a laptop battery

Laptop warranties from the manufactures are very deceptive to say the least. It always amazes me when I purchase a new laptop what type of warranty hog-wash the computer manufactures are willing to print and distribute to the consumer.

Lets go over a warranty from a laptop I purchased last week. In the warranty the manufacture claims that the laptop is free from defects in workmanship for a period of 12 months. But goes on to say in the same paragraph that the warranty does not include failure caused by improper operation or normal wear and tear; does this mean that my teenager, who is a known abuser of the T.V., car, and stereo, who is very hard on the computer keypad will absolve the warranty?

There are times when you will buy a laptop, you get the laptop home, and you may not like how the mouse works or you feel the color just doesnt suit you. So you take it back to the distributor, and they in turn send the computer back to the manufacturer. The manufacturer tests the laptop, and brings the computer back to its original design specifications to be resold to the consumer.

To make matters worse, if you analyze all the laptop distributors, 67 percent of these laptop distributors will not have any type of refund policy. The 33 percent of laptop distributors, who do have a refund policy, either have a 7 day refund policy or a 14 day refund policy.

Its estimated that people who return their laptop (within 30 days) after purchase only account for 4 percent of the over-all refurbished market. The other 96 percent of refurbished laptops re-sold are between two and three years old, which the standard and extended manufactures warranties have expired.

Lets say you purchased a laptop for $400 dollars on the internet from a standard laptop distributor. And lets say for discussion the laptop was damaged in transit. You would want your money back.

The laptop was created so you take your computer with you"wherever you decided to go to. The warranty sounds contradictory to the design goal of building and manufacturing a laptop.

Lets take a look. The price of the laptop was $290 dollars; they then charged a restocking fee of 15%, which brought the value down to $246.50 dollars. But you lost $110 in additional shipping costs to ship the laptop to you, and you spent another $110 dollars to ship the computer back to the distributor.

What about refurbished laptops? Approximately 96% of all refurbished laptops have no warranties at all, since the warranty had expired for some time. But I see on the internet that distributors of refurbished laptops claim there is a 3 or 6 month warranty"but in reality there is none. I call this deceptive marketing, and Im being kind to them.

But there are some very honest laptop distributors willing to tell you the truth concerning warranties, but they are few. Make certain if you buy a refurbished laptop; that it comes with a minimum of a 30 day money back guarantee, with a 100% store credit for 90 days so you can get a new laptop"just in case your computer breaks down.

In addition, only 45 percent of distributors offer a parts and labor warranty outside of the manufactures warranty"and the majority of these warranties are for 30 days. How sad.

And again, always get a warranty through the laptop distributor, beyond the manufacturers warranty"just in case youre refurbished laptop breaks (or any computer for that matter). Laptops are machines, and all machines break down sooner or later, so you might as well have a warranty that is on the consumer side versus the manufacturers.

Sincerely, John Roth

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