Warranty valid EU-wide? Dispute

[pIGnaChI]

Hi all,
In December 2017 I bought a RT-AC68U from Amazon Italy. I brought it to Bulgaria and yesterday it stopped working (no lights, no signal, tried holding the WPS button - nothing). The router is covered by a 3-year warranty, but the local Asus affiliated repair shops declined me the service saying the warranty is only local to Italy.
Is this true and how can I receive warranty service in Bulgaria?
Thanks a lot!

 

[ColinTaylor]

Your first point of contact should always be the person that sold you the product, not the manufacturer or a service centre.

As you bought it from Amazon you should contact them and see if they will offer you a refund or replacement.

 

[drabisan]

+1 to Colin's comment!
In parallel you should open a ticket with Asus.
Warranty should be european but who reads the fine print for every product?

 

[pIGnaChI]

Thank you both!

I called Amazon.it and they explained that every consumer product sold on Amazon is covered by a standard "legal warranty" of 2 years. However, Asus offers "commercial warranty" for 3 years which may have whatever conditions they decide. Judging from comments in Amazon.co.uk, Asus's warranty is country specific.

The Amazon.it people explained to me that they would change the router for a new but only if returned and received on the territory of Italy - thus any shipping costs to Bulgaria would be on me.

Finally, I used the "email us in English" option on Amazon.it and within a few minutes they told me they have already ordered a replacement to arrive in Bulgaria free of charge with express shipping. I am always astounded by the incredible customer service of Amazon and won't ever hesitate to shop there!

Nevertheless, I will try to get the faulty router fixed with Asus and will report back on the experience.

 

[ColinTaylor]

That's good news. I've also had only good experiences with Amazon's customer service.

Nevertheless, I will try to get the faulty router fixed with Asus and will report back on the experience.

Don't Amazon want you to return the defective one?

 

[pIGnaChI]

No, and that's amazing. The Amazon.it guys wanted me to over the phone, but the "email us in English" guys in Ireland had no questions and straight up ordered a new one.
This is not my first time when the email/call "in English" yields much more generous terms than the local branch over the phone. Might be cultural, might be policy. In any case, buyers take note.

 

[drabisan]

It is both cultural and policy. Over here, IE and UK it's a widespread behaviour to return a product. From I don't like it to it doesn't do exactly what I was having in mind.
But, don't worry, they do keep taps on how many time you do that

With broken products I've been asked to return it while other times I've been asked to recycle it...

 

[pIGnaChI]

Here is what Asus told me over the phone:

• the first two years of the warranty is always covered by the retailer
• only the third year of the warranty is directly provided by Asus
• in all these cases they never repair the router, but exchange it for a new one
• the warranty is only for the country of purchase

What this means in my case is that I either fix the old router in a third-party place and probably lose any remaining warranty on it, or wait 1.5 years so that in falls under Asus's warranty and try to get it replaced in Italy by Asus.

 

[ColinTaylor]

the first two years of the warranty is always covered by the retailer

This a standard EU law. However, after the first six months the customer may be asked to demonstrate that there was a manufacturing fault with the product, rather than just wear and tear.

As we've both said, Amazon are usually pretty good about these sorts of things which is why I always try to buy my expensive gadgets from them.