The new Linksys WRT1900ACS router

Posted Oct 12, 2015 23:14 UTC (Mon) by rahvin (guest, #16953)
In reply to: The new Linksys WRT1900ACS router by roc
Parent article: The new Linksys WRT1900ACS router

I doubt anyone expects support, but the automatic voiding of a warranty where a bad flash didn't take place is just bad. If you are advertising this feature you shouldn't be saying that using said feature voids your warranty. I can certainly expect someone to have to flash back to the "supported" firmware to troubleshoot but just flashing a different OS should not be grounds for canceling a warranty.

Frankly given OpenWRT is an advertised feature there are a few jurisdictions that such a cancellation of warranty clause would not be legally valid.

The new Linksys WRT1900ACS router

Posted Oct 13, 2015 13:31 UTC (Tue) by pinkpony (guest, #92373) [Link] (2 responses)

How is anyone supposed to give you warranty the thing will work as advertised, when you flash it with a different firmware? When you flash it with something that doesn't work properly and you go back to the vendor you router works badly or not at all, what you expect? And if 'warranty' doesn't mean the vendor guarantees the router will work as advertised, what does it mean?

Still, this shouldn't (and very often it legally *can't*) mean you are not getting any warranty on anything, if you bring the router back because the HW was obviously faulty (say, the power supply short-circuits and kills the entire router), the warranty in this particular case should be honored and the faulty HW replaced or repaired. But you cannot say you can flash the router and still expected it to have everything working properly as advertised on the box and have that covered by the warranty for the device...

The new Linksys WRT1900ACS router

Posted Oct 14, 2015 10:41 UTC (Wed) by sorpigal (guest, #36106) [Link] (1 responses)

> And if 'warranty' doesn't mean the vendor guarantees the router will work as advertised, what does it mean?

"Warranty" should be read here as "The hardware won't die unexpectedly."

Scenario 1: I buy one of these and a month later one of the wired ports stops working. Hardware defect. No problem, I can get it replaced under warranty.

Scenario 2: Exactly like scenario 1 but I pot openwrt on it. Now I can't get it replaced.

This isn't reasonable. If the flashing had failed that should void the warranty, but the buyer should still have some protection against unrelated defects when using a custom rom.

The new Linksys WRT1900ACS router

Posted Oct 14, 2015 11:28 UTC (Wed) by JGR (subscriber, #93631) [Link]

> Exactly like scenario 1 but I pot openwrt on it. Now I can't get it replaced.
You could flash it back to the stock firmware, verify that the port is still broken, and then send it back to them. The manufacturer does not need to know what firmware was on it, only that their approved firmware is currently on it, and it doesn't work.