00:00 – Intro
00:43 – Context
02:26 – Talk on warranty & discretion
02:38 – Example 1
03:30 – Healthy profit is imperative for warranty
03:40 – Example 2 – Atten 862 Rework station
06:40 – Profit prepares for warranty
07:05 – Problematic service? Add profit
07:26 – Example, OS reinstall
08:40 – Legally, I must offer a warranty
09:39 – I am a shitty businessperson – keep this in mind
10:07 – Louis finds out the price of the backpack…
10:21 – Louis does a complete 180
11:13 – Just a crumb
11:37 – NEVER save the adversary
12:25 – Example of saving the adversary
13:12 – Monetizing pissing people off is a talent
14:20 – How to avoid liability
source
Your business advise is shit because you try to do business the right way. Pun intended:)
I used to work in swimming pool maintenance and repair. We didn't advertise a warranty because we billed on retainer + materials. At first I thought our retainer fee was absurd – $500 / month for usually 30 minutes of work per week. That was until I noticed that we were effectively filling warranty work for service we did several years prior. At the time that seemed like a screwy way to do business. But then I realized that it helped keep a very good rapport with the customers. Customers hardly ever complained. And every time, when we serviced old work, the customer came back on retainer.
I think there is something to be said for balancing money into quality of product v money into quality of replacement process. You have to have both, obviously, but I personally would much rather buy something that will last 10 years but has a 6 month warranty, as opposed to something which will last 2 years but has a 1 year warranty. And I buy the hell out of warranties. Fun fact for someone out there: If the dealership will let you put a 3 year, 50k mile warranty on a brand new replacement part, it is breaking five times before the warranty is over.
I think you beat yourself up too much, just a product of being in New York with a business, not your fault
Linus from the 9th ring of hell.
Linus fixed this issue, it was a bad take and they fixed the issue. They have a lifetime warranty on the backpack and the screwdriver now
Are those Sennheiser IEM's? I dont know what you know about IEM headphones but if you want to get blown away try the Moondrop Blessing 2.
What Linus meant was, he didn't offer written warranties for any of his previous merch or products. But if there was a issue with the product they replace it without any hassle if the claim seems legitimate.
It wasn't because he didn't care about warranties. He never had any problems with previous purchases because they handled it. But he should have just told in the stream that they would cover you for 1 year and just explain the warranty. People would have been happy with it. When you outright say that you don't want to be liable, people are going to be pissed. Especially when the product is much more expensive than competitions.
It's crucial to note Linus once said this was a fundraising product for the @LMG org. Yeah, that's what their other products are, they are a different class and these have a higher probability of defects. This creates an understanding that this is more of a contribution for more free content with the understanding it is as is. As long as it remains reasonable for LMG to remidy issues, they will. If there is an unexpected failure trend in the product, it's a reasonable understanding the priority is the company, not the result of the donation/investment. As long as it's marketed and listed that way this could be the contractual understanding
I have an Osprey Atmos 65, a $300 backpacking pack. It comes with an amazing warranty, their almighty warranty. While yes they have been in business for 40 years, but that's how you stay in business for 40 years. Linus really misses the point on things like that.
Come for board repair, stay for business advice.
Are the laws different there, as in AU if you sell a non second hand item or service of any kind they the consumer is covered by the consumer guarentee which protects against faulty or dangerous products. All sellers must provide a replacement or refund if the item does not perform to expected reasonable standards, the consumer guarantee is normally 12 months but may be longer depending on the item
Linus said it poorly, but he actually was trying to say, that he doesn't want the customers to get screwed if he isn't the responsible party anymore but he also doesn't want to burden his family. He just hadn't figured out the best way to do that.
He also thinks that with a standard warranty phrase it's still completely up to the company whether they want to cover some damage or not and he doesn't want to put their actual more lucrative practice into writing, because then it could be exploited.
I'm not sure why you're still friends with Linus at this point. It's become quite clear that both of your moral and value sets are far off from each other.
Linus is making money hand over fist- Can't be fucked to provide a warranty on a product he designed and created. (And the family excuse, how pathetic. He's got a massive company, that has tons of money and lawyers. As far as I'm concerned him saying that shows that he thinks we're all stupid)
Luis is doing alright, for sure, but is not a multimillionaire- Constantly goes above and beyond to make things right by his customer. Even when he doesn't actually need to.
Linus considers it to be PIRACY (yeah, you heard that right, lul) if you skip the sponsors on his videos
Luis has a catch phrase that goes something like, "Schematics or die"
The world needs more Luises in business and more Linuses getting smacked across the face. Years ago I came across Linus' channel and something struck me as being off with him. I couldn't articulate exactly what it was at the time but now it's clear as day. He's insanely self centered and controlling. It comes through on his videos and how he interacts with his employees.
Would rather take your business advice over his any day even if I have to move to Texas…
No warranty=I dont believe in/stand by my product.
If you think the $300 backpack is wild, he's selling a screwdriver for $100.
plus ppl are kinda idiotic, if someone designes a backpack that sells for 250 bucks its GONNA LAST and its gonna last out every warranty all over the world maybe except america… I use 30 – 80 €backpacks my whole life and each of them alsted like 7 – 10 years, this thing must last me for life, whats a waranty even good for there? Maybe for idiots who dont properly understand the concept of a backpack and wreck it but those didnt deserve such a limited object in the first place plus he aint makin money on it 😀
God damn I love your reaction to finding out how much the backpack sells for. I spent five minutes laughing so hard.
Well I might be ok with "trust me bro", for $15 water bottle, not for a $250 backpack. That might be the best and last backpack I ever buy, but it is an expensive one, and it is your first release, no matter how many prototype iterations you did, still something might be bad about that, and I want to be sure, your company will replace it if something turns out wrong, it is simple seller buyer relationship. And Meme t-shirt, might be funny on one side, on other side was a bit out of touch seriously….
I think the issue is they are doing lifetime warranties and don't want to mess that up
I love how the moment you heard the price you were like "LINUS WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING".
If he is selling those in the EU he's automatically breaking the law. EU law says all products have at least 12 months warranty no matter what the seller or manufacturer says. On top of that any product sold online needs to be accepted back for a full refund within 14 days for no reason. I'd love to see LTT go up against EU Consumer Protection.
I thought you guys were friends 😂😂😂😂
Linus has since changed course & is now offering a limited lifetime warranty on the backpack. Probably a good lesson on how to address a controversy like this.
What happened to Louis? I've been out of the loop for a while now. He's moving?
Gosh dang…also out of the loop on this one. You could say that most of the "millionaire" part was the videos they make at his YT channel and not their media group selling stuff.
The problem here could be the fact that there hasn't been much thought into the "worst case" part of things. Anyone could sell shit but only few stands behind what they sell and even go beyond what the law would require you to be. (annnnd therefore sell something better than shit) Maybe it had gone this way because it's mostly seen as merch for the fans (myself included) that would be for show but…we'd actually use the products they'd sell in reality.
Linus won't be alone on managing the company and certainly can devote a department to handle that stuff. As long as the customer's not a dik there should be some form of compensation – something that would be on a case by case basis and cannot be set on stone except the requirements of particular laws depending on your location because some territories does enforce warranty laws regardless of the seller's terms
P.S. Cannot reply to any comments. YT broke that with Chrome or Firefox on WinXP. And before anyone run their mouths about this I am on an 18 year old laptop and could use a better one but this ain't Murica where you can get FREE "junk" that does better than this almost-life partner Toshiba…
"I didn't know there was one"
End credits
$250 for a backpack makes it a premium product. You can buy a Tom Bihn (handmade in Seattle) or Aer for that price and they include lifetime warranty.
I really appreciate the content you’ve been putting out lately, incredibly useful information for consumer advocacy and business advice.
lmao, you're a little bit late on this, the warrenty thing has been solved. so crisis over. I knew Louis would have a non-chicken little reaction. The sky was never falling, and they got the warrenty worked out.
Criticism worked. Most people took the trust me bro shirt thing as the joke it was meant to be, a handful of people got all up in their feelings over it though.