On Sun, 12 Feb 2012, Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> wrote:
On 12/02/2012 10:03 AM, James Harper wrote:
It was covered, but not clearly. The rights and obligations for suppliers and consumers are now much more clearly spelled out. They even have a completely different section for resolution of faults in goods obtained before 1/1/11.
I don't disagree, but it makes it much less likely that retailers can support such claims without manufacturer support. Lots of commodity items only have a very, very small markup and any returns, even during warranty periods, wipe out any margin made on the original sale. Extending the obligations beyond manufacture warranty period on to retailers and there is almost certainly going to be losses on too many sales.
So retailers just have to increase the prices a bit, and maybe think twice about selling gear that has little warranty support from the supplyer. One of the things about the warranty is that it sends a signal to the customer about what the manufacturer thinks of the quality of the goods. If the manufacturer doesn't think it will last then maybe it's not worth buying or retailing.
I couldn't have said it better Russell. What we had was a race to the bottom and something needed to be done. It remains to be seen whether this new world order will actually change that of course, but I think it's definitely a move in the right direction. James