Warranty and Maintenance for Hardware

There are several business models in the hardware business for providing customers with remedies to faults in hardware and for providing maintenance services.  It is critical to carefully define how this process works so that it is clear from both the ICT supplier’s and the customer’s perspective as to which items are included with any particular service (and therefore are within the price of that service) and which items are outside the service and can be legitimately charged to the customer.

A warranty service is usually a service that provides for remedies for faults that are notified to the ICT supplier within a pre-defined period from the date of order, the date of installation or the date of delivery.  Typically warranty services are provided at no additional cost.  The key issue for the customer is how “good” is a warranty service?  Does the warranty service, for example, require the customer to return the equipment to the ICT supplier for the ICT supplier (or its nominated service agent) to fix the fault or is the customer entitled to require the ICT supplier to attend the customer’s site to correct the fault?