Sea-Bird Electronics SBE 38, User Manual

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WARRANTY ADMINISTRATION POLICY
Sea-Bird Electronics, Inc. and its authorized representatives or resellers provide warranty support only to the
original purchaser. Warranty claims, requests for information or other support, and orders for post-warranty repair
and service, by end-users that did not purchase directly from Sea-Bird or an authorized representative or reseller,
must be made through the original purchaser. The intent and explanation of our warranty policy follows:
1.
Warranty repairs are only performed by Sea-Bird.
2.
Repairs or attempts to repair Sea-Bird products performed by customers (owners) shall be called owner repairs .
3.
Our products are designed to be maintained by competent owners. Owner repairs of Sea-Bird products will
NOT void the warranty coverage (as stated above) simply as a consequence of their being performed.
4.
Owners may make repairs of any part or assembly, or replace defective parts or assemblies with
Sea-Bird manufactured spares or authorized substitutes without voiding warranty coverage of the entire product,
or parts thereof. Defective parts or assemblies removed by the owner may be returned to Sea-Bird for repair or
replacement within the terms of the warranty, without the necessity to return the entire instrument. If the owner
makes a successful repair, the repaired part will continue to be covered under the original warranty, as if it had
never failed. Sea-Bird is not responsible for any costs incurred as a result of owner repairs or equipment
downtime.
5.
We reserve the right to refuse warranty coverage on a claim by claim basis based on our judgment and
discretion. We will not honor a warranty claim if in our opinion the instrument, assembly, or part has been
damaged by accident, mishandled, altered, or repaired by the customer
where such treatment has affected its
performance or reliability .
6.
For example, if the CTD pressure housing is opened, a PC board is replaced, the housing is resealed, and then it
floods on deployment, we do not automatically assume that the owner is to blame. We will consider a claim for
warranty repair of a flooded unit, subject to our inspection and analysis. If there is no evidence of a fault in
materials (e.g., improper or damaged o-ring, or seal surfaces) or workmanship (e.g., pinched o-ring due to
improper seating of end cap), we would cover the flood damage under warranty.
7.
In a different example, a defective PC board is replaced with a spare and the defective PC board is sent to Sea-
Bird. We will repair or replace the defective PC board under warranty. The repaired part as well as the
instrument it came from will continue to be covered under the original warranty.
8.
As another example, suppose an owner attempts a repair of a PC board, but solders a component in backwards,
causing the board to fail and damage other PC boards in the system. In this case, the evidence of the backwards
component will be cause for our refusal to repair the damage under warranty. However, this incident will NOT
void future coverage under warranty.
9.
If an owner's technician attempts a repair, we assume his/her qualifications have been deemed acceptable to the
owner. The equipment owner is free to use his/her judgment about who is assigned to repair equipment, and is
also responsible for the outcome. The decision about what repairs are attempted and by whom is entirely up to
the owner.
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