A few years back, there was a well-known issue with HP Touchpads where the plastic near the speakers would start to crack.[0][1] HP accepted the Touchpads more or less without question and offered to repair them free of charge.
After I sent mine in, I got a call several weeks later from an HP employee who informed me that they had found "third-party firmware" flashed onto the device (like pretty much everyone who bought a Touchpad after HP discontinued them, I loaded Android onto it). I argued with him for a few minutes about what relevance that has to a well-known hardware defect on the device, but he insisted that flashing a third-party OS voids the warranty. He eventually agreed to repair it, issuing me a "warning" about future repairs and saying that they would wipe it and flash a stock image before sending it back to me.
Would the FTC's warning have covered my incident above had HP not eventually agreed to repair it?
After I sent mine in, I got a call several weeks later from an HP employee who informed me that they had found "third-party firmware" flashed onto the device (like pretty much everyone who bought a Touchpad after HP discontinued them, I loaded Android onto it). I argued with him for a few minutes about what relevance that has to a well-known hardware defect on the device, but he insisted that flashing a third-party OS voids the warranty. He eventually agreed to repair it, issuing me a "warning" about future repairs and saying that they would wipe it and flash a stock image before sending it back to me.
Would the FTC's warning have covered my incident above had HP not eventually agreed to repair it?
[0]https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1250645
[1]https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1502123