Web app Niggle It is a great way to keep track of warranties and other vital documents with an expiry date. You can now get even more out of the service with a special deal for Lifehacker readers.
You can turn some of your best gear into so much more with a few of the right modifications. The problem is, hacking your gadgetry often means voiding your warranty. Today, forget the shackles of warranty terms and dive right in.
Earlier this year, the ACCC got Vodafone to agree to offer better conditions for phone warranties. Now it has struck a similar deal with Telstra, ensuring that customers who buy a phone on a two-year contract have warranty coverage for the life of the contract.
If you’re an organised type, then you probably already scan receipts printed on thermal paper (that glossy, fax-like stuff) because you know that ink on that paper fades over time. It turns out that could have an added benefit: the paper itself might be more than usually toxic.
You might be organised enough to keep all your warranty documents in a folder, but can you match them with the manuals, or remember when the warranty expires? Online service Niggle It lets you keep a list of valuables with associated expiry dates and offers automatic email reminders so you don’t get caught out.
Reader Shin-GO’s laptop recently went on the fritz; here’s how Shin-GO dealt with that issue, and plenty of tips for everyone else.
Last October, the ACCC promised to crack down on online sellers who broke warranty laws, and the regulator is continuing to make good on that promise, busting an online electronics seller for apparently trying to shirk its warranty responsibilities.
It might not be worth paying extra for extended warranties, but it’s certainly worth exercising the ones you already get. But what happens if there’s a problem and you can’t find the documentation? Reader Alan recommends taping the warranty to the device itself.
Australia has fairly solid warranty protection laws, and those rules apply just as much to online traders as to old-fashioned retailers. Now the ACCC is planning to rein in sites which have no warranty policy, or one they copied from a rival site without understanding its implications.
Warranties aren’t fun or Bluetooth-capable, but they are crucial when you need them. Keep proper track of your product warranties with the WarrantyElephant web site.
