Epson review: Warranty ( 1 comment)

I purchased an EPSON Artisan 700 on December 6, 2008 as a Christmas gift for my daughter who lives out of state. By the time she received it and tried to set it up, it was early January. The printer would not power up. She tried to return it to the local store of the chain that I had purchased it from but since it was beyond 14 days, she was told she had to deal with EPSON directly. Since I felt bad that it was a gift, I told her to send it back to me and I would deal with them.

When I received it and confirmed the problem, I contacted EPSON. After a brief attempt to troubleshoot the problem, the tech agreed that it was a defect and said they would send me a replcement. HOWEVER, I had to give him my credit card number and if I failed to return the original printer, I would be charged $275. This was more than I even paid for it but agreed as I had no choice.

A few days later, I received the replacement and it was a reconditioned unit. I called to complain stating that I should get a new unit as the original never worked. I was told no and that their warranty states that in order to get a new unit, I had to return the original within 30 days of purchase. While holding for someone in their "customer care" unit, I read the warranty. It has no mention of a 30 day time period. It did state that I would get a new or reconditioned unit based upon the status of the original unit.

When Cheryl got on the line she repeated the non-existent 30 day provision. I pointed out that it was not a provision of the warranty and I demanded a new unit. She said that I was not entitled to a new one and that was that.

The fact that they would charge me MORE than the cost of a new one if I failed to return the original broken printer while replacing it with a reconditioned unit is blatantly unfair and illogical. It is borderline fraudulent.

Do not buy EPSON products as they will not back their products up. BEWARE!