So you buy that brand new piece of technology, its working great. A few months later and you notice that it’s getting a little hot, you figure it might just be a little bit of dust clogging up the fans and decide that you’ll just go in and carefully brush off the dust and dirt. As you turn the device over you see it, a tamper-resistant sticker with the standard warning, “remove this and lose your warranty”. Is it worth removing the sticker on a device that set you back hundreds? Given tamper-resistant stickers are illegal, the decisions already been made for you.
The stickers are in breach of the Magnuson-Moss warranty act (1975), but still, companies are using the stickers as a way of quickly voiding perfectly valid warranties. The latest company to be seen using these is Microsoft with the stickers being present on the Xbox One S. The sticker is placed over the clip holding the case together, meaning that if you ever wanted to open the case you would be “voiding” the warranty. Unfortunately, this only applies in the US, but it’s a start.
The Magnuson-Moss act states that nothing should block a user from modifying a device, as long as it doesn’t affect the functioning of the device. Want to repair your device? You’re allowed. Want a new case? You’re allowed to put it on yourself. While Microsoft is clear that any attempts to “open, modify, or tamper with” their devices by anyone other than Microsoft will result in a voided warranty, you are allowed to gain access to and modify the console as long as it doesn’t affect how it works.
What does this mean? Well, it means that if you want to upgrade your hard drive to store a few more games and movies on your console, you’ll still have your warranty. This realisation will come as a relief to many who don’t want to fork out money to send off their consoles to get bigger hard drives installed, or pay that little extra for an external hard drive just for their Xbox.
When did you last see this sticker on one of your devices? Has it ever put you off opening your device or does it do nothing but slow you down?
Last time I saw that was the PS3 / xBox 360,,,, not seen anything else with them on…
MSI laptops, for one.
They actually allow modifications. I used to have a msi gaming laptop and i could freely open or change stuff in it and even sendt it in on waranty and got it repaired for free. As long as the hardware it came with isn’t damaged.
That’s what I have heard as well. It still boggles the mind that they still use warranty stickers on their laptops though. I have tinkered with mine as well.
I have also seen warranty stickers on car radios, graphics cards, consumer audio equipment recently.
Last time i saw this was on my brand new asus G20cb with 1070.
this is the worst thing on gpu’s… i have a similar one on my GPU.. starting to peal out lately.. obviously.. the card is ejecting heat.. that sticker won’t last the 5 years of warranty..
the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act said [the warrantor] may not exclude or limit consequential damages for a breach of any written or implied warranty on the product, ”UNLESS” the exclusion or limitation conspicuously appears ON THE FACE OF THE WARRANTY… and On Microsoft Xbox One Warranty webpage (which is publicly available to any consumer prior to the purchase) : [Warranty Exclusions] : Microsoft is not responsible and this warranty does not apply if Your Xbox One or Accessory is: (c) opened, modified, or tampered with (including, for example, any attempt to defeat any Xbox One or Accessory technical limitation, security, or anti-piracy mechanism, etc.), or its serial number is altered or removed;
In other words they can void your warranty, nothing in the Magnuson-Moss Warranty act prohibit them to do so !!! Sorry
The anti-tying provisions of MMWA also doesn’t apply here because Microsoft is not forcing you to pay for additional service nor maintenance in order for you to keep your Xbox One warranty valid. For this law to apply, it would be like buying a brand new Xbox One, turning it on and discovering you have to pay 1 year of premium Xbox Live gold, just to start using the system Offline or pay for mandatory cleaning maintenance done by Microsoft and you must assume the fee. They do require you to connect in online for the first use, but if you bring your Xbox One in a Microsoft store, they will set-it up for you as a complementary service (for legal purpose) that nobody actually use.
On a positive note: Magnuson-Moss Warranty act said: [the warrantor must] provide warranty service free of charge, including such costs as returning the product or removing and reinstalling the product when necessary.
So it’s illegal to make you to pay for shipping! Which is probably the offence they are more likely to try to get away with. Apple has once ask me to pay for the shipping of my defective Powerbook G4 because their free shipping didn’t apply where I was living. I told him, the NO shipping fee was IN the warranty… he put me on hold, and a few minutes later came back and my shipping was free, but they tried!!
I just bought a Asus G20CB which has 8GB ram and 1TB hdd, and thanks to the waranty sticker, i am unable to later upgrade the ram to 16GB and hdd storage to 3-6TB.