True, but not for everything. Batteries and professional use are still limited/exempt for example.
Indeed true, but not often an advantage in practice. Normally, the seller is responsible for the warranty, not the manufacturer. As I said in my previous post, not all retailers honor this correctly and will just be a pain in the ass by not cooperating. Legal defense is still something rarely used here and often leads to more money and time wasted than what it's worth.
Retailers will rarely exchange goods, they will just ship your defective device to the manufacturer for you. So some companies like WD, who can cross-ship you a new device before yours has arrived, it is not worth the effort of going through the retailer, especially with online retail where you basically have to have it delivered somewhere (retailer) anyway, so why not directly to the RMA department of the company ?
Another issue with that is that you are dealing with two parties instead of one, so if your item gets lost, incorrectly repaired, destroyed or damaged, you can join the exciting multiplayer game of "Who doesn't want to take responsibility for the fuckup ?". If you ever want to see me rage about something, such moments are when I might flip out and unleash my inner Hulk.
I know this exists in the Netherlands, but it doesn't (or is being kept under wraps) for Belgium. But this is also often disputed, because this isn't clear-cut and you'll need to take it up with the retailer or manufacturer too who often don't honor this. Often it will require threatening with legal or actually sueing them. This is not something I would want to waste my money and time on, since I live in a country that:
- lets murderers and rapists go free because of a misspelled name on some form during arrest (happens regularly)
- lets criminals have citizen rights, regularly the victim gets sued because the criminal's privacy (!) was endangered (Microsoft LOLs)
- has long jail time penalty on personal tax evasion but foreign thieves go free after 24 hours
