Originally posted by: RebateMonger
The manufacturer's position is that, if you buy from a non-authorized distributor, you are, essentially, buying the item "used". The eBay seller bought it first, "used it", and then sold it to you. Most manufacturers only warranty their products to the original owner.
I understand the intent here, but... if they only sell the cards to authorized distributors to begin with, where else is someone going to get one? If you buy a sealed card, it must have come at some point from an 'authorized distributor'.
It's now up to the customer to confirm whether each purchase is 'authorized' or not? Their warranty doesn't have nearly enough detail to determine this. It says that the warranty is only for the "original purchaser", and that claims "
MUST INCLUDE A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL INVOICE / RECEIPT" (emphasis theirs). Most rational people would assume that a purchase of a sealed product from an entity claiming to be a "store" (whether B&M, an independent online store, or an EBay store), which provides them with an "invoice" (that is, a record detailing what was bought, when, and how much was paid) would qualify under this.
It doesn't say
anything about where the item must be purchased, or what would qualify a retailer/store and make it okay to purchase from them and still have warranty coverage. In other words, they never define what an "original" purchase is or how you could even tell if you are making an "original" purchase. If you're going to enforce this sort of thing, you have to tell people about it in advance.
If you take this far enough, could they deny warranty coverage on a card that I bought and gave to someone as a gift (or bought on their behalf and then they reimbursed me for?) I mean, they aren't the "original purchaser", since they didn't
directly buy the card from a retailer themselves. Could I get warranty coverage -- even though I wasn't the one using the card, and I can't guarantee that the warranty wasn't voided in some way by the third party?
Does
every little local computer store lose warranty coverage from eVGA because they're not an 'authorized distributor' themselves (even if they bought their stock from an authorized distributor), even if the products are resold and registered within 30 days of being bought from the distributor?