Warranty & Guarantee after chargeable repair due to warranty exclusion
→ 🛡️ Legal Warranty (Statutory Warranty)
If a supplier repairs a device and charges for it due to a valid warranty exclusion, the part of the device that has been repaired falls under statutory warranty. This is because the repair was conducted as part of a service contract.
Therefore, if a defect is associated with the repair service, the customer is entitled to statutory warranty for the repaired part.
Legal grounds
- 🇦🇹 Austria: § 1167 ABGB in conjunction with §§ 922ff ABGB
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🇩🇪 Germany: §§ 633, 634 BGB
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There is no explicit provision with regards to guarantee prolongation in case of a charged repair, similarly however, the contractual warranty conditions regulate “(…) The warranty period is extended to at least 6 months if the device is repaired or replaced. (If at the time of repair or replacement the warranty is more than 6 months, it will of course not be reduced)(…).
Valid warranty claim but Customer broke device after notice of warranty defect
- If a warranty claim is made, the supplier shall first provide evidence that the (additional) defect was not present at the time of delivery, similar to the Validity of excluding statutory/contractual warranty content.
- If the supplier cannot prove this, the legal/statutory warranty regime presumes that the defect was present at the time of delivery and favors the customer's claim. This warranty is valid for 12 months from the delivery. The Quality Charter for CE Chapter 3.5 also requires sufficient proof.
- If there is a clear customer damage and the supplier provided sufficient evidence, there are two opposing claims: the customer's warranty claims and the supplier's tort damage claim.
- Consumers are entitled to repair or replacement (Primary warranty claims), or price reduction or refund (Secondary warranty claims) within a specified time-frame.
- Suppliers are entitled to deduct additional costs and any additional costs incurred due to the customer's harmful actions leading to the damage. However, it is crucial to ensure that the deduction is fair and reasonable.