On Tue, 14 May 2013, James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote:
Not necessarily Linux related, but I just got off the phone with a certain large computer manufacture trying to resolve a failed harddisk on a 3 month old computer, and they claim that installing an alternate OS has voided the warranty. In this case the computer shipped with Win7 and the "alternate OS" was XP, but I find the claim ludicrous as I install Linux on all sorts of PC's and the warranty callcenter has never skipped a beat as long as I can demonstrate the fault in an obvious way. This particular computer is a different brand though...
What's my best avenue to force the issue? Or are they within their rights to say that I have voided my warranty?
Naming the company on Whirlpool has been reported to be a good way of getting action. Any decent company won't have any such requirements. It was always IBM's procedure when taking a Thinkpad for warranty repair to accept it without a hard drive installed. Until Lenovo took over Thinkpads were always designed to have the hard drive removable without tools and a repair without disk was the best way to keep data secure. The only requirement should be that the fault in question can be demonstrated. For a failed disk there shouldn't even be a requirement that it be installed in the computer, it's designed that disks can be replaced so you should be able to just bring it in. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/