Rumor: 3rd party cables void the PS3 warranty

god every company has a policy similar to this people just want to find any little thing to bash Sony

A video cable can only damage a PS3 if you plug the other end into an electrical outlet.

This is stupid. Just flat out lie to Customer Support.

There is no way this is true because there is no way they can ever prove what type of cables you had plugged into the system.

FUD. Just check your warranty for your Wii and 360 as well. Both will state that 3rd party products when used with either console will void the warranty. I am not a Sony fan but even I think this sorry of an excuse to bash Sony is just sad.

Seriously, Joystiq. You need to read more into the link, and not focus so heavily into bloating the rumor. All companies, including Microsoft and Nintendo have this clause in their limited warranty agreement...here are links to help you do some better journalism.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemsetup/xbox360/resources/warranty.htm
is used with products not sold or licensed by Microsoft (including, but not limited to, non-licensed games and game enhancement devices, adaptors and power supply sources) or which are otherwise incompatible;

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/manuals/warrantytext_eng.jsp
THIS WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY IF THIS PRODUCT: (a) IS USED WITH PRODUCTS NOT SOLD OR LICENSED BY NINTENDO (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NON-LICENSED GAME ENHANCEMENT AND COPIER DEVICES, ADAPTERS, AND POWER SUPPLIES); (b) IS USED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES (INCLUDING RENTAL); (c) IS MODIFIED OR TAMPERED WITH; (d) IS DAMAGED BY NEGLIGENCE, ACCIDENT, UNREASONABLE USE, OR BY OTHER CAUSES UNRELATED TO DEFECTIVE MATERIALS OR WORKMANSHIP; OR (e) HAS HAD THE SERIAL NUMBER ALTERED, DEFACED OR REMOVED.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22is+used+with+products+not+sold+or+licensed+by%22&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=KG1&filter=0

Lets keep the consumer informed and spend less time finding the buzz words.

I seen this happen with customers and the PS2 a few years ago for using certain 3rd party memory cards, etc. The first thing some of the cust. service reps would do is screen you to find out if you have done this and if you did they would say that you have voided your warrenty and hang up on you. They log in your name and serial number of console also, so be careful. However, I really doubt they are this tuff now. I'm just glad microsoft extended out their warrenty to one year because I have never seen so many defetive systems from a launch.

Funny, when my Dreamcast's controller port died Sega was more than happy to repair it for me under warranty even though I had and used two third party gamepads. I guess it's all about who wants to take care of their customers the best.

Sony did not honor the warranty on my launch-day PS2 when the unit broke within the warranty period. I called customer service with my problem, and was told that because the cables were Monster brand (a third party licensed manufacturer) Sony would not honor its warranty.

Sony turned me off as a customer that day. I've not purchased a Sony product since. The idea that third party licensed cabling can somehow damage a component is ABSURD.

My wife was incredulous. I was livid.

I guess the best thing to do is LIE about your hookups in case your crappy system breaks. Which it will. Because we're talking Sony here. Sony is not at all the premier consumer electronics maker that it once was. Akio Morita failed to pass on a legacy of quality, and as a consumer who has lost all confidence in the company's products, I wish the company a speedy recovery from its hubris--in other words, may Sony crash and burn for its errors; and then, hopefully, to rise phoenix with a renewed commitment to customer service and with quality products that I can take pride in purchasing.

I've been complaining about the third party cabling issue for the past five years. I'm glad the Internet finally caught up with this scam.

How are they going to know what cables you use? Yea you could be 1005 honest but really all you have to do is say " No I only use sony brand accessories for my PS3" I don't have any sony brand accessories hooked to my PS2. I'm not going to spend almost twice as much for a memory card or controller just because it says Sony on it. I am not a sony fanboy as I really don't care about the system or the company that makes it I just play the games I like regardless of what system they may be on. But if you read the warranty info for the system of your choice it will say that using non sony/microsoft/nintendo etc.. products with your system could cause damage to your system and will not be covered by the warranty. This constant sony bashing is getting a little old. Just play your games and have fun people isn't that what it is all about?

Didn't joystiq already run an article about "Horror stories from Customer Service Tech Support?"

The point is the same, in many cases (like Sony and Verizon) the Customer Service rep is bound by management to do whatever they can to heap the blame on anyone but themselves

The excuse is If you've got something hooked up that wasn't made by the company, you are not using the console under "recommended conditions" and thus you do so at your own risk

yet another example of y joystiq is biased against sony

u do realize that this is true with almost every piece of electronics u buy

Licensed and unlicensed 3rd party is the key. Use an unlicensed 3rd party cable and void your warranty. Licensed 3rd party like Nyko are fine. I can see how people trying to find a way to screw sony in every possible way.

"Buyer beware" is Joystiq's interpretation of this? The official word basically states that if you use a third-party product with the PS3, which results in damage to the PS3, they are not liable. This is pretty standard stuff.

Hell, AMD and Intel void the warranty if you use a third-party cooler on one of their CPUs. This kind of thing is not uncommon, certainly not enough to act like this is some kind of plot on the part of Sony to screw everyone over.

Am I the only one who smells a little quid pro quo somewhere?

6. beaker,

Sorry to hear about your incident, and I completely agree that Sony is no longer the company it once was. Their stuff used to be great, but now it's poorly designed and their customer support system is horrible. I had a nightmare of a situation with my 60" Grand Wega TV set a few years back because this entire family of sets had a design defect that caused sets to eventually fail to turn on. Sony took its sweet time resolving the issue and the process even took a few laughable turns too.

Ugh. No Sony for me anymore either.

Anyway, I wonder if Sony could go so far as to consider non-Sony television sets as a third party component. It is possible, after all, for a defective TV to go haywire and possibly send electricity back into the PS3. Nintendo and Microsoft don't make televisions so they couldn't play that game.

@4/Richard "... However, I really doubt they are this tuff now."

Did you read the article? Sony is obviously tough on this... especially now with their $500/$600 machine.

Dave

The Magnuson-Moss warranty act says that Sony can NOT void their warranty unless the cause of the problem/breakage is due to the 3rd party product used.

Let me give you some examples. You put Mobile1 into your Ford instead of Motorcraft. Can Ford void your warranty? "No" says Magnuson-Moss Warranty act. You put Kenmore vacuum bags in your Hoover vacuum cleaner. That's OK too.

Now if the Kenmore vacuum bag breaks and cause damage to the motor on your vacuum, then you'd be SOL. However, the fact that you use an aftermarket vacuum bag does not void the warranty. The fact the aftermarket bag failed and caused the damage does void the warranty.

Ok, let me give you just a couple more examples:

You take a video card and swap the heatsink out for an aftermarket SUPER-DUPER-COOLER. Does that void the warranty? Yes, that's tampering with the product in a way that it was not intended to be used so the manufacturer can void the warranty.

However, if the video card manufacturer also sells a "upgradable heat sink" as a option that the user can buy and install, I would suggest to you that the may legally NOT void warranty if you decide to install an aftermarket heatsink. They can void the warranty if they see/prove that your aftermarket heat sink did not sufficiently cool the video card causing it to fail.

Similarly Sony can not void the warranty if you use a MadCatz controller with your playstation. Nor can they void the warranty if you use Panasonic TV instead of a Sony Trinitron. Now if your PanasonicTV has an electrical fault that blows up your Playstation, that won't be warranted by Sony if they can prove that happened. In the end that would be OK, because it means that you were destined to by a Wii.

This is not unique to Sony. The Wii TOS also specifically state to not use 3rd party parts (including SD cards).

I have no idea if Nintendo would treat such use as a breach of waranty, however.

We also got third parties in power companies, internet providers, games, linux, and multimedia formats.

13. Steve,

The beauty of it is that I bought a LICENSED third party brand (Monster Cable) S-Video cable because Sony did not provide or manufacture that particular item at the time I bought the PS2. Sony set the specifications and licensed the product (and received a cut of the money!) but disclaimed responsibility for the console because I used another brand of A/V cable other than the composite that came in the box.

The irritating thing to me was (and is) that there was no earthly way the audio-video cable could have caused the console to lock up. I replied honestly to the customer support questions, and I got hosed.

Particularly irksome to me was the fact that the customer representative would not refer me to a higher-up or supervisor--and that loathesome being cut me off without recourse to mediation.

I had never to that point dealt with such cavalier, pugnacious disregard to customer satisfaction. I had only had to deal with one other faulty console till that time (an Atari Jaguar); and that had been speedily replaced without question from the manufacturer. I expected the same from Sony.

Word of mouth is that Microsoft deals honestly and promptly with their inevitable repairs, and Nintendo doesn't manufacture defective merchandise to start with. I have no confidence in either Sony's products or their customer service.

beaker, you are aware of what licensed means, right? All it basically means is that Sony won't sue Monster Cable for putting out products designed for the PlayStation. Specifications and the like have nothing to do with it - for example, video card manufacturers like Asus may use the reference card from Nvidia as a basis for their product, but may use a wildly different cooler and overclock it. Nvidia doesn't have to OK this, doesn't review it, doesn't do anything but provide the basic spec. S-Video being a common type of cable, Sony doesn't do anything but receive a licensing fee from Monster. If the product causes a problem, you talk to Asus, not Nvidia. Same issue here.

o_O

WTF?! I don't use a Sony TV with my PS3 I'll void the warranty too? SONY SUCK!

FUD.

18. filterpunk.

If you were to buy a Dodge Truck, say, and replace the stock tires with something else such as Goodyears (same size and specifications) and then the engine broke while the truck was still under warranty, can you imagine that Chrysler would not honor its warranty because you put different tires on the truck?

Putting different A/V cables on your console other than the manufacturer's supplied-in-the-box is analogous to my truck example. The A/V cables cannot cause mechanical failure in the console (specifically disc-read errors and locking up, which was what happened to me).

Sony has institutionalized a broad "not-my-fault" filter to screw the customer over with their warranty. Sony also realizes that nobody is going to pursue them legally over an issue that involves a relatively cheap piece of consumer electronics.

I can imagine David Spade at the Sony customer service center screaming "NO!" into his headset and laughing maniacally every time a customer calls. I was, and still am, dumfounded at Sony's cupidity.

Sony official PS3 Component cables are for 19.95 at EBgames.com and at Gamestop.com. get you some if you need them, otherwise if you could find them any more, you can get PS2 Component cables for less st radioshack.com. Enjoy.

What? I've never heard that a video cable can brick a console - and even if this would happen I'd say it's the consoles fault.

beaker, the car comparison doesn't quite work. On a truck, it's unlikely the tires would have anything to do with the engine. On the PS3? If you bent a pin on the cable, there's a possibility of the whole system taking a hit. Not saying you did, but the cause of the failure is more difficult to ascertain. That aside, if it's a case of the cable having no involvement with the problem, how can you be sure? If you are, why did the topic of cables even come up?

Having previously been a CSR at various companies, if i'd received your call, I might have reacted the same way the Sony rep did. What would convince me to give you the benefit of the doubt, or at least explore another option, is your behavior during the call. Every rep differs though, so why not call until you could reach a more sympathetic rep?

I had one of the launch day PS2's that developed DRE issues. My Xbox 360, received on Christmas, will cost me $50 to ship to Microsoft if I want them fixed. I do empathize with you - but c'mon, this kind of BS is the order of the day, with virtually every company.