What They Say
ViewSonic said that it would extend the warranty on its VG (corporate) and VP monitors (for creatives) to five years in the UK. The previous warranty was three years.
What We Think
This is a small story, but it gives me a chance to address this point. I was involved with warranty a lot and, for my sins, was responsible for introducing the first standard on-site warranty for monitors in Europe back in the ’80s (I was responsible for the sales of an expensive, but very unreliable, US-made DTP display). When I first started in the industry in the early ’80s, monitors were considered to be ‘industrial products’ with only 90 day return to base warranties.
In the late ’90s and 00s, we did a lot of work on reporting and analysing warranties for monitors and we created three detailed reports on monitor warranty in Europe. In all that time, I never found any convincing evidence that extending warranties increased sales. Still, every now and again, I see firms trying the move.
Of course, some corporates and government buyers might want to have protection for a full five years, but most users these days know the reliability of monitors and would be happy to take the risk. (BR)
