You are about to buy an appliance and the seller offers to pay an additional fee for an extended warranty. Should you accept?
You have had your tablet repaired and now after only a few weeks, it stops working. Do you have recourse against the repairer or against the merchant or manufacturer who sold you the tablet?
Me Lambert analyzes these questions and informs you about your rights while explaining the relevant case law on this subject.
Legal guarantees
In the law of obligations, it is possible, when the contract is silent about a provision, to infer the rules of civil law, especially if they prove to be more advantageous for the consumer or the person who adheres to the contract.
It is therefore important, when considering the purchase of an additional or extended warranty, that you are informed about the warranties that are already provided to you by law. Indeed, as a consumer, you already benefit from free protection that is embedded in the Civil Code of Québec as well as in the Consumer Protection Act; it is enough to know them well.
Free from hidden defects
In particular, Article 1726 of the Civil Code obliges the seller to guarantee that the goods and its accessories are free from all hidden defects that could affect their performance and use, so that a diligent customer would not have chosen to buy it. At the same time, section 37 of the Consumer Protection Act supports these guarantees of result and quality by recalling that a good that is the subject of a transaction must be adequately used for the purpose intended for it.
Thus, the Code provides in article 1728 that if the proof shows that the seller knew of the presence of the defect, the latter is required to reimburse you for the price paid for the good as well as the damage that the latter could have caused you.
Reasonable service life
In addition, other measures are provided for in the Consumer Protection Act to allow the scope of the legal guarantee to be extended to other conditions. Therefore, section 38 of this act requires the merchant to sell you property that can be used for a reasonable period of time. If the property stops working prematurely, you will be able to claim a repair or a refund, at no additional cost.
However, it is not specified what constitutes a reasonable duration. The current legislation therefore calls for the “common sense” of citizens as well as case law in order to interpret and determine what the lifespan of different types of goods should be. It goes without saying that the type of product, the price paid and the use made of it will inevitably have an influence on the average or minimum longevity of the good in question.
For example, with respect to electronic devices, the court decided, in a case involving a defective laptop , that this type of device had to work for at least 5 to 6 years.
In another case involving tablets or cell phones, it ruled that their optimal lifespan was about 2 to 3 years.
When it came to a defective television, the judge established that a consumer was entitled to expect it to last about ten years.
With respect to appliances, the court decided that the minimum duration of a dishwasher was 7 years. As for larger appliances (stove, refrigerator, freezer, washer, dryer), the merchant or manufacturer is obliged to guarantee them up to a reasonable period of time varying between 15 and 17 years.
Warranty in case of repair
With respect to product repairs, the law requires all merchants or manufacturers to offer to repair your property, if it has ceased to function prematurely with regard to its minimum life expectancy. It therefore does not cover breakage caused by abnormal use such as glass breakage.
However, the law offers a 3-month warranty for any repair made on a property. This warranty includes labor and parts and allows you to get a free repair if problems persist within the quarter after the first repair.
You can therefore see that the legal guarantee provides a rather complete protection against hidden defects, poor quality goods as well as premature breakage. With this information, you are able to evaluate the advantages that an extended warranty could give you compared to the one already offered by law, such as a guarantee of assistance when using your product.
Additional or extended warranty
If you ever opt for the extended warranty, it is recommended that you get as much information as possible about it. Feel free to ask questions, especially if the merchant does not provide you with contracts or documents explaining the details of the warranty.
If a document is given to you, however, you must ensure that all this information is present:
- the name and address of the person granting the guarantee;
- a description of the good or service related to the warranty;
- information as to whether or not the warranty may be assigned;
- the obligations of the person applying the warranty if the good is defective or the service is not compliant;
- the procedure to be followed to enforce the guarantee and the name of the person in charge to whom to contact;
- the exact duration of the warranty.
It should be noted that the law requires merchants to expose to you all situations that are not covered by the warranty in a clear and understandable way. They also have an obligation to inform you about the manufacturer’s coverage and give you the expiry date of it.
They must also be transparent throughout the process, which is why section 227 of the Consumer Protection Act requires merchants to remain honest about the existence, scope and duration of a guarantee. They are also required to inform you about the legal warranty when promoting a conventional or extended warranty.
Finally, it should not be forgotten that to assert a guarantee whether legal or additional, you must keep all the documents related to the purchase of your property. We therefore advise you to keep a copy of all types of possible evidence, such as invoices, signed contracts, user manuals or construction plans.
If you have been cheated by a merchant who has not complied with his obligations under the law with regard to extended warranties, do not hesitate to contact our firm to assert your rights as a consumer.
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