Having rearranged all the furniture in its distribution programme at the beginning of the month (CI No 1,028), DEC has now turned its attention to the guarantees it attaches to its machines, and appears to have decided that the one-year full on-site warranty it has been offering was just too damn expensive. The warranty was […]
Having rearranged all the furniture in its distribution programme at the beginning of the month (CI No 1,028), DEC has now turned its attention to the guarantees it attaches to its machines, and appears to have decided that the one-year full on-site warranty it has been offering was just too damn expensive. The warranty was introduced to win back maintenance business from third parties, and the assumption has to be that DEC has now succeeded in that to its own satisfaction, and wants to make a bit more money out of maintenance. The Maynard minimaker has therefore dreamed up four warranty support options that will apply to all systems, the new regime to operate first in the US, although it will be extended worldwide over the next 12 months. The idea is that users should be able to choose the most appropriate level of warranty support to meet their specific business or application requirements – from the first day of system ownership says DEC. The four levels of warranty replace the existing one-year, on-site warranty, and while the one year benefit remains, users will have to delete on-site, and if they want a service as good as DEC has been offering, they will have to pay extra for it. The best they will be offered bundled into the price of the machine is what DEC is calling the List Price Warranty, which features one year of return to Digital support for parts, and one year of conformance warranty for software. That means that if a part in your machine fails, you’ll have to send the thing back to DEC to be fixed. The List Price Warranty will also be available to DEC resellers who prefer not to pay for a service warranty. For those who feel they’ll miss the cheery face of their DEC repairman peeking round the door, there are three levels of System Warranty on a graduated price scale Basic service, more extensive Standard coverage, and a comprehensive Optimum support. Prices for systems featuring the Standard warranty will increase by from 6% to 9% over list for most average system configurations. If there is any good news in the switch, it is that customers will be able to extend their System Warranty Support for a total of up to three years, and achieve cost savings thereby. Hardware and software bought with systems will carry the same level of warranty as chosen for the system. Add-ons are also raised an average 2%.
