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All of your other examples concern damage that extends beyond loss of the product, like death, injury, and illness. Those are covered by public health/safety la
by marcoperaza 10y ago
All of your other examples concern damage that extends beyond loss of the product, like death, injury, and illness. Those are covered by public health/safety laws and civil liability.
My TV not working does not have any of those effects. There is a clear difference between a TV electrocuting and killing me (damages well beyond my initial investment) and it simply ceasing to function (maximum loss = initial investment).
More analogous examples would be: a restaurant serves me an overcooked steak that tastes like a shoe, my car's entertainment system stops working.
- shakna 10y agoA shitty TV can short. It can fail catastrophically. A TV of less quality can skip on standards, and that can mean safety. A phone can be a firebomb. So can a washing machine. Electronics should be held to a standard because they can fail dangerously. Now, all that being said: My phone cost $80. My TV cost $100. My washing machine cost $80. My car cost $30,000. I make around $45,000 a year. Its been 5 years, and all of these products were covered by Consumer Law, and every company obeyed the rules if faults appeared. Electronics don't have to be crap.
- marcoperaza 10y agoWe are in agreement that your phone should not blow up, and that you should have legal recourse in such an event. But that's totally irrelevant. We're talking about mandatory warranties for products, not civil liability for damages caused by them. You're drawing a false equivalence between the two. My phone no longer working is a totally different situation, covered by different laws, than my phone blowing up and hurting someone or burning down my house.
- shakna 10y agoI think you've missed the point. One is less likely because of the other. Higher base standards protect against products that are less likely to fail safe. The insurance firm I worked with would lower premiums for products from companies that acknowledged Consumer Law, as they were both less likely to fail, and fail catastrophically.
- aninhumer 10y agoNot really. Quality of functionality tells you nothing about the safety of the product. A TV might function perfectly fine with an excellent picture, right until the point it overheats and burns down my house.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]