How Important Is A Warranty?

[Armagon]

How important is a warranty?

Has anyone had a Zaurus arrive dead?  Do they get crunched easily?  Fried (by anything other than using an improper power adapter)? Are dead/stuck pixels a problem, or keys that don't work?
 
I'm thinking of buying a C1000, and in my books, that's a lot of money to risk.  It seems that some retailers set themselves apart by giving you useful customer service and warranties, while others do not.  [And, of course an eBay seller won't be offering a warranty.]

If it turns out that I need to make use of my warranty, how useful does it actually turn out to be?  Some retailers require you to ship it back to them for them to ship to Sharp, etc ... that's gotta really get costly.

If you don't have a warranty, are you just out of luck if your unit dies?  Or are you just looking at paying a huge amount of money to get your unit repaired (or replaced)?

Lastly, if you change your ROM, does that nullify your warranty?

Thanks for your insights,
Armagon

[bam]

for me, very. never owned a z before, so wasnt sure.

[Streamline]

Armagon,
 Warranty is good for those who want to protect there investment and don't have the funds to take chances. We issued our warranty program because we have confidence in the product and MOST warranty issues are caught when we inspect the unit before it leaves to the customer. In the past year of all the Zauris we have sent out we have had one customer who needed there Z sent out for repair. Not to say there wont be more but it saves us to look over the unit well before it ships most problems occur when you open the new unit to use it. If you purchase your unit with a company not offering warranty and needed it fixed you would have to send it to a person in Japan to have it repaired. Your warranty is normally void if you change the contents of the machine from its original state not programs but hardware. I hope this helps.

[bluedevils]

I value a company that takes care of its customers.  My 760 had hardware issues outside the one year warranty.  It was too much of a hassle to get it repaired and the company I bought it from wouldn't even respond to my inquiries to proxy a repair.  Generally speaking the zaurus is very solid hardware, but if you do need repair it can be a pain.

[BarryW]

What's a warranty??!!  

[Da_Blitz]

The first thing i do when i get a new toy is to see how quickly i can void the warranty, then again i pull these things apart for the fun of it