I’ve always questioned lifetime warranties. There are just so many thoughts that come into my head when I purchase a product from a company that claims they will honor my warranty no matter how old the product is. The ambiguity surrounding these warranties doesn’t ease my anxiety about the longevity of the product’s life. Unless you’re a lawyer, you’re often left at the mercy of these companies to have your warranty honored. It’s often a will-they-wont-they kind of scenario.
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Great Service And Support
Let me preface this piece by saying that not every photography company or brand acts this way. There are always exceptions to the norm, as well as extremes on both ends. Two companies that I can honestly say have supported my warranty claims without unnecessary questioning, are Think Tank and 3-Legged Thing. I’ve used more than a handful of their products in my 15 years as a professional photographer so far. They’ve always been super supportive whenever I’ve needed spares or replacements and ship out what I need without delay.
Think Tank has a “Lifetime Limited Warranty” on its products. I have owned around 8 of their bags and backpacks so far. They’ve sent over spare wheels and tripod securing straps, even when I’ve lost some of these spares. It’s always been a pleasant experience when I’ve interacted with them for such requests. What made the process seamless was that they never asked me to dig up the purchase receipts for their products. Just a few quick questions about what product I need support for and what spares precisely I need. A few days later, the stuff is in the mail. This is the kind of support professional photographers need, no matter where they are in the world. Quick, reliable, and hassle-free.
At Think Tank, we build our products for the daily impacts of travel and demands of working professionals over extended periods of time. We build many of our products with user replaceable parts to keep your bag going for years. But everything does eventually wear out, so we warranty our products against defects in material or workmanship for the life of the product.
Think tank warranty Page
When you have companies like this that make life easier for you, it doesn’t just make you want to use their products more; you find yourself part of their extended family. You often rest easier knowing they have your back and can give you a hand when you need it. Some companies go the extra mile to make things easier for you and themselves. Such as 3 Legged Thing, who reached out to me when they saw the below photo I posted on Instagram.
Proactive Customer Service
“Hey Feroz! Is that an Evo 3 tripod we see👀?” they messaged with. Upon confirming their concerns, I was informed that the product had parts that were no longer in production. This made it challenging to honor the warranty for the tripod. However, in a proactive move, they suggested replacing it with a newer, equivalent model to address the issue. Despite the tripod being 8 years old and functioning well, the offer of a brand-new replacement without any request on my part took me by surprise. It’s a testament to their customer service, demonstrating care for customers, even those who bought from them long ago. They absolutely bowled me over with that move when it came without me reaching out to them first.
A Frustrating Claims Experience
For over a decade, I’ve seen companies offer lifetime warranties on memory storage products. SSDs, RAM, USB drives, and more, most of these companies have often claimed they’ll replace your unit if the drives fail. Of course, you’re often left alone to lament the loss of the precious memories and documents in those storage units. But when companies talk about offering lifetime warranties, you often wonder what they mean by that. Is the the:
- Lifetime of the product
- Lifetime of the company
- Lifetime of the purchaser, aka you
Getting your claims upheld in many cases can be a complicated issue. I found this out not so long ago when a Lexar SD card failed to get detected by the camera. I did the usual troubleshooting steps and concluded that the card was well and truly dead. No computer or camera was able to detect the card plugged in. I was able to dig up my Amazon order history to find out that this was purchased from Lexar there. This was at least the second memory storage unit from Lexar in the last decade that had failed me. I’d let the last one go; this time, I was determined to reach out to the company. So over I went to their warranty page.
After 2019/12/31, products purchased outside of the Americas are limited to 10 years of limited warranty (lifetime limited warranty is available in the Americas)
Lexar Warranty Page
Prior to 2019/12/31, a Lifetime Limited Warranty is offered, subject to the original purchaser holding the product
Still Eligible For Warranty, But…
This was an item I’d purchased in December 2015, so it was eligible for support thankfully, even though I don’t reside in the USA. I wondered what the significance of the year 2019 was regarding their warranty policy. It turns out that the once American company Lexar was purchased in 2018 by a Chinese company called Longsys after the former owner, Micron decided to take Lexar out of the storage business. All sorts of questions popped into my head then. Are companies taking over other companies also bound to honor the warranty claims of products sold before the acquisition? It seemed like Lexar would honor my claim, so I reached out to them via email. I would have preferred a replacement card and hoped I would get one. That’s when I realized that the process wasn’t so smooth after all.
Too Much Red Tape
My first email was quickly responded to with a message stating that I wasn’t eligible for a replacement and the only option available was a refund. “We may provide refund service and you can buy a new Lexar product with the refund amount.” Fair enough, I thought, and sent them across my Paypal email address, which was the only way for them to send me a refund from the USA. Along with this info, I had to send them front and back pictures of the card, a task I thought was irrelevant since I was also asked to provide the Amazon invoice as proof of purchase. The invoice clearly showed that my card was purchased for USD 24.86
That’s Not Quite Right
Exactly a week later, someone from Lexar got back to me, stating that I didn’t need to send the damaged card to them “due to the value of your item” and that they would refund me USD 16. This didn’t feel right for two reasons. Firstly, the amount they wanted to refund didn’t cover the card’s actual value at the time of purchase. Secondly, an equivalent new 32 GB Lexar Professional 1000X 32GB SDHC Uhs-II Card cost USD 44.99; at the time I was in correspondence with Lexar about the card’s warranty. This was the price as listed on Lexar’s official Amazon store. It was over twice the value of what they offered me as a refund.
What made it even more frustrating was that they failed to explain how they’d arrived at the refund value of USD 16. When I queried them about this, I received this as the response:
Please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience, however according to our terms and conditions, “A refund would be the purchase price less any rebates or the fair market value, whichever is lower.”
Lexar
What good is a lifetime warranty if the refund amount doesn’t even cover the cost of buying the same product. I wasn’t asking for a refund amount to buy a high-spec card; I wanted the exact same one as it was still available. From Lexar’s own Amazon store even. This could have been easily fixed if Lexar had shipped me a replacement card. And their half-baked explanation for the refund value was – “Kindly note that with increasing technological advances, certain products from our range may cease to be manufactured. For this reason, we are able to offer a fair market value in-store-credit where there is no suitable like-for-like substitute. This takes into account the product’s current value, not the original purchase price that can be used to take advantage of our new product ranges.”
Seriously?
It’s like they totally ignored what I’d sent in the previous email about the cost of the same item on their own Amazon store. So I wrote back with the below detailed explanation:
“Your analogy sounds great except that it completely contradicts the decision of the team to award me a much lower value at USD 16. Let me reply to the explanation you just gave me.
- “certain products from our range may cease to be manufactured” – The item I purchased is still in stock isn’t it? I’ve shared the link on amazon for the same
- “we are able to offer a fair market value in-store-credit where there is no suitable like-for-like substitute” – Your product is listed for 44.99, twice the price of what it was when I purchased it
- “This takes into account the current value of the product, not the original purchase price” – The product price has doubled and you’re offering me a refund of what amounts to a third of the current value
- ” to take advantage of our new product ranges.” What 32GB 1000x Lexar SD card model are you expecting me to purchase for the refund value of USD 16?”
Lexar then pointed out that I could purchase a higher capacity card for cheaper (on rebate at the time) instead, and they couldn’t offer me anymore as a refund as my card was considered an “end-of-life device.” The endless up-and-down emails had left a sour taste in my mouth by now. If this was the hassle I had to endure to get a proper refund for something as small as an SD card, I’d hate to think what I’d have to endure if it was something a lot more expensive.
I’m Done With Lexar
I’ve been using Lexar cards since the start of my photography career. Between SD, micro SD, and CF cards, I’ve used several of their products for my photography. Some might think this is an overreaction, but brand relationships matter a lot to me. When I find a product that works for me, how often and how much I invest in that brand is subject to how they treat me. For the most part, I’ve remained loyal to the brands that have supported my work over the last decade and a half. This doesn’t mean that I need to be in touch with the brand directly. If their products work well for me, I rarely ever switch out for other brands. But when I need support, especially when it’s no fault of mine, I expect to be treated well.
In this case, I don’t feel like my warranty claim was dealt with in the best possible way. You might think I’m crying over 8 dollars, but how the matter was handled has really left me feeling averse to using Lexar again.
A Helping Hand From ProGrade
A day after the saga, I spoke to our Editor-in-Chief Chris on this matter. He immediately suggested contacting ProGrade to see what they had on offer. I dropped an email merely asking them what SD cards they had. Their team immediately shipped out a couple of SD cards and CF Express B cards, and a card reader for me that arrived on priority delivery the next day. I’ve been using them since then and am thoroughly impressed with their performance. Their CFexpress B 165GB Cobalt card especially kept up with 120fps action at a sporting event, not missing a single beat. I even shot some 8K video on it, and it didn’t overheat.
Around 1400 full-resolution jpegs (close to 48 GB) shot on the Z8 were transferred via their reader to my laptop in a little over 100 seconds. The 128 GB Cobalt SD card has lived inside my Zf since the day I received it, and it’ll probably stay there for a long time. Incidentally, ProGrade was founded by former Lexar employees. I’m thoroughly impressed with not just their support, but also the performance of these cards. I really hope they bring out portable SSDs also in the near future. Head over to Adorama to order some of their products today. The Cobalt models have faster write speeds compared to the Gold versions of these cards.
Customer Service Can Make Or Break Your Business
Some international coffee and fast-food brands are currently bearing the brunt of their political stances. And while they are free to do so, actions certainly have consequences. We’d previously written on 4 ways in which camera brands fail photographers like you and me. I’d add a 5th point there now – valuable customer service. I’ve seen photographers abandon brands for this reason before. This is the first time I’ve managed to empathize with them on this. I might not be a hotshot photographer, buying storage media every other month. But I shouldn’t have to be one in order to be treated well, and certainly not to get a fair value for my warranty. I wonder what they’d have offered if the card failed a year or two later. Lexar is under a new owner now, which is maybe why they don’t want to handle claims for products sold in previous years.
I suppose it really does come back to that question I posed earlier – which lifetime do some of these brands claim to support? Only time will tell.