Warranties Chapter 24

Warranty a seller's guarantee about the quality and performance of goods and services. The warranty may also include a statement of what the seller or manufacturer will do if a problem occurs. If the seller does not honor the warranty, the seller has breached, or broken, his or her contract with the consumer.

Sellers don’t have to offer written warranties If they do, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act applies Full Warranties- (under the act) Defective product will be fixed or replaced at no cost. Consumer will not be required to do anything unreasonable Product will be fixed within a reasonable time The warranty applies to anyone who owns the product during the warranty period, not just the original purchaser Any protection of less is a limited warranty

Express Warranties a written or oral statement concerning the quality, or performance, of goods offered for sale. This statement becomes part of the bargain between the parties. However, not everything the seller says is an express warranty. A seller's mere opinion or an obvious exaggeration—called puffing—will not be enforced.

Implied Warranties an unwritten promise, created by law, that ensures a product will do what it is supposed to do. In this way, the law requires that products meet certain standards. A warranty of merchantability is an unwritten promise that the item sold is at least of average quality for that type of item. A warranty of fitness for a particular purpose exists when a consumer tells a seller what the specific purpose of the item will be. A warranty of title is a seller's promise that he or she owns the item being offered for sale and is not selling stolen property.

Disclaimers an attempt by the seller to limit responsibility to the consumer in case anything goes wrong. Sellers can usually disclaim the implied warranty of merchantability as long as the disclaimer is easily visible and is written in terms that can be easily understood by the average consumer. “as is” “with all faults” merchantablility