MSI Extends Product Warranties by Two Months Due to Coronavirus

The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has already caused the cancellation several major trade shows and will have other kinds of impacts on the high-tech industry. And while the full repercussions are far from over, we're now seeing what may be the oddest of them all: warranty extensions. Citing this outbreak and a desire to give its customers some peace of mind, MSI this week announced a complimentary extension of its product warranties. As long as owners meet certain conditions, warranties originally set to expire this month have now been extended by two months.

All told, MSI is issuing two month warranty extensions on all its all-in-one (AIO) desktops, desktops, motherboards, monitors, as well as cases (and PC cabinets). This covers many of its consumer products, but notably leaves the company's popular laptops out of the program. As previously mentioned, the warranty extension is being offered on products with original warranties set to expire by March of 2020 – or in other words, this month.

While the extensions are largely automatic, owners do need to fulfill a couple of conditions. First, the program is only being offered in certain countries: South Korea, Italy, Germany, France, Japan, Spain, USA, Switzerland, Singapore, UK, Hong Kong, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Australia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Malaysia, Belgium, Canada. China isn't being directly covered by this program, but MSI is already offering an independent program there. Second, owners need to be enrolled in the MSI Rewards Program, MSI's warranty registration and rewards program.

By extending its product warranties, MSI can address several problems at once. Most importantly, perhaps, is that it means that product owners who need warranty service this month can put off service for another month or two, hopefully when the viral situation has subsided. This essentially pauses (or at least greatly reduces) MSI's warranty operations at a time when they are likely not operating at full capacity to begin with, and minimizes any interactions that could spread the disease. This also lowers the immediate demand for components and/or spare parts, which comes as manufacturing operations in China are still getting back on track.

And of course, the value of good will (and the free press) is immeasurable. MSI is ultimately on the hook for two more months of hardware failures, which will have a very real cost in terms of support. But it is a welcome piece of good news in a month that could use some.

Related Reading:

• Mobile World Congress 2020 Cancelled
• GDC & Open Compute Project Global Summit Latest Events Scrubbed Due to Coronavirus
• NVIDIA's 2020 GTC Becomes Latest Coronavirus Event Casualty: Now Digital-Only
• Computex 2020: Still on Schedule Despite Coronavirus, But Other Events Have Restrictions

Source: MSI