Your Warranty Rights on Second-Hand and Refurbished Devices in Belgium

Warranty on second-hand and refurbished devices in Belgium, what the law says

The word warranty is used for three different things, and that is where most of the confusion comes from. There is the legal warranty, which follows from the law and which no seller can sign away. There is the commercial warranty, which a seller gives voluntarily on top of it. And there is Apple's manufacturer warranty, which is attached to the device and not to your purchase. Anyone who knows which of the three is meant also knows where they stand.

The legal warranty on second-hand goods

In Belgium, second-hand goods carry a legal warranty of at least twelve months. For new goods it is two years. With second-hand goods, buyer and seller may agree on a shorter term, but never shorter than those twelve months, and that agreement has to be made clear before the purchase.

What that warranty covers is conformity. Put briefly: the device has to be what was promised and do what you may reasonably expect of it, and the cause of the defect must already have been present at delivery. It is not a service contract and not an insurance policy. In the Netherlands the law does not state a fixed number of months; there the test is what you may reasonably expect of a product, and that depends on things such as price, age and what was said about it at the sale.

What conformity means in practice

A device sold as working that stops connecting after three weeks is not in conformity. A button that does not respond from day one is not in conformity. A battery with far less capacity than described is not in conformity. A screen cracked after a fall, liquid damage, a lost cable and ordinary wear from use, on the other hand, are not defects.

With second-hand goods, the description is therefore part of your rights. What the seller describes is the yardstick you can hold them to: a scratch that is in the description is not a defect, and a scratch that is not in it should not be there. With us that description is short, because the screen and the housing are replaced on every device. You are buying a device with no signs of use, so anything you do find on it is not an agreed appearance but simply a defect.

The right of withdrawal on distance purchases

Distance selling to consumers carries a right of withdrawal of fourteen days. That is something other than warranty. You do not need a defect and you do not need a reason: you can undo the purchase within that period after receiving it. The idea is that you can look at the device and try it out as you would in a shop. For certain products the right does not apply, for example with made-to-order items. Who pays the return costs has to be made clear by the seller before the purchase.

Who has to prove what

That shifts over time. If a defect appears shortly after delivery, the law assumes it was already there at delivery, and it is up to the seller to show that it was not. The longer you use the device, the more it is up to you to make it plausible that this is not wear or an accident. In practice that means: report a problem when it turns up and not months later, and describe what you see instead of only saying that it does not work.

Commercial warranty: what comes on top

A seller may give more than the law asks, and that extra promise has to be clear and easy to find. It can never take the place of the legal warranty or shorten it. With us it looks like this: 24 months of warranty on the device and on the battery, and 30 days to change your mind with free returns. So that is twice the legal minimum term for second-hand goods, and more than double the fourteen days of the right of withdrawal.

That battery is not a detail. With second-hand goods the battery is often kept outside the warranty as a wear part, while it is precisely the part that determines how the device is to use. With us it is covered, and every device leaves with at least 85 per cent battery capacity or with a new battery. Shipping within Belgium and the Netherlands is free, in both directions in the case of a return. The full terms are set out under warranty.

Manufacturer warranty and why it tells you little

Apple's warranty runs from the first sale of the device, not from your purchase. With a refurbished device that period has therefore usually already expired. On top of that it covers neither liquid damage nor damage from a fall. For you, then, the seller's warranty is the warranty that counts, and not the age of the device.

What to keep

• The invoice, with the IMEI number on it. Warranty follows the purchase, not the box.
• The description of the condition as it stood at the time of purchase.
• The correspondence about any deviations or agreements.
• A backup. A repair or an exchange can cost you data, and that is the one thing a warranty does not replace.

How a warranty case works in practice

You report the problem with the IMEI number and a description of what you notice: when it happens, how often, and whether anything has changed. The device comes to the workshop in Zarren, where the same people who checked it also do the diagnosis. Because we work at board level with microsoldering, a fault that would be a write-off elsewhere is often a repair here. If repairing turns out not to make sense, a replacement or a refund follows. How sending it in works is explained under shipping.

Finally

This is an overview of the rules, not legal advice, and it does not replace advice on a specific dispute. For that, the consumer authority is the place to go, not a blog. What you can take away from it: always ask what term a seller gives, whether the battery is covered, and who pays the return costs. Those three questions tell you more about an offer than the price does.