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Extending the minimum warranty can help to make more durable products.

• jrimbault 9y ago
  The EU already made mandatory 24 months warranty for all products sold in Europe. I think this has been beneficial not only to European citizens but also to the US where there isn't a minimum warranty by default. Businesses who sell products on both sides of the Atlantic seem to have mirrored the imposed warranty of the EU in the US. I am in favor of extending the minimum warranty. PS: isn't there also some regulation that a business should provide pieces for repair for a period of 10 years? I seem to recall something like that.
  • ovi256 9y ago
    Don't forget that the 24 month warranty is one of the stated reasons for justifying the sale price difference for the same product between the US and the EU. If it's increased, manufacturers will just increase their EU prices so that their costs will be covered.
    • jrimbault 9y ago
      The price difference seems mostly due to advertised prices. In the US they advertise the price excluding tax, in the EU we advertise the price including tax. When counting taxes, there isn't a big difference.
  • ferongr 9y ago
    The EU directive might say that but countries codify that into law differently. For example, here in Greece, there is actually no law stating warranties should be two years. It only says that the warranty should be "reasonable depending on the expected lifetime of the product".
• runeks 9y ago
  I don't want to have to pay more for durable products. Please let me choose whether I want to buy extended warranty -- many manufacturers already offer it, but I'm not interested it in.
  • simion314 9y ago
    I know that most people change their phones often but there are products that are expensive like washing machine, gas heaters that should be designed from the start to last 5 years or more. If 2 companies build washing machines and they need to increase the warranty time, the one that can do that with less price increase would sell more, the one that planned them to break down faster would lose and have to make a new dessign.
    • runeks 9y ago
      Why don't you just pay for the 5 year warranty if you want it, instead of wanting to make it mandatory that everyone pay?
      • ksk 9y ago
        The warranty doesn't make the product durable. Its just allows you to re-buy the same non-durable product using resources from a shared pool. This is about addressing the fundamental problem.
      • simion314 9y ago
        Would you buy a car if the seller gives 1 month warranty? My opinion is that expensive products should have longer warranty by default. For cheaper products current 2 years is fine.
  • simion314 9y ago
    I know that most people change their phones often but there are products that are expensive like washing machine, gas heaters that should be designed from the start to last 5 years or more. If 2 companies build washing machines and they need to increase the warranty time, the one that can do that with less price increase would sell more, the one that planned them to break down faster would lose and have to make a new dessign.
  • ksk 9y ago
    But extended warranty is just insurance, nothing to do with the product being durable or not. I don't buy the argument that costs will skyrocket. Most manufacturers, won't give a lot of thought to making their products more durable while keeping the costs down, unless pressured, either by consumers, or the government. They're more focused on making money (rightfully so). The incentive to keep making money because their products break often causing people to re-buy, must be removed IMHO.