Warranty on Camera

heartofwhite

Hey I hope this is the right forum for this. I am looking for advice. My girlfriend bought me a new camera about three months ago for 300 euro. Last week my nephew got hold of the camera and dropped it into a sink full of water. Needless to say it is broken and a bit damaged looking. I am wondering if i have any right to return it to the company as it is still under warranty. I accept it was my fault that this happened but I am just wondering what the story is with warranties?

Thanks for help!

jhegarty

heartofwhite wrote:

I accept it was my fault that this happened but I am just wondering what the story is with warranties?

Thanks for help!

Read the warrantie , you will find this sort thing is not covered....

seamus

Warranties cover you against defects or faults which occur naturally - i.e. with no input from yourself - in a product after purchase. I have never seen a warranty that covers accidental damage.

For example, computer hard disk drives have a rating known as "Mean Time to Failure" (MTTF). So for a given type of hard drive, there is an MTTF on that model. A typical example is five years. This however, doesn't say that your drive won't fail after a month, just that the most likely time is sometime around the five year mark.

Now, if you buy a computer, and the hard drive fails after three weeks then it will probably be covered under law. If however you buy a computer and a hard drive fails after a year, you probably won't be covered by law. But the manufacturer will probably have a warranty on that whereby items which have failed within the first year (in this example, the hard drive has failed naturally) will be replaced free-of-charge and without labour or shipping costs.

Manufacturers usually base warranties on the above MTTF values for various components in the system, as well as the wear that parts undergo, and the cost of replacing parts.
If you damage the part yourself, you have to replace it yourself. So if the lens cover on a camera comes off in your hand, that's a naturally occuring fault. If the lens cover comes off because you dropped the camera on the floor, that's accidental damage.

Accidental damage is almost never covered in a warranty - companies generally try to sell you accidental damage insurance when you buy an expensive product because of this.

Read the warranty just to be sure.

gonk

heartofwhite wrote:

I am wondering if i have any right to return it to the company as it is still under warranty.

Only if it was originally sold to you as a waterproof camera . . .

Patrickof

Your house insurance policy may (but a big MAY) cover you for this.

Victor

seamus wrote:

Warranties cover you against defects or faults which occur naturally - i.e. with no input from yourself - in a product after purchase. I have never seen a warranty that covers accidental damage.

With the exception of course that you are allowed normal use. If a part falls off through normal use (remember you are allowed use the product you bought!), then the warranty should cover it if it is within time.