canada and Australia too are bigger countries than India , but the logistics is taken care of. Infact they can try products and return them if they are not satisfied within the stipulated period for a lot of products.


Hence I had mentioned barring few companies in the post. Infact if I am not mistaken, Arendal has a 10 year warranty here which is rare & simply superb and shows their confidence of quality and reliability in their products.

Oh wow! I didn't know that.

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

Marantz has a dealer cum service center " MZ Audio" in Mumbai , yet warranty is 1 year only in India. In fact a lot of Denon - Marantz avr's are sold in India compared to other brand avrs.

US, Canada and Australia too are bigger countries than India , but the logistics is taken care of. Infact they can try products and return them if they are not satisfied within the stipulated period for a lot of products.


Hence I had mentioned barring few companies in the post. Infact if I am not mistaken, Arendal has a 10 year warranty here which is rare & simply superb and shows their confidence of quality and reliability in their products.

Return policy in those countries is forced by the government themselves. AVR normally comes it’s 1 year warranty but in EU there is a forced warranty of 2 years which they are obliged to give. So if the country doesn’t have a rule they only would give the bare minimum.

 

[Nitin K]

Return policy in those countries is forced by the government themselves. AVR normally comes it’s 1 year warranty but in EU there is a forced warranty of 2 years which they are obliged to give. So if the country doesn’t have a rule they only would give the bare minimum.

Going by that logic then if 2 years is the bare minimum warranty in the EU , yet the manufacturers offer 5 to 10 years there and in some cases even lifetime warranty which is quite puzzling then !

 

[Passive_audio_enthusiast]

Going by that logic then if 2 years is the bare minimum warranty in the EU , yet the manufacturers offer 5 to 10 years there and in some cases even lifetime warranty which is quite puzzling then !

For speakers it’s quite normal to have 5 years as there are less things to go wrong. As we pay more, on electronics also we get a 5 year warranty in Europe.

 

[Nitin K]

Sure, customers in Europe and US are very lucky then.

 

[nagbbv]

Climate is also another reason.

 

[Nitin K]

Climate is also another reason.

Not sure about that since UK & Japan also get decent rainfall.
Though totally agree that moisture does impact electronics. I guess manufacturers do take that into account.

 

[mark2gp]

Climate is also another reason.

I would rather term it "extreme weather conditions" - blazing hot summers, sub zero winters, torrential rains plus all the dust and humidity.
My disc players occassionally refuse to read disks in the rainy season, and proper storage and periodic vaccumi g of media components is essential.
I had an hd media player soc box in an upstairs room, which started to malfunction in the summer afternoons. The problem went away only after I manually added a couple of heat vents to the enclosure.

 

[Sumeet rastogi]

I've stopped buying foreign speakers and amplifiers purely because of lack of after sales support
No single company has a company owned service center in India despite being selling here for decades
Eg onkyo. Marantz

I hate to and refuse to be treated like dirt where they sell stuff and then leave you to the mercy of unqualified service centers and technicians who use antiquated diagnostic modalities

Burnt my hands with a couple of amplifier companies

So as far as possible I stick to analogue amplifier that are made in india
Better warranty
Easy to repair.