The subject of manufacturer defects is an interesting one. Should the makers of the product be held liable for any and all problems to a product once it’s been sold to customers and a far-ranging defect has been discovered? If the defect is trivial, and has small influence on the operation of the product should they still be made to mend it? Who decides if a flaw is indeed ‘minor ‘ and how should the full process best be handled?
There are 1 or 2 examples today of mass produced digicams that have famous defects, but the makers’ representatives when questioned about the difficulty will state they have not heard about it before. All of the major camera makers are guilty of this, so it looks to be the policy of each company to reject knowledge of a problem unless made to do so legally.
When a large problem appears with a product, and the maker is aware of the difficulty, they should fix it. That does sound right. For example, it is announced that the Ford Motor Company decided it’d be cheaper in the long term to NOT recall the “Pinto” model vehicles that had a hefty rate of catching on fire and exploding when in certain accidents due to poor design. Instead of fixing the issue before there was an accident, they decided it might be cheaper to settle court actions against them for injuries and deaths caused by the design instead. Clearly in this situation, the maker should have corrected the auto before there was any injury or deaths in the first place.
When it comes to smaller electronics, when is it worthwhile to take the company to court and try and force them to fix the product? As an example, the Canon SD790 side screws always vibrate themselves loose and fall out of the camera. This causes the side trim of the camera body including the handstrap itself to fall off, leaving a large gaping hole in the side of the camera for dust and waste to enter simply.
The screws should be secured with something like “Locktite”, and can be acquired online for approximately $7 including shipping for a pair. In this case if the manufacturer pay each purchaser of this camera $7 or send them two screws and some “Locktite” to secure them? We both know that the sole way that would occur is if they were legally compelled to do so. The problem is, a legal case will take years to settle, and the sole folk who really benefit from it are the counsels, and no-one else.
A lawyer in a case like this, representing many thousands of buyerss, could stand to earn $100,000 or even more for his or her time, while the shopper sees just $7 each. Is this fair? Is this justice? The case could take a long time to settle, and meanwhile all you want is a screw repair kit for your Canon SD790!
Another major issue now beginning to show up lately is that the Canon G9 digital camera also has screws that work themselves loose and fall out over time! These days there are thousands of customers searching for Canon G9 replacement screws as well! When will it end?
A more honorable thing for the maker to do is to own up to the issue and supply a solution for either an exceedingly nominal cost to the buyer or no charge at all . This may go a good way to extend buyer confidence in the maker as well as keeping that shopper loyal to the brand so making the money back thru future purchase. Sadly it appears as if large companies might be too concerned about today to consider the future.