American warranty policies?

[horizonseeker]

are you in the UK? is that "week" including send it in, repair, and return shipment?

I"m in california and shipping to leatherman in oregon, plus repair and return shipping, last time it took about 3 weeks.

 

[*Dusty*]

Again, I think you are totally misunderstanding who 4sevens and Eagletac are. Eagletac is a manufacturer in China, 4sevens is just one of many distributors for it. The delay is NOT because of 47's, but because of a delay the factory had in sending out your replacement. You would have most likely had a similar delay in ANY distributor you chose, and a much greater chance of much crappier customer service.

The difference in the UK is that when a customer purchases something the contract of sale is with the Vendor, and the vendor is then the point of contact and responsibility for warranty work. If the vendor cannot repair the item within a "reasonable" timespan the customer has every right to ask for a refund or replacement while the product is still in its warranty period.

 

[wapkil]

The difference in the UK is that when a customer purchases something the contract of sale is with the Vendor, and the vendor is then the point of contact and responsibility for warranty work. If the vendor cannot repair the item within a "reasonable" timespan the customer has every right to ask for a refund or replacement while the product is still in its warranty period.

That's how it works not only in the UK but the whole EU. There is an appropriate directive defining the minimum level of consumer protection. It can be extended by member states but one of the requirements is that the seller is always directly liable to the consumer. The idea is that if the seller profits from selling the goods, he also has to take the full responsibility for them.

EDIT to clarify: as far as I know the responsibility is limited to the contract of the sale, that is guarantee, exchange, repair etc. So if for example the product turns out to be dangerous, the seller has to repair it or reimburse the cost but the responsibility for the damages is still on the producer.

 

[alpg88]

are you in the UK? is that "week" including send it in, repair, and return shipment?

I"m in california and shipping to leatherman in oregon, plus repair and return shipping, last time it took about 3 weeks.

i,m in brooklyn, i've sent my tools and 1 light (not the best one i had) may be 5 times, never waited longer than a week, may be cuz i used fedex everytime made it so fast idk.
yes a week from the day i brought it to fed ex till the day fedex brought it back.
i'll be sending my wave, and old knife this week, i'll keep packing slips, and post them after.

 

[jzmtl]

Man, you EU guys should count yourself lucky. It's been 69 days since I've sent in my zebralight and I'm still waiting, and request for store credit after 2 months of waiting has been refused.

 

[wapkil]

Man, you EU guys should count yourself lucky. It's been 69 days since I've sent in my zebralight and I'm still waiting, and request for store credit after 2 months of waiting has been refused.

As others wrote before in this thread, it would be considered unacceptable here. The store could try to ignore you, hoping that you wouldn't want to pursue such a small claim but in my experience it usually doesn't happen. They wouldn't want to damage their reputation, especially not in case of such low cost items.

It is convenient to buyers but may be one of the reasons why things in Europe are more expensive (although higher taxes are probably a much more important factor).

 

[f22shift]

Man, you EU guys should count yourself lucky. It's been 69 days since I've sent in my zebralight and I'm still waiting, and request for store credit after 2 months of waiting has been refused.

which store?

 

[jzmtl]

which store?

47

 

[f22shift]

47

hmm tough one. do you blame zebralight or the store who sent it back for you(i'm assuming they did). double jeers?

 

[jzmtl]

I have no clue what is the warranty arrangement between them so can't really say, but I know I'm staying the hell away from zebralight from now on.

I think a request for store credit after TWO MONTHS of waiting is not unreasonable, but CS at 47 is the same tone as when I first had the problem, a big fat NO. There are some other things, and overall I'm not happy at all with their CS.

The window on Dosun bike light I bought from 47 fell off right out of package, but I think I'll just keep and deal with it, don't want to go through 2+ months (still don't have H60 back) of waiting again.

 

[wapkil]

I have no clue what is the warranty arrangement between them so can't really say, but I know I'm staying the hell away from zebralight from now on.

I think a request for store credit after TWO MONTHS of waiting is not unreasonable, but CS at 47 is the same tone as when I first had the problem, a big fat NO. There are some other things, and overall I'm not happy at all with their CS.

You have every right to be angry but I'm not sure if the delay is really ZebraLight fault. I remember reading a few reports from people sending their lights directly to ZebraLight for RMA and they seemed to be satisfied with the CS. IIRC the full procedure was usually taking two or three weeks when the lights were being sent to China (and now I think there is a ZebraLight facility in Texas).

In my experience one of the benefits of dealing directly with the store that you bought the product from (instead of the remote factory) is that with small items they usually send you a replacement soon after your RMA is verified. Small items are usually not repaired by the factory but replaced by a new one, so the store can immediately send one (if they have it in stock), knowing that they will receive a replacement from the manufacturer afterwards. It costs them only a single item less in stock before the replacement arrives and gains customer satisfaction. I don't know why it didn't work this way in your case - maybe ZebraLight repairs the items and doesn't issue replacements instead?

 

[jzmtl]

You have every right to be angry but I'm not sure if the delay is really ZebraLight fault. I remember reading a few reports from people sending their lights directly to ZebraLight for RMA and they seemed to be satisfied with the CS. IIRC the full procedure was usually taking two or three weeks when the lights were being sent to China (and now I think there is a ZebraLight facility in Texas).

In my experience one of the benefits of dealing directly with the store that you bought the product from (instead of the remote factory) is that with small items they usually send you a replacement soon after your RMA is verified. Small items are usually not repaired by the factory but replaced by a new one, so the store can immediately send one (if they have it in stock), knowing that they will receive a replacement from the manufacturer afterwards. It costs them only a single item less in stock before the replacement arrives and gains customer satisfaction. I don't know why it didn't work this way in your case - maybe ZebraLight repairs the items and doesn't issue replacements instead?

You are right, perhaps I should've gone through ZL directly and it would've been quicker. But as you said I expected the dealer to be more active in the whole process instead of just remail my light to manufacturer and tell me to wait it out.

Obviously I was wrong as far as ZL + 47 is concerned.

 

[LukeA]

I've never had a problem with a Pelican product that wasn't resolved within a week (from 3000 miles away).

 

[vb14]

Whenever you buy something defective, or unsatisfactory, your credit card is your best allie... Dispute it, sit back and relax...

 

[Patriot]

You are right, perhaps I should've gone through ZL directly and it would've been quicker. But as you said I expected the dealer to be more active in the whole process instead of just remail my light to manufacturer and tell me to wait it out.

Obviously I was wrong as far as ZL + 47 is concerned.

I would have naively assumed the same thing myself jzmtl. That is, figuring retailer would have would have a bit more hands on approach to help get the problem resolved. It's almost like they assume you may have done something to break the light and have to research it first to verify that you didn't. I think this is funny because the light's are make to work with li-ion cells so there really isn't anything you can do to hurt them. As long as the light appears to be in good shape, I wonder why they don't just send a new one and caulk up the return to their research department? I sure hope this is resolved soon because it leave me a bit sour on ZL (I own two of them). Knowing that 47 was working to help things more along would return the warm fuzzies that I normally have for them too.

 

[jzmtl]

Whenever you buy something defective, or unsatisfactory, your credit card is your best allie... Dispute it, sit back and relax...

Too late. This light/order was a mess from start. They didn't send me the bundled charger/battery when I bought it (it's my 1st 18650 light so I had nothing else to use), and took me over a month to get it. And when the problem first came up I didn't go to CC dispute because they had good reputation on CS, so the dispute period has passed.

I would have naively assumed the same thing myself jzmtl. That is, figuring retailer would have would have a bit more hands on approach to help get the problem resolved. It's almost like they assume you may have done something to break the light and have to research it first to verify that you didn't. I think this is funny because the light's are make to work with li-ion cells so there really isn't anything you can do to hurt them. As long as the light appears to be in good shape, I wonder why they don't just send a new one and caulk up the return to their research department? I sure hope this is resolved soon because it leave me a bit sour on ZL (I own two of them). Knowing that 47 was working to help things more along would return the warm fuzzies that I normally have for them too.

Yeah, the sad thing is I literally used the light twice, once look for stuff in back yard and once night fishing, and only used batteries/charger included with the light.

 

[wapkil]

Too late. This light/order was a mess from start. They didn't send me the bundled charger/battery when I bought it (it's my 1st 18650 light so I had nothing else to use), and took me over a month to get it. And when the problem first came up I didn't go to CC dispute because they had good reputation on CS, so the dispute period has passed.

I never reversed a transaction using the chargeback process but as far as I remember you have 120 days from the day you noticed a problem (at least with Visa cards). I think you may be confusing chargeback with PayPal dispute, which probably wasn't even worth trying anyway. I don't know though if chargeback can be used in North America for a claim resulting from the repair demand not performed within a reasonable time.

 

[wapkil]

I would have naively assumed the same thing myself jzmtl. That is, figuring retailer would have would have a bit more hands on approach to help get the problem resolved. It's almost like they assume you may have done something to break the light and have to research it first to verify that you didn't. I think this is funny because the light's are make to work with li-ion cells so there really isn't anything you can do to hurt them. As long as the light appears to be in good shape, I wonder why they don't just send a new one and caulk up the return to their research department? I sure hope this is resolved soon because it leave me a bit sour on ZL (I own two of them).

I think ZebraLight is probably just sending a new flashlight, as you wrote. The problem may be in the chosen shipping method. According to fubar's post, it takes two weeks for the item to arrive from 4sevens to ZebraLight. If I understand correctly, it also already took more than a week after 4sevens informed jzmtl that they are sending the light back to him. Add some time necessary for handling the items and it easily adds up to two months in transit to ZL and back. I don't know though why the dealer couldn't send a new light after the broken one is delivered to him or at least have the replacement shipped from China as soon as the RMA validity is locally confirmed.

 

[jzmtl]

Well I finally got my H60 back today, 11.5 weeks after I sent it out, so the nightmare is over, more or less (18650 is damaged in the process because of sloppy packaging, but screw it, I don't want to deal with it anymore).

ZL did replace it with a new one (I secretly marked the old one), duno why they couldn't just replace it from the start like you said, or just give me store credit and sell the new unit to somebody else, and they'd still have my money and trust. Would've saved a lot of frustration either way, but I guess they thought otherwise.

 

[tpolley]

two recent experiences for me:

i sent in a victorinox swiss army knife for warranty repair. i dropped it one too many times and both plastic sides came off. it took about a month to get a letter in the mail saying they had recieved the knife and it would be 4 to 6 weeks before i get it back. i got it back fixed, cleaned and sharpened about 5 weeks later. about 2 months total.

about a week after i sent the swiss army knife i sent in a gerber knife with a broken pocket clip and a missing thumb stud. i got a brand new knife about 3 weeks later 3 weeks before i got back the swiss army knife which i had sent a week prior. granted victorinox chose to repair the knife and gerber simply replaced it.

not upset about the wait on either deal. the swiss army knife mostly sits in my desk.