It depends on the product and the company that sells that product. But it basically means that said company will replace or repair something should something fail or have a problem due to a manufacturing fault.
I've made it a habit to read the fine print when it comes to fairly expensive things and what exactly the warranty covers.
Using my car as an example, it comes with a 5 year warranty. However, not
everything is covered for 5 years.
Some exclusions that I remember are:
- Part of the clutch is only covered for 6 months.
- Electronics (more specifically the sound system) is only covered for a year.
- Anti-Corrosion only lasts 3 years
And so on.
we're supposed to get a 2 year warranty with most cellphones and yet the service providers tell you it is only 7 days?
I'm not sure where that comes from. I had an HTC Desire on contract with MTN. The motherboard had a defect which caused the phone to reboot after the GPS was turned on.
As it was still under warranty, they took it in and got it repaired. That was way after the 7 days. It was closer to the end of the 2 year period.
how do these companies decide whether it is their product that is faulty or whether something you used is somehow incompatible?
Not completely sure, but if you read the fineprint, it'll shed some light.
