We'll give you an insight on how laptop warranty repair service works and sometimes doesn’t work for you and your laptop. The major vendors I have dealt with over the years all have their own ways of providing warranty service.
Most have found that warranty service is a too large a headache to shoulder themselves so they employ the services of authorized service centers, companies that offer to provide warranty services on behalf of the vendor for a small reimbursement per repair.
The Vendor will generally provide some guidelines for the service center to operate under, some of guidelines are strict ones based around what they consider warranty repairs. I have found over the years that the perception the consumer has of warranty can differ from that of the vendors.
Software issues are a classic example, vendors do not warranty software and applications just because it was preinstalled on their hardware. Toshiba and IBM (Lenovo) for instance go to great pains to put stickers on several layers of packaging you have to cut through to get to your new beast that state that they do not guarantee the operation of the unit will be free of software problems, or words to that effect.
And yet customers continue to call vendors help desks complaining that a service centre they have been directed to for warranty service has advised them that charges will apply for software fixes for their 3 month old laptops, they are generally directed to the fine print that they would have seen whilst getting their new laptop out of the box.
If customers make enough noise about the issue the vendor will often call upon the service centre to have another look at the machine and advise what they find then often the vendor will reimburse the service centre for services to keep the customer happy. Be warned that you probably won't get this sort of service more than once, that particular service will be recorded by the vendors for future reference.
Warranty for these devices is for hardware defects and faults, bad sectors on your hard disk, USB ports that don’t work or laptops that simply won't switch on. You will have no problems getting these issues with your laptop fixed if you have all the requirements the vendor or service centre needs to log a laptop warranty repair claim.
However these requirements can be an issue if you the customer can’t provide model and serial number details from your laptop. This can happen if the serial number sticker has rubbed off or the sticker is damaged. These details can often be retrieved from the systems bios in these cases, a service centre that knows their stuff will be able to retrieve this for you with no fuss.
This may not be an option for you if you have had a mainboard replacement and the mainboard's BIOS hasn’t been updated with your model and serial number. Previous repair history is something that could get you out of this situation, get a physical record of service when you can.
Customers are mostly unaware of what goes on behind the scenes to provide warranty service. Laptop faults need to be verified, replacement parts ordered, parts need to be fitted and testing can often take longer than expected.
Verifying faults: Vendors often request that service centers perform a number of tests before processing warranty claims.
Warranty claim logging: Some of the vendors differ here considerably with systems they have in place for how service centers log warranty claims for replacement parts. Online systems like Toshiba’s TOPIC system clearly outshines others and is easy to use and full of relevant information files, drivers, bios updates, parts manuals and more.
IBM’s EClaim remote desktop system although practical is clearly behind the times, uploading of claims via data transfer is slow and old hat, limited in function and requires emails and phone calls to IBM to log claims.
HP have an online system called CSN which is good, but in my experience can sometimes be buggy and slow. CSN provides warranty processing and some other services.
Fujitsu also have an online system called HEAT, once again limited in comparison to TOPIC, but functional when it isn’t down. HEAT provides warranty claim processing and some other parts related services.
ACER also uses a remote system called Clarify, a good system full of functions for all warranty related parts and history information. It needs an upgrade or a move to an online web based system which would help Acers profile in the repair space when it comes to parts.
These systems can often let the service centers down by being cumbersome or slow and sometimes simply unavailable, of course this is not always the case. The volumes of repairs or issues troubleshooting an intermittent fault can also cause a problem which in turn results is a slow repair turnaround for you the customer. Parts that are unavailable from the vendors are another issue that frustrates service centre operators, preventing them from providing the service to deal with laptop warranty repair claims as quickly as they would like to.
Most have found that warranty service is a too large a headache to shoulder themselves so they employ the services of authorized service centers, companies that offer to provide warranty services on behalf of the vendor for a small reimbursement per repair.
The Vendor will generally provide some guidelines for the service center to operate under, some of guidelines are strict ones based around what they consider warranty repairs. I have found over the years that the perception the consumer has of warranty can differ from that of the vendors.
Software issues are a classic example, vendors do not warranty software and applications just because it was preinstalled on their hardware. Toshiba and IBM (Lenovo) for instance go to great pains to put stickers on several layers of packaging you have to cut through to get to your new beast that state that they do not guarantee the operation of the unit will be free of software problems, or words to that effect.
And yet customers continue to call vendors help desks complaining that a service centre they have been directed to for warranty service has advised them that charges will apply for software fixes for their 3 month old laptops, they are generally directed to the fine print that they would have seen whilst getting their new laptop out of the box.
If customers make enough noise about the issue the vendor will often call upon the service centre to have another look at the machine and advise what they find then often the vendor will reimburse the service centre for services to keep the customer happy. Be warned that you probably won't get this sort of service more than once, that particular service will be recorded by the vendors for future reference.
Warranty for these devices is for hardware defects and faults, bad sectors on your hard disk, USB ports that don’t work or laptops that simply won't switch on. You will have no problems getting these issues with your laptop fixed if you have all the requirements the vendor or service centre needs to log a laptop warranty repair claim.
However these requirements can be an issue if you the customer can’t provide model and serial number details from your laptop. This can happen if the serial number sticker has rubbed off or the sticker is damaged. These details can often be retrieved from the systems bios in these cases, a service centre that knows their stuff will be able to retrieve this for you with no fuss.
This may not be an option for you if you have had a mainboard replacement and the mainboard's BIOS hasn’t been updated with your model and serial number. Previous repair history is something that could get you out of this situation, get a physical record of service when you can.
Customers are mostly unaware of what goes on behind the scenes to provide warranty service. Laptop faults need to be verified, replacement parts ordered, parts need to be fitted and testing can often take longer than expected.
Verifying faults: Vendors often request that service centers perform a number of tests before processing warranty claims.
Warranty claim logging: Some of the vendors differ here considerably with systems they have in place for how service centers log warranty claims for replacement parts. Online systems like Toshiba’s TOPIC system clearly outshines others and is easy to use and full of relevant information files, drivers, bios updates, parts manuals and more.
IBM’s EClaim remote desktop system although practical is clearly behind the times, uploading of claims via data transfer is slow and old hat, limited in function and requires emails and phone calls to IBM to log claims.
HP have an online system called CSN which is good, but in my experience can sometimes be buggy and slow. CSN provides warranty processing and some other services.
Fujitsu also have an online system called HEAT, once again limited in comparison to TOPIC, but functional when it isn’t down. HEAT provides warranty claim processing and some other parts related services.
ACER also uses a remote system called Clarify, a good system full of functions for all warranty related parts and history information. It needs an upgrade or a move to an online web based system which would help Acers profile in the repair space when it comes to parts.
These systems can often let the service centers down by being cumbersome or slow and sometimes simply unavailable, of course this is not always the case. The volumes of repairs or issues troubleshooting an intermittent fault can also cause a problem which in turn results is a slow repair turnaround for you the customer. Parts that are unavailable from the vendors are another issue that frustrates service centre operators, preventing them from providing the service to deal with laptop warranty repair claims as quickly as they would like to.
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