Written Warranties

Sellers or manufacturers may give written warranties. These are warranties that are additional to statutory warranties. They are different from express warranties because they:

• come with the product and “fall out of the box”
• must be in writing whereas express warranties can be in writing, advertising or given verbally

These warranties cannot exclude or place limits on the statutory warranties given by law. However, retail sellers can opt out of written warranties. To do this, they must notify the purchaser in writing that they do not adopt the written warranty before the sale.

Many warranties contain words and phrases that are easily misunderstood or that do not have one clear meaning. For example...

• Does the "lifetime" warranty mean the life of the consumer or the life of the product?
• "Parts replaced at no charge" does not state who pays for the labour to install the parts or for any shipping costs.
• "Unconditionally guaranteed" often imposes all kinds of obligations on the buyer. There may be a requirement of routine maintenance by a factory-authorized agent. A service charge may accompany all requests for repairs.
• The word "guaranteed" means very little by itself. It is only as good as the person or company that makes the promise.

You should also be aware that some manufacturers place certain conditions on these additional written warranties. For example...

• “Only applies to the original purchaser.”
• “For guarantee to be effective, the purchaser must complete and return detachable portion of this card within 14 days of purchase.”
• “Faults resulting from misuse, neglect or accident are not covered by this guarantee.”
• “The customer is liable for any labour, postal or carrying charges.”

Some people cross out these clauses. However, the manufacturer usually will not accept any changes to the warranty.

When a product does not live up to a written warranty, whoever gave the warranty must repair or replace the product within a reasonable amount of time. If this is not done, you can take it elsewhere to be fixed and sue them for the cost. If the additional warranty does not cover the situation, you may still have a claim for a breach of the statutory warranties.