Got To Glow

The battery went first, then the trackpad stopped clicking: a 2022 laptop, out of warranty, and a repair quote close to the price of a new one. Keep, repair or replace? Under right to repair after warranty rules, the answer turns on your address and the month the model left the factory, not on the fault. California and Oregon make the maker sell you parts. Most states don't.

Does right to repair after warranty cover your device?

It covers your device only when your state has a repair law and the device falls inside that law's dates and categories; the expiry of the maker's warranty changes nothing about the claim. If some guarantee might still apply, read who pays for a month-14 device failure first; a server shutdown is a different claim: who owes you a refund for a bricked smart device.

How long does a maker have to sell parts in California?

Seven years for any product with a wholesale cost of $100 or more, and three years from $50 to $99.99, counted from the model's last manufacturing date rather than the day you bought it. That is the reading in the state Bureau of Household Goods and Services' June 2024 SB 244 industry advisory, which applies the term "even if the 7-year period exceeds the warranty period."

The law took effect on 1 July 2024 but reaches products made, and sold or used in California, from 1 July 2021, so a 2020 laptop gets nothing and a 2022 one does. Parts must cost you no more than the "most favorable costs and terms" authorized shops get; a higher quote is a complaint, not a reason to replace.

Is parts pairing illegal in Oregon?

Yes, for devices first made and first sold or used in Oregon after 1 January 2025, a maker may not use parts pairing to block or degrade a working replacement part, even one it never approved. Parts pairing is software that locks a component to one serial-numbered device. Its reach, under Oregon Laws 2024, chapter 69, is wider: equipment sold or in use in Oregon from 2025, excluding only phones first sold before July 2021 and other electronics before July 2015.

Four numbers decide whether a claim is worth it. Two come from the statutes above, one is our count between the two cutoffs, and the multiple is California's fine scale as Wiley Rein's May 2024 state-law alert reports it: $1,000 a day at first, $5,000 by a third violation.

The model-year gap matters if you own an older Windows laptop or MacBook: no claim in California, a valid one in Oregon, since both laws count a device in use there.

Right to repair laws by state: who owes you parts

As of October 2026, California and Oregon give out-of-warranty owners the strongest parts claims, New York, Minnesota, Colorado and Washington add their own versions, and most Americans still live where no state law applies.

California gives a term you can count; Oregon gives wider reach but, for now, no penalty.

Worked example: a laptop bought in California in June 2022 for about $900, with a 12-month warranty, from a model last built in March 2024. Assumptions: made and sold after July 2021, and $900 retail clears $100 wholesale (our inference; makers don't publish it). Seven years from March 2024 is March 2031. The warranty ended in June 2023, so the parts duty runs 93 months past it. Your turn, in under a minute: last production month (or the successor's launch month) plus seven years, against today. A future date means parts are still owed: that is the sum to remember.

Where does a parts claim break down?

A parts claim breaks down at the law's edges, usually because the device was built before the cutoff or sits in an excluded category, and in Oregon because no fine can be imposed until mid-2027. Wiley Rein reports that New York's law, live since 28 December 2023, lets makers sell integrated batteries pre-assembled with other parts for safety. A battery swap can then cost a whole top case, often enough to tip an older laptop to replace.

Oregon is where we part company with the cheerful coverage. Its pairing ban only bites on violations from 1 July 2027, 30 months after the law took effect by our count, so we would not plan a repair around early compliance. If a maker takes payment and never ships the part, use chargeback rights when the seller says no.

• California excludes video game consoles and alarm systems, whatever they cost.
• Oregon still lets a maker limit a paired battery after a thermal event.
• Keep the receipt showing where and when the device was first sold.

Our call: inside California's or Oregon's dates, repair, because the law puts parts and price on the maker. Anywhere else, get a written quote and replace once it passes half the price of a comparable new device; keep it only if the fault is cosmetic. That rule is wrong if the device holds data you have not backed up, so recover that first. This week, find your model's last manufacturing date and run the seven-year sum.

You forgot to cancel, the trial ended, and your card now shows a charge you never meant to renew. A free trial charge refund is not automatic. Often the deciding question is simple: did the company warn you before the trial turned paid? Ask that first, because the answer decides which argument you can make.

Can you get a free trial charge refund after forgetting to cancel?

Yes, sometimes, because the claim turns on whether the seller warned you before the trial turned paid and on the law where you live. No federal one-click rule now supplies that test.

The Federal Trade Commission tried to make cancelling as easy as signing up. Its click-to-cancel rule was set aside by the Eighth Circuit on 8 July 2025, on procedural grounds. That removes the one-click duty a refund demand might have cited. The agency's wider power over offers that renew unless you opt out remains, so an undisclosed free-trial charge can still be challenged under ROSCA. For how cancellation rules now differ by state, see subscription cancellation rights in 2026.

California is where a notice rule bites hardest. Amendments effective 1 July 2025 require a seller, before a free trial ends, to say the trial is expiring, state the price that follows and explain how to cancel. The rules sit in the state's automatic renewal law, Business and Professions Code section 17600 onward. A missing notice gives you a concrete ground you can check against your inbox. The same rules bar phone-only cancellation for a single-click signup, so a phone call alone cannot be the way you stop the next charge.

What those dates mean in practice is that a missing notice is a state-law gap, not a universal one. A seller who only meets federal rules has less to answer for than one bound by California's, and a Louisiana seller carries the duty only once that law takes effect. A card dispute can be the other route when neither applies, which is why the chargeback rights when a seller refuses a refund matter here too.

The notice question also depends on which state you bought in, so the next section sets the rules side by side.

Does a company have to warn you before a free trial turns paid?

Only in some places, because the federal click-to-cancel rule that would have added notice duties was set aside in 2025, leaving California and Utah requiring the warning now and Louisiana joining from 2027.

Read the middle column for the rule and the right column for what it means for your claim. Each row can be checked against your own sign-up page.

In practice, a notice only helps if you see it. In Utah the warning can land in the final three days, so checking your calendar matters as much as the legal rule.

Where the notice argument runs out

The notice argument fails if the seller can show a warning went out, or if your state has no notice rule at all, so check both before you rely on it. Judge the claim by the terms you accepted and your state's law.

Check the trial confirmation email first (most people never open it again). If a notice arrived, the notice argument mostly falls away, and your case moves to whether the terms were clear at sign-up. Keep the sign-up page and the bank line.

• Confirm the notice went to the address on your account, not an old one.
• Save dated records of the sign-up page and the charge line from your bank.
• Expect the seller to argue the terms were shown at sign-up, and answer that point directly.

If the charge came through a financing plan rather than your card, the refund path changes. See Buy Now Pay Later refunds in 2026 for device financing before you write to the lender.

Decide this week whether the notice gap justifies a written refund demand. If the email shows no pre-expiry notice and you are in California, send the demand to the seller first, quote the gap and keep a copy. Move to your card issuer only after a refusal.

The battery went first. A renewed phone that lasted a full day in its first week was flat by mid-afternoon in month four, and the return window on the listing had already closed. So who fixes it? That depends on which refurbished phone warranty you actually bought, and on legal rights most product pages never mention.

My rule for a failing refurb: read the listing before the law, because the listing tells you whose door to knock on. Then decide whether to keep it, repair it or replace it.

Does Amazon Renewed have a warranty?

Yes, but its length depends on the individual listing: standard Amazon Renewed promises a 90-day return, some listings switch to a shorter return plus a third-party warranty, and Renewed Premium goes much further than either.

The catch sits in the small print. A refurb.me comparison of Renewed and Renewed Premium, current as of July 2026, found some standard listings replace the 90 days with a 30-day return and an 11-month warranty serviced by Asurion. Past day 30, the company answering your claim may not be Amazon at all, which matters when you want money back.

US law adds a floor sellers rarely advertise. Under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, 15 U.S.C. §2308, a seller who gives a written warranty cannot disclaim the implied promise that the phone works; it can only cap it at the written warranty's length. So 90 days written means at least 90 days of implied quality, never "as is". Same mechanism as our guide to statutory warranty rights when a device fails at month 14, just on a shorter clock.

Europe starts stronger, and sellers must now show the legal guarantee on the product page, as our explainer on the EU legal guarantee notice and GARAN label sets out. The same refurb.me comparison gives the battery grades, the Premium window and Amazon's Renewed Guarantee abroad. Back Market's help centre, updated 18 February 2026, allows a refund only inside the first month, or when the seller cannot repair or replace in time.

The battery threshold catches people. A pack worn to just above the line is the product as described, so complaining about shorter days goes nowhere. Premium's higher bar (above 90%) is the real thing you pay extra for, and I'd argue it matters more than the longer window.

Refurbished phone warranty or the law: which lasts longer?

The law usually outlasts a standard listing's promise in the UK and EU, because those rules attach to the trader who sold you the phone, not to whatever warranty badge the product page carries, and nobody can sign them away.

The rows set seller terms against the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 19 and 22, and Article 10(6) of EU Directive 2019/771 on second-hand goods.

My own arithmetic, not a published figure: a standard Renewed listing leaves 275 days of the first year without the seller cover a Premium or Back Market listing includes. Price that gap. If the Premium mark-up is smaller than one out-of-warranty repair, buy Premium; if larger, the standard listing is a bet you can afford.

Can I return a refurbished phone after 30 days?

Sometimes: a standard Amazon Renewed listing still takes returns until day 90 and Premium for a full year, but at Back Market you are normally offered a repair or replacement instead of your money once the first month has passed.

The UK Financial Ombudsman Service drew a useful line in decision DRN-6233587 (2026). It treated a Good As New handset, used for no more than two weeks and never repaired, as distinct from a refurbished one when judging a fair replacement. If a new phone fails, you can refuse a refurbished swap as not like for like.

Most advice says buy the protection plan at checkout. I wouldn't, not before counting what the statute gives you free, which is, I'll admit, the duller answer. And if a seller refuses, chargeback rights when the seller says no can pull the money back through your card.

• A listing that reads "30-day return" plus Asurion means Amazon steps away after the first month.
• A private seller on a marketplace is not a trader, so most statutory rights fall away.
• Log the date the fault first appeared; the UK presumption counts from delivery, not from your complaint.

So decide by the calendar. Inside the refund window, demand the money; past it, claim the repair; past both, check the law before paying for a fix. This week, screenshot the line on your order page naming the return or warranty period, next to the delivery date.

The laptop died with the fan still spinning: black screen, charger light on. The retailer's reply ran to one line, take it up with the manufacturer. That refusal feels final. It isn't. The card you paid with may owe you the money when the shop won't, and your chargeback rights are older and tougher than any returns policy.

My rule with a dead gadget: settle the money first, the machine second.

Can I do a chargeback if the seller refuses a refund?

Yes, a refusal from the seller is usually the trigger for a card claim rather than the end of it, because US and UK law both let the card company stand in for a shop that won't pay.

In the US the route is the Fair Credit Billing Act. Its quality-claim section, 15 USC 1666i, lets you hold back the disputed amount on a credit card after a good-faith attempt to settle with the seller. The catch is price and distance, and both bite on a gadget ordered online from another state, unless the store issued the card. The FTC's guidance (as of 2024) is plain that debit cards get fraud protection, not faulty-goods rights. So anything costly goes on credit.

That is the payment-side sequel to who pays when a device fails after the maker's warranty and what bricked smart-device owners can claim from maker versus seller. Those settle who owes you. This is how you collect.

Britain goes further. Under Section 75, paying any part of the price by credit card, even a deposit, makes the lender jointly liable for all of it, says the Financial Ombudsman Service. A £50 deposit on a £1,200 laptop puts the full £1,200 on the card company. By my arithmetic that is £24 of protection per pound charged, and almost nobody uses it on purpose.

Four numbers decide whether a claim is worth starting: the FTC's US letter deadline, the ombudsman's UK ceiling, and two figures from Mastercard's 2025 State of Chargebacks survey of issuers and merchants, as summarised by Chargeback Gurus in June 2025.

The letter deadline is where people lose. It belongs to the billing-error route for goods not delivered as agreed, and its clock starts at the first statement showing the charge, not when the laptop died. Keep a dated copy; the issuer must then answer within fixed limits.

Chargeback rights in the US and UK, side by side

The UK protects a credit-card buyer more fully than the US does, because Section 75 has no distance test and covers part-payments, while the US quality claim carries price and location limits that many online purchases trip.

Read the left column first: rows run from qualifying to where you're exposed. US rows rest on 15 USC 1666i and FTC guidance; UK rows on the Financial Ombudsman Service.

In Britain, a credit card turns almost any gadget above the floor into a legal claim. In America, it depends on where the seller sits, unless a store card strips those limits away.

How long do I have to file a chargeback, and what sinks a claim?

Deadlines run from different dates: UK chargebacks count from delivery of the faulty item, US dispute letters from the first statement showing the charge, and neither from the day the device broke.

The chargeback is weaker than it looks. In the UK it is card-scheme practice, not law, and the ombudsman says your bank doesn't have to raise one. So I'd skip the usual advice to just call your bank: ask for a Section 75 claim by name, and keep chargeback as the fallback.

Does Section 75 cover purchases made through PayPal?

Often not cleanly. Section 75 needs a direct link between you, the lender and the seller, and the ombudsman says that link "isn't always straightforward" when a wallet sits in between. Chargeback is then your likelier route, and pay-later plans open a similar gap, covered in our guide to Buy Now Pay Later refunds on financed devices.

If the bank says no, complain formally. Once its deadline in the table passes, or it sends a final response, the ombudsman can order a refund plus interest, free. Lawyer Monthly's November 2025 guide notes a six-month limit from that final letter.

Watch for:

• A goodwill offer framed as final. Refuse it in writing if it falls short.
• Returning the device before photographing the fault.
• Seller emails that stall while your deadlines expire.

Settle the money, then the machine. This week, send your card issuer a dated written dispute with the refusal and photos attached, naming Section 75 if you're in the UK. As for the laptop: replace it, don't repair it. A device that fails early and a seller that won't back it have told you what they're worth.

The Wemo Mini on the hall shelf still clicks when you press its button. Ask Alexa to turn it on and nothing happens: on 31 January 2026 Belkin shut the Wemo cloud and app, per its Wemo support page, killing remote access and voice control. That is a bricked smart device in 2026. It powers on. It just can't do its job.

Keep, repair or replace? The answer depends less on Belkin than on where you bought it, and when.

Who pays for a bricked smart device after the warranty ends?

If the maker's warranty has run out, Belkin owes you nothing, so any money has to come from statute: in the UK and EU that means the retailer, and in the US it usually means nobody at all.

Belkin's terms are plain: refunds only for products still under warranty on or after 31 January 2026, with proof of purchase. Past that, look elsewhere; it is the same split that decides who pays for a device failure in month 14.

Outside the US, the claim was never really against Belkin. The UK Consumer Rights Act 2015 (sections 9, 10 and 24) requires goods of satisfactory quality, durability included, and that duty sits with the shop. Article 7(3) of the EU Sale of Goods Directive 2019/771 goes further: the seller must supply the updates a buyer could reasonably expect, and retailers must now spell that out in the EU legal guarantee notice and its new label.

The US is thinner, and the stock lemon-law advice is out of date here. California's SB 898 would have required a disclosed minimum support period of at least five years, but the CalMatters Digital Democracy bill record shows it held in committee on 13 August 2026. No state law yet gives a US buyer that right.

Four numbers set your leverage, drawn from Belkin's Wemo page, the FTC staff review PIRG summarised in November 2024 (as of 2024) and the EU Cyber Resilience Act timetable.

That disclosure gap is the one US owners can use. The FTC said silence on support periods may breach the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and the FTC Act, so a missing end date is grounds for a free deception complaint.

Smart home end of support: US, UK and EU rights compared

The UK and EU give a buyer a claim against the retailer that can outlast the maker's warranty, while the US offers only the warranty itself and a possible deception complaint to the FTC.

Read the table by your receipt, not your passport: who pays first, then what you can claim, then the rules behind it.

The purchase cut-offs in the third row are our own arithmetic: each country's claim window counted back from the shutdown date. A US owner past warranty has no row that helps.

Do Wemo devices still work after 31 January 2026?

Some do: Wemo plugs and switches paired to Apple Home before the shutdown keep working locally, and the Thread models are unaffected, but everything else on the Wemo line-up lost its smart functions.

Survivors include the Mini Smart Plug, the Video Doorbell and the WLS0503 switch. Insight, Link and the Crock-Pot are replacements.

Where a refund claim against the shop falls apart

A retailer claim can fail for ordinary reasons: no proof of purchase, a device that was never paired locally before the cutoff, or a shop arguing that a cloud service was never part of what it sold you.

That last argument is the real grey area. No UK court has ruled on whether switching off an app makes a plug unsatisfactory, or none I can find. My view: for a device sold as smart, with the app on the box, a shop will struggle to call the app optional.

A plug on a dead app also gets no patches, the exposure covered in how to protect your smart home from cyber threats. The UK product security regime, per its gov.uk policy paper, makes makers publish a minimum security update period, so you see the end date before paying. It awards no refund, though.

• Find the receipt first; Belkin and the shop will both ask for it.
• Don't factory-reset an Apple Home Wemo; Belkin's list covers only devices set up before the shutdown.
• A private second-hand sale gives you no statutory claim against anyone.

So: keep, repair or replace? Keep anything on the Apple Home or Thread lists. Repair is off the table: nothing a screwdriver can reach is broken. Replace the rest, but first, if you're in the UK or EU and your receipt clears the cut-off, write to the shop this week asking for a price reduction under the Consumer Rights Act or EU directive, receipt attached.

The hinge went first. Fourteen months after delivery, the lid began lifting off its base on every opening, and the screen flickered past ninety degrees. The maker's one-year warranty had lapsed, and its support chat offered a paid repair quote. That quote is the wrong first move. In the UK, statutory warranty rights outlive the manufacturer's promise by years, and the business that owes you the fix is the shop that sold the laptop, not the brand on the lid.

Can I claim for a faulty laptop after the warranty has expired?

Yes, in the UK a laptop that develops a fault after the maker's warranty ends can still be claimed for, because the Consumer Rights Act gives you rights against the retailer that last far longer than a one-year guarantee.

The warranty in the box is a voluntary extra. Your statutory rights are the floor beneath it, and a 2026 Which? guide to faulty goods, updated on 1 September, is plain that they run against the retailer rather than the manufacturer. So write to the shop: the brand can sell you a repair, but only the retailer owes you one. EU buyers now see this spelled out before paying, via the new mandatory EU legal guarantee notice on product pages.

Timing is harder. For six months the law presumes a fault was there on arrival; after that, Which? says, the burden is yours. At month 14 that means a written report from an independent technician saying the fault is inherent, not a knock. I'd pay for that report before arguing with anyone, because it costs less than losing the argument, usually.

Paying in instalments doesn't move that duty, though refunds on a split plan follow the lender's rules, as our guide to Buy Now Pay Later refunds and statutory cover on device financing sets out.

Four numbers settle what a month-14 claim gets you. Three come from that Which? guidance; the window share is my own arithmetic from its limits, not a published figure.

The repair-attempt rule is the lever most people never pull. Once the shop has had its go and the fault returns, the fight stops being about proof and becomes about what you get back. Keep every job sheet.

How do statutory warranty rights compare in the UK and EU?

Both outlast the maker's warranty, but the UK gives you a longer window to pursue the retailer, while EU rules since July 2026 reward repair and make manufacturers fix some kit after the guarantee ends.

The European Commission says the right to repair directive applies from 31 July 2026, and it changes the maths for EU phone and tablet owners. Read each row as a question for the shop or maker.

UK buyers have time but carry the proof; EU buyers earn extra cover for choosing repair. Laptops fall into a gap, because the Commission's post-guarantee list names phones and tablets, not laptops. Whether a battery that fades at month 14 counts as a fault or as fair wear is, in my opinion, the least settled question here.

Where an out of warranty repair claim falls apart

Month-14 claims usually fail on evidence and paperwork rather than on the law itself, because the fault has to be shown to be inherent and the retailer must get its chance to repair first.

US buyers start elsewhere. The FTC's warranty guidance, last updated in December 2025, says implied warranties such as the implied warranty of merchantability come from state law, last up to four years in some states, and can be excluded when a seller marks goods "as is" where the state allows it. Read the receipt first: two words can erase the claim.

I'd also push back on the checkout pitch. An extended warranty mostly duplicates rights you already hold against the shop for faults, so it earns its price only through accidental damage cover. Buy it for the drop, not the defect. Who pays gets murkier still when an AI shopping agent buys the wrong thing on your behalf.

• Paying an independent repairer first hands the retailer an argument that the repair caused the fault.
• Accidental damage is never a statutory claim: a screen cracked by a fall is yours to fix.
• Messaging the brand is not a claim; the shop must hear from you in writing.

Repair it, through the retailer. For a month-14 failure with no drop or spill behind it, that is the call. Replace only if the shop's repair fails, and pay a repairer only after a written refusal. This week, dig out the order confirmation and send the shop a dated email that cites the Consumer Rights Act and asks for a repair by a named date.

Related: who owes you a refund for a bricked smart device

Related: how a refurbished phone warranty compares with your statutory rights

Related: right to repair after warranty: which state laws still owe you parts