I bought a Waterpik SR 3000 electric toothbrush originally several years ago on Amazon and it had worked well. So when it finally bit the dust, I bought another in January 2019 for ~$110 along with a 3-year warranty, given that I had seen recent complaints on the item. [Note to self: this should have been a dead giveaway not to buy it at all.] Around October, the battery's charging capacity started dropping off, with the motor working weakly whenever it did. What should have lasted years, had lasted months.
I emailed the seller and the warranty company asking for a replacement -- and noticed that the seller was not even selling the item anymore. The seller said that the 30 day return window had already closed; the warranty company said to go back to the manufacturer, since the one year warranty should still be in effect.
I was able to talk with an informative human at Waterpik fairly quickly. Once she had the serial number, she could tell me that it was made in May 2017. This was crucial information: she informed me that the batteries, left uncharged for more than 6 months, are permanently damaged -- so the seller was selling me a defective item, even if the battery worked beyond the 30 day return window. [One can speculate that the seller was ignorant of this, but it does not excuse the ignorance.]
I asked her to email me a summary of what she said, as a representative of Waterpik, which she did. She noted that the company had received many complaints from customers who had bought outdated electronic Waterpik items on ebay and amazon from third party sellers. Ultimately, these sales unfairly discredit the manufacturer by consumers, unaware of the shelf life of a product.
I could fully empathize with that – the seller had not been forthcoming in saying that the product was discontinued and possibly defective. If I had never bought the product before, I’d probably think it was the manufacturer’s fault, not that of the seller.
Meantime, I emailed the seller, asking for full reimbursement for what was, in effect, a defective item, even if it worked beyond the 30 day return window, explaining the evidence I had from the manufacturer. If the seller did not want to comply, I noted that I would file a claim with amazon for reimbursement -- and notifying amazon that the seller had sold outdated malfunctioning items on the amazon platform.
Soon after, I got my full reimbursement “as an exception”, without further comment. But one can only speculate on the number of customers who get scammed by third party sellers on Amazon and Ebay. Sellers, whether aware or not of possible defects, can buy up outdated electronics in bulk and sell them to customers who then find their item malfunctioning well after the period for returns has expired, but well short of the expected shelf life.
Lessons learned: be aware that even "new" electronics can be recently discontinued models with components whose shelf lives have expired; a clue might be that the item is not available anymore from other sellers. Checking with the manufacturer to see if a model is discontinued or has a shelf life is also helpful.
For electronics manufacturers, it is in their own self interests to have a webpage devoted to listing each discontinued product, and explaining any possible “shelf life”, even in new condition.