SolveYourProblem
eLearning Series: Car Lemon Laws
Got Shafted?
Fight Back if Your Car is a Lemon!
( 27 pages )
Disclaimer
or Modification of Implied Warranties
The
Act does not allow anyone who offers a written warranty
from disclaiming or modifying implied warranties. This
means that no matter how wide or narrow your written warranty
is your customers always get the basic protection of the
implied warranty of merchantability.
There
is one allotted modification of implied warranties, however.
If you offer a limited written warranty, the law allows
you to include a provision that restricts the duration
of implied warranties to the duration of your limited warranty.
For
example, if you offer a two-year limited warranty, you
can limit the implied warranties to two years. However,
if you offer a full written warranty, you cannot limit
the duration of implied warranties.
If
you sell a product with a written warranty that came from
the manufacturer, but you do not warrant the product in
writing, you can disclaim your implied warranties. (These
are the implied warranties where the seller and not the
manufacturer, would be responsible.) However, whether or
not you warrant the products you sell, as a seller, you
have to give your customers copies of any written warranties
from product manufacturers.
Most
of the time, tie-in sales provisions are not really allowed.
These kinds of provisions would require a buyer of the
warranted product to buy an item or service from a particular
company to use with the warranted product if they want
to be eligible to receive a solution to a problem under
the warranty. The following are examples of prohibited
tie-in sales provisions.
In order to keep your new Proctor Silex Coffee Maker warranty
in effect, you must use genuine Proctor Filters. Failure
to have scheduled maintenance performed, at your expense,
by the Company, will actually voids this warranty.
While you cannot use a tie-in sales provision, your warranty
also doesn’t have to cover use of replacement parts, repairs,
or maintenance that is inappropriate for your product. The
following is an example of a permissible provision that excludes
coverage of such things.
While necessary maintenance or repairs on your Pioneer Stereo
System can be performed by any company, you recommend that
buyers use only authorized Pioneer dealers. Improper or incorrectly
performed maintenance or repairs will void this warranty
as well.
Although tie-in sales provisions generally are not permissible,
you can include this kind of provision in your warranty if
you can effectively show the FTC that your product will not
work properly without a specific item or service. If you
believe that this is the case for your product, you should
contact the warranty staff of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer
Protection for information on how you should apply for a
waiver of the tie-in sales prohibition.
Deceptive
Warranty Terms
Warranties
must not contain any lies or misleading terms. You cannot
offer a warranty that looks like it appears to provide
coverage but, in fact, doesn’t provide any. For example,
a warranty that covers only moving parts on an electronic
product that has no moving parts would be deceptive and
illegal. Also, any warranty that promises service that
the warrantor had no intention of providing or could not
provide would be deceptive and illegal.
How
the Magnuson Moss Act May Affect Warranty problems
To
start, the Act makes it easier for consumers to take any
of your unresolved warranty problems to court. Secondly,
it encourages companies to use a less formal, and cheaper,
alternative to going to court. These alternatives, which
are commonly known as dispute resolution mechanisms, can
be used to settle warranty complaints before they reach
the courts.
 
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