Microchip product repair within warranty.

[Arp]

I have no complains about Microchip. They replaced my ICD3 (bought from Farnell) 2 times after the 2-year legal warranty. I just had to pay the shipping costs for return the broken unit(s). And they always tell me to return only after receiving the new one!

After warranty repair is pretty nice, but two broken units? Makes me wonder about the quality. They charge almost 200 dollars for the programmer.

Anyways. Seems like im dealing with a Romanian division of Microchip. Trying not to be prejudiced, but somehow I feel it can relate to the lack of care of laws and regulations . Microchip doing what they can to keep costs down. I recieved a read notification from the legal department today so I hope there'll be a response any time soon.

[Arp]

They asked me for my receipts a week ago so. They said  the right people will make a decision so I've been waiting ever since. Tedious process it seems

[Arp]

Microchip just called me. I reckon it was from the UK because of the accent.

Summed up, he basically said that if I want lifetime warranty I'll have to pay the return shipping. Else I'll be kept out of the loop.

I told him I didn't want to pay the return shipping, and according to EU policy shouldn't have to.

After alot of talking back and forth. Being told how they care for their customers etc. I mentioned the quality of their 200 dollar programmer, and how I could probably repair it myself for less than the return shipping etc.

In the end he said he will have to take it up with some department, don't remember which, and get back to me. Will probably have to wait a few weeks more

*Edit*
Also mentioned I was willing to accept the equillant sum in discount on my next purchase, but that didn't work. Seems very troublesome for them to do anything else than follow protocols seemingly written stone

*Edit2*
Checked my log. The call was from Ireland, not UK

*Edt3*
Spoke with a very sympathetic guy at their Irish department. Not wanting to waste any more time on this I accepted their original offer. Even if I get them to pay the return shipping, they could still have me without a programmer for X number of weeks, instead of their usual procedure where they send you a working one before you return the old damaged unit