Electronics warranties in Australia: your rights, and whether extended warranties are worth it

Buy a TV in Australia and you'll probably be offered an extended warranty at the counter. Before you pay for one, it helps to know what you already have for free, because Australian law gives you more than most people realise.

This is general information, not legal advice. The ACCC (accc.gov.au) and your state's fair trading office publish the official guidance and can help with a dispute.

The consumer guarantees

Under the Australian Consumer Law, products you buy from an Australian business come with automatic consumer guarantees. They apply whether or not the store or the maker offers a warranty, and nobody can make you sign them away. Among other things, products must:

• be of acceptable quality: safe, durable, free from defects and fit for what they're normally used for;
• match their description and any sample or demo;
• be fit for any purpose you told the seller about;
• come with spare parts and repairs available for a reasonable time (unless you were told otherwise).

Crucially, there's no fixed time limit. The question is how long a reasonable person would expect that product to last given its price and quality. A $3,000 TV that fails after 18 months is a very different case from a $30 pair of earbuds.

Major vs minor problems

• Major failure (it can't be fixed easily, or you wouldn't have bought it if you'd known): you can choose a refund or a replacement, or compensation for the drop in value.
• Minor failure: the business can choose to repair it within a reasonable time. If it doesn't, you can get it fixed elsewhere and claim the cost, or ask for a refund or replacement.

The store that sold it to you has to deal with the problem. It can't simply tell you to contact the manufacturer, although you can choose to go to the manufacturer if that's easier.

The manufacturer's warranty

Most electronics also come with a manufacturer's warranty (often called the "express warranty"), usually 12 months, sometimes more. It sits on top of the consumer guarantees, not instead of them. Once it runs out, your consumer guarantee rights can continue.

Are extended warranties worth it?

An extended warranty is an optional extra you pay for. It's worth asking what it gives you that the consumer guarantees don't. Things that can make one worthwhile:

• Accidental damage cover (drops, spills, cracked screens), which the consumer guarantees don't include.
• A simpler claims process: a replacement unit or an in-home repair without arguing about "reasonable" durability.
• Expensive products with known failure points, if the terms genuinely cover them.

Questions to ask before you buy one:

1. What does it cover that the consumer guarantees don't?
2. Who provides it (the store or a third-party insurer), and how do claims work?
3. What's excluded? Accidental damage, batteries and screen burn-in are common exclusions.
4. Is the price a sensible share of the product's price? A large fraction of a cheap item rarely makes sense.

The store must tell you what the extended warranty gives you beyond your consumer guarantee rights.

Buying from overseas or grey importers

The consumer guarantees cover products bought from businesses that sell in Australia, but enforcing them against an overseas seller is much harder, and many manufacturers only honour their own warranty on stock sold through their Australian channels. That's one of the main reasons we leave grey imports out of our price comparisons. More in grey imports vs Australian stock.

Keep your proof of purchase

A receipt, a bank statement or an order email all count. Keep it with the box, or save a photo, because you'll need it for any claim.

Before you buy

The cheapest Australian store and the store with the warranty service you trust aren't always the same. Our product pages show every Australian store's price side by side, and you can ask your preferred store to price match.