Saw this over at the Inquirer. Thought it was amusing since my own Maxtor drive just gave up the ghost today. Looks like no warranty for me....-Ed
The Inquirer writes...
"LAST YEAR we reported that the major hard drive manufacturers were, almost to a man/woman, slashing their warranties on disks from three years to one.[/i]
That caused various bats to fly in the European belfries, because of a European Union directive which obliges a two year warranty on products sold in the community.
Different countries take different attitudes to this directive. For example, in Italia, it has already become law, as you can read for yourself here.
But Maxtor is telling its customers that it will be the retailer or dealer which is obliged to fulfil this requirement, according to correspondence from the firm we've seen.
Why? Well Maxtor says it does not sell direct in Europe, but only through distributors. That, however, still seems like a sale to us, so it's hard to understand why Maxtor thinks it escapes liability.
Non-retail drives, says Maxtor in a letter to a customer, only have a one year manufacturer's warranty, but it claims that consumers will have a two year warranty with the retailer or dealer they buy drives from."
News source: Inquirer
