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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