Weber told they can’t void warranty over non-OEM repairs


 
Jon Tofte

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I am not sure how I feel about this. As someone who has overhauled a fair number of grills and uses non-OEM parts where I feel they are just as good - or sometimes better - this seems to make some sense. But then I think about the crazy things people do with botched conversions and other stuff. Should Weber still have to warranty a grill that has been ruined by substandard parts or improperly installed ones?

www.vice.com

FTC Orders Weber to Honor the Sacred Right to Repair Your Own Grill

The FTC labeled this practice as “deceptive” and said the company must stop the practice immediately.
www.vice.com www.vice.com
 
Magnusson-Moss Act (and I spotted that even before reading the link.) There's a few interesting clauses, but for grill warranties, Weber will still have to warranty parts that are not affected by customer activity. As an example, Weber would have to replace a lid handle if the customer did their own LP -> NG conversion. Legally, the manufacturer has to be able to show that the customer activity affected the requested warranty replacement in order to deny it. The unfortunate reality is that practically nobody has the resources to fight it.

It gets a lot more interesting in vehicles. If the manufacturer requires the use of their own consumables like oil, filters, etc., then the Act requires the manufacturer to supply them free of charge during the warranty period. This is why you'll always see oil requirements like like SAE 5w40, with addtiional specs. This would be akin to Weber requiring the use of Weber charcoal or Weber LP only,

Edit: I should say that I'm not horribly surprised that Weber got caught trying to deny warranty coverage after any customer changes. That's just going to make their life easier by not having to send out replacement parts, or trying to determine if customer has caused the part to fail.
 
Is they could point to the replacement part(s) or mods having caused a failure they're perfectly justified in denial of warranty. IOW fitting a wrong or faulty aftermarket LP regulator and then complaining the cook box warped/burned through from high heat. If I am Weber I'm washing my hands of it. I don't think the MM act has any teeth anymore anyway. You are not allowed to do anything for example to your Tesla. They actually have monitoring capability to show that if you did they simply disable the car remotely. Many farmers are upset about not being able to work on their own tractors.. The gummint is not doing a thing to help them either
 
As J mentioned I knew about the oil and consumables pertaining to vehicles as the Moss act has been around for along time.

“The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act was a law that was passed in the 1970s and states that it’s not legal to require the use of a manufacturer part or service in order to maintain a warranty,” says Keith Barry, Consumer Reports’ autos editor. “You can have your car serviced anywhere and still maintain the manufacturer’s warranty. You can bring the car to a place like Jiffy Lube, to an independent shop, or even another dealership that’s not the same car brand as your car.”

However, damage resulting from a faulty repair may not be covered. For example, if you decide to change the oil yourself and forget to put the oil filter back on, then drive the car and ruin the engine, that of course would not be covered under warranty because you damaged the car, says Barry.

If an employee of a dealership tells you the car has to be serviced at their dealership, it should be reported and discouraged. Complain to the dealer and the car manufacturer and let them know what the employee is doing. You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, which sometimes leads to the dealership being warned by the FTC.
 
DMCA and Right-To-Repair are certainly muddying the waters (John Deere, I'm lookin' at YOU!) There's a farmer down in Missouri who had to file a lawsuit against his dealer. The dealer had mucked up a repair so badly that they'd lose money under warranty repairs and refused to service his equipment, effectively blackballing him in the factory systems. The FTC had to tell Deere and the dealer to make it right.

MM still has some teeth, but the consumer has to know about it, how to quote it, and how to hold a dealership over a barrel.

Pretty sure that none of this applies to me personally, as I just don't have practically anything under warranty at this point.
 
Jay D in Jersey said:
I submit that this effects. .000000000000000000000101000% of anyone that owns a Weber.
Click to expand...
If you buy a 2022 model might be less than that not commenting on the older ones. :)

2022 GENESIS GAS GRILLS​

  • 12 years - Cookbox: no rust-through/burn-through (2 years on paint excluding fading or discoloration)
  • 12 years - Lid assembly: no rust-through/burn-through (2 years on paint excluding fading or discoloration)
  • 10 years - Stainless steel burner tubes: no rust-through/burn-through
  • 10 years - Stainless steel cooking grates: no rust-through/burn-through
  • 10 years - Stainless steel Flavorizer® bars: no rust-through/burn-through
  • 10 years - Porcelain-enameled cast-iron cooking grates: no rust-through/burn-through
  • 3 years - Electrical components (Weber Connect controller)
  • 5 years - All remaining parts
 
Brian B Atlanta said:
If you buy a 2022 model might be less than that not commenting on the older ones. :)

2022 GENESIS GAS GRILLS​

  • 12 years - Cookbox: no rust-through/burn-through (2 years on paint excluding fading or discoloration)
  • 12 years - Lid assembly: no rust-through/burn-through (2 years on paint excluding fading or discoloration)
  • 10 years - Stainless steel burner tubes: no rust-through/burn-through
  • 10 years - Stainless steel cooking grates: no rust-through/burn-through
  • 10 years - Stainless steel Flavorizer® bars: no rust-through/burn-through
  • 10 years - Porcelain-enameled cast-iron cooking grates: no rust-through/burn-through
  • 3 years - Electrical components (Weber Connect controller)
  • 5 years - All remaining parts
Click to expand...
There is a big difference between “rust” and “rust through”.
 
Weber by all accounts will ship replacement parts to non-original owners (like many of us) but will also do things like discontinue Summit cook boxes (like our friend Larry M has experienced). So by and large, I would say that Weber does a fair job of warranteeing, and since they promote their warranty so heavily they have to at least look like they are making an effort. Warrantees are a numbers game for a company like Weber. I don't know what the numbers are, but I would gamble good money that fewer than 25% of grills ever produced by them get any warranty claims. Probably fewer than 10%. So they budget that into the price of a new grill. Nowadays, even though the newer grills shine brightly compared to the good old Genesii, they are charging absolute premium dollar for each new grill, and their warranty business is built in to those prices. All that said, I wouldn't pay for the warranty, meaning I personally don't want to ever buy a new grill. But, since they do warranty, that means that they *should* have a stock of parts for various grills. Unfortunately, they are finished supporting the thousands officially and unofficially, and I am sure that the Silver B/C lines are next to fall off of their warranty obligation, so they will deplete their parts stocks and then wash their hands of it, while they then prepare and execute warranty service for their new "app" Jetsons like grills with electronics and that is an axle I am surprised any company willingly wraps itself around.
 
Jay D in Jersey said:
I submit that this effects. .000000000000000000000101000% of anyone that owns a Weber.
Click to expand...
<scratches head> This ruling really does apply to anything with a warranty. By law, the manufacturer has to repair or replace any failed components during the covered warranty period. If coverage is refused, they are required to proved that customer changes or use did not cause the failure.

Yeah, I know. Fat chance. They've got far deeper pockets than I have.
 
In reality, the onus is on the end-user to prove it didn’t affect warranty. There’s all sorts of ways warranty can be denied, and fairly legitimately.

With my automotive background, almost everyone chirps about Magnuson-Moss but almost no one understands it. Guys all the time say “I can turbocharge and manufacturer has to prove...” and that’s simply not the case.

This amounts to a whole lot of nothing.
 
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