This whole 'you bought it from us but when something goes wrong, you have to talk to the manufacturer' thing really threw me when I first moved to North America from Australia.
Now unless things have drastically changed in the last 6 or 7 years since I moved, the big difference I saw was that back there, you deal with the place you bought it from. In fact, I was under the impression that it was illegal to palm you off to the manufacturer.
As my PC wholesaler used to say: "they are your customer, not ours... you are our customer". That is to say, if our customer had a problem, we dealt with it. If there was a problem with the hardware, then we deal with our wholesaler and they deal with theirs if need be.
Of course all the big electronics companies had support lines and so on, but yeah, I always used to take things back to where I bought them and why wouldn't I? There's a reason I gave you my custom in the first place!
In NA the retailer is only, legally, involved up to the first 30 days. After that the manufacturer warranty takes over, which can be anywhere from 90 days to 5 years depending on the device.
30 days, some items can be less and some stores (Costco) can have a longer return/exchange period.
Thanks for the clarification on that. It's kind of funny, as I haven't really paid much attention to that side of things as (1) I haven't had anything fail within 30 days... yet; and (2) I would have just assumed that they were trying to make out like they were being helpful about it, if that makes sense. Put another way, I would have assumed that it was easier to just go straight to the manufacturer anyway, despite how painful that can be.
It's a loophole in the consumer protection system. Basically you can return any item for any reason in the first 30 days, including failure, and the store can't refuse it (some exceptions apply). If you're dealing with the manufacturer your purchase can be out for repair for weeks if not months. So from a customer view it makes sense to return it to the store.
Now unless things have drastically changed in the last 6 or 7 years since I moved, the big difference I saw was that back there, you deal with the place you bought it from. In fact, I was under the impression that it was illegal to palm you off to the manufacturer.
As my PC wholesaler used to say: "they are your customer, not ours... you are our customer". That is to say, if our customer had a problem, we dealt with it. If there was a problem with the hardware, then we deal with our wholesaler and they deal with theirs if need be.
Of course all the big electronics companies had support lines and so on, but yeah, I always used to take things back to where I bought them and why wouldn't I? There's a reason I gave you my custom in the first place!