It’s really simple. In the EU and the UK, there is a two year manufacturers warranty by law. This has been the case for many years and anyone with half a brain knows it.
If you buy additional warranty cover you know it’s only needed for after two years. So, for example, lots of people buy AppleCare because it includes accidental damage which is not included in the statutory warranty.
The responsibility for the statutory warranty lies with the manufacturer, so you don’t have to worry if the dealer goes out of business. For imported products, the responsibility lies with the distributor.
We also in the UK have The Consumer Credit Act. This statute celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, although it was updated in 2006. This provides consumers with a range of protections, in particular in relation to credit finance agreements. It includes “fit for purpose”, “quality“ and “description“ clauses. So if a product doesn’t work, doesn’t do what it’s advertised to do or doesn’t look like the product in the picture, you can just send it back and get a full refund.
Recently, I bought a tonearm and the nice looking titanium arm lift had been replaced with a nasty plastic black thing. I returned it and said I wanted one that looked like that advertised, so they sent me one with the titanium lift. It turned out that the arm lift had been changed because it didn’t work properly so I sent it back again and got a full refund. That was all done under the protection of The Consumer Credit Act. The Consumer Credit Act is quite complicated, but if you are unhappy with a product there are many organisations who will give you free advice, the largest of which is actually funded by government.
These laws are very popular because they work. Back in the 1990s I remember that the U.K.’s largest electrical retailer (my cousin was the CFO) made more profit selling insurance and warranties than they did on selling the TVs and hi-fi systems themselves.