The Schiit Warranty Debate

All Schiit products are completely made up of off the shelf parts expect for a couple brackets in Vidar and the light pipes on the new products. Technicians should be able to repair these products, I get vintage audio equipment repaired and restored all the time.

 

It gets even better. Schiit can't void the warranty on their products because someone else repaired them as long as the repairs are done properly. For example, if a cap fails on the Gungnir main board and it replaced properly with the correct part by your next door neighbor, Schiit cannot void you warranty UNLESS they can show that the repair damaged the product.

 

If you are going to do all the repairs yourself, why are you even worried about having a warranty then?

 

I don’t mean to be a dick, but I was responding to your post about what can and can’t be done legally. You are well intentioned but you don’t know what you are talking about here. The bottom line here is that Schiit cannot void your warranty if you open up the case of a Schiit product.

 

I suppose @schiit could chime in and elaborate. Or.. probably not. If they say 'sure open'er up' every retard with a can opener will take a stab at it.

 

Does opening up a Gungnir to do a Gen 5 upgrade void the warranty? If not then I highly doubt that opening the DAC to just look at the inside will void it.

 

Ok, from the FTC site, I did find this (which is a piece of the puzzle I was missing):

And the site Motherboard had this to say

So... I'm wrong. Not the first time. It was interesting exploring this though, as reading the information in the MMW Act and the FTC information I found did not explicitly state those stickers were a no no. Seeing how the Act get interpreted is quite interesting.

 

I really see no difference between this and a computer that most of us have upgraded at some point.

Basically don't do any mods or scratch up the inside with a screwdriver and you'll preserve the warranty.

 

Well, I won't be opening mine up.. sorry folks!

 

I love Mike dearly....and he certainly can say whatever he wants to say....but that does not change the fact that what he says about opening a DAC violating the warranty in the USA is just plain wrong. If that is Schiit's policy, and they cancelled a warranty on a customer's Schiit DAC just because they opened it, they would lose in any legal proceeding.

 

And the legal proceedings would cost more than a new dac... Carry on.

 

Not in small claims court, which is what this would be.

http://www.courts.ca.gov/1062.htm

 

Well, all it really should take is a conversation with Jason about the law to get them to back down. If not that, a trip to small claims court with some information from the FTC web site would result in a quick win. I don't think Jason would let it go that far. That's against his business philosophy.

 

If you are in CA. If you are not, it's attorneys and all the $ that goes with it.

 

I'll just add that I'm too lazy to wait for even a small claims court process. I would end up buying something in the meantime

 

The person I was talking to was in California. Even out of state, you don't need an attorney to argue a warranty claim. Are you people helpless? There are no sophisticated legal claims: warranty exists, product broke within the warrant period, asked the manufacturer for relief without success, now ask for damages to repair or replace the product.

That'll be $500, thanks.

 

Bottom line, whether this is a valid legal stance or not, Schiit have clearly stated it. So unless they change their policy, the question individual buyers need to answer is whether you are willing to take the risk and/or go through the hassle of fighting with Schiit on it if you happened to need to make a warranty claim after having opened it.

Probably no big deal for some but for others, not worth it.

Edit: removed the bank account comment - not needed. Also I'm in Canada, so no idea how any of this would affect those outside the U.S. - not familiar with our laws around this.

 

It's not worth the risk for Schiit to deny service in this scenario. Banking the future of their business over the willingness of their customers not to care enough to take it to small claims? Nah.

 

Wow, it must be a slow news week.

Why don't you come back to us when we deny your warranty claim?

Because, you know, I don't think we've ever denied a warranty claim unless the product was simply destroyed by the mods.

I wish I had photos of one Mjolnir where the owner broke off the potentiometer and drilled out the MOSFET screws on the back in an attempt to get into the chassis. Yes, that one cost the owner. We've also had a couple that looked like they were dropped to the bottom of the sea and left there for a year or so. Yeah, those warranties got denied too.

Here's how it really works: we usually bend over backwards to provide service above and beyond the warranty.

When we get stuff that's been obviously taken apart, it usually results in a note from service being sent back with the repair docs, stating "product has been disassembled." This is just to say "hey, we noticed." It doesn't come with a bill.

However, I'm not going to be changing our stance on "no user-serviceable parts inside."

Why? Because if we say it's OK to open it up, and you happen to do so...while in the tub, enjoying a nice salt bath, with the product plugged in...your next of kin may decide to hire a lawyer, who may get someone to see if we ever even suggested it was OK to open up the product...and if we did, then you probably wouldn't have to worry about warranties anymore, because we'd be out of business.

 

Funny, I just read through several Schiit product warranties and I could find none that said opening a product violated the warranty. The warranties do say that the product cannot be "tampered with" what ever the heck that actually means to them. Here is what the dictionary says:

tamper with: to change or touch (something) especially in a way that causes damage or harm.

Based on that definition, I don't think Schiit puts in legal text anywhere that you can't open their products.

Regardless, I think this is a bunch of hullabaloo about nothing. Schiit is not going to void your warranty for just opening a case. I don't care what Mike says. Saying that the warranty is void if you open the case is the same thing as putting a seal on a product and saying the warranty is void if the seal is broken. The later is clearly illegal thus so is the former. Jason is a smart guy and, if he doesn't know that it illegal now, he would figure out that it is very quickly.