Fenix 5 Warranty legal issues

Some countries have a law that if the product is replaced then the replaced product gets a new warranty as the initial product that was replace, so the replaced product gets a new 2 year warranty as the initial product. I had a talk with support and they say that a replaced product gets a 90 days warranty, even in my country, which has this law. How can Garmin be above the law? It is also stated in the Garmin warranty text for my country.

Also there is another law that states when a product is repaired on warranty only new parts must be used (which is sensible). But in the Garmin warranty text, Garmin 'reserves' the right to repair the product using used parts that comply with the 'Garmin' standard.

Any thoughts on this?

The thing is that I bought a Fenix 5 sapphire ,after 1 year the local dealer + Garmin replaced the F5 because of the ANT+ antenna issue, got a refurbished F5 sapphire back, this one developed the 2nd pin corrosion issue. Talked with Garmin support, they say the product is not in warranty anymore because I bought the product more than 2 years ago, the local dealer does recognize that a replace product gets a new 2 year warranty (after pointing them the law and explaining that this law is also for products that can be repaired, at first they said that it only applies to fridges and cars :D ), but the dealer says that it's improper use of the product that generated the corrosion (and if it was so, then the charging pin should be more corroded, not the data pin), but I see on the forum Garmin accepts this on warranty and also would have accepted this on warranty for me if they considered it is still in warranty. So both Garmin and the dealer avoid fixing the issue. In the end I had to make a case in the consumer protection agency in my country to resolve this. But I'm very disappointed how Garmin + the Garmin dealer handled this issue and it's the first time I had to make a case with the protection agency... with all other companies/merchants I got things resolved.

Update: regarding the logic behind the law, for example you have a TV an the power button fails after 1.5 year, you go to the merchant and it fixes the TV by repairing (replacing) the faulty power button, every other component didn't failed in 1.5 years and it should work for many more years (if something fails after 2.5 years for example, then yeah it is bad luck). But if the TV is replaced completely, maybe the new TV has a power source issue and fails after 0.7 years, the merchant can argue that the TV was bought more than 2 years ago and it's not under warranty, but who inserted the faulty power source? That's why this law is made, from my point of view. And with the F5 this is the case for me, the first one did not had any corrosion issues, but the replaced one has the issue. From what I read on the forum it's a faculty circuit that leaks a current on the 2nd pin and that generates the corrosion and no cleaning and proper care can avoid this (maybe only if you leave the watch in a climate controlled room in a glass box only for display )

0 AntonisSp over 4 years ago

You should check this with your own protection agency (supposing the watch has been bought in your country).

Here the replacement unit follows the original device's warranty (which frankly makes sense to me). You shouldn't expect to replace a unit at the end of a 2year warranty and get a 2 year extension. The seller is only "bound" to the original sale.

0 Unimatrix088 over 4 years ago in reply to AntonisSp

For me it does make sense to get a new warranty for a replaced product, as I said, in my case the replaced product has a new defect that the replaced product did not, nobody is forcing Garmin to repair by replacing, there is no law for this, it is even stated that repairing has priority over replacement (if it is possible). So the company has the option to repair, replace or return the money and the customer can't argue with the option selected by the company, but replacing does come with conditions as stated by the law. Now I know that the customer is bind legally with the vendor (the Garmin dealer) and the vendor must obey the laws, not Garmin, but if Garmin refuses the warranty for the vendor, the vendor will take the hit and to avoid this will say and do anything to avoid granting the warranty (and obey the laws). I think Garmin should not sell it's products where it can't or does not want to obey the laws. In the end I made ca case with the protection agency, it's the first time I had to do this...