Clamcase Pro for iPad Mini
I want to first and foremost say that I really do like this case. Aside from having a few issues with it (which I will get to later) it's of great quality, utility and is designed seamlessly to match the rest of your iFamily.
There is no shortage of bluetooth keyboards out there for the iPad, with the majority of them ranging somewhere between $20 - $70. So when I decided on the Clamcase over all those other cases, I did it because I felt it merged an iPad case, keyboard, and stand into a single, well-designed package. I mean, for $129, it had better be more than just a keyboard.
Given the price tag, I'm genuinely confused as to why Clamcase offers such a lousy warranty. A standard manufacturer's warranty is typically a period of 1 year. It's something I've come to take for granted. It's something that is so standard, so normal, so run-of-the-mill that on the off chance you actually consider buying an extended warranty from the check-out guy/gal at Best Buy, you ask yourself, "Am I likely to bork this device within a year?"
You didn't double check the warranty period. You just assumed that it's one year. So, why does a company that prides itself on being the "best rated iPad keyboard" have only a 4 month warranty?
What is the ClamCase warranty?
ClamCase® warrants our products against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 120 days from the date of delivery. Under the 120 day warranty, your item may be repaired or replaced depending on the extent of defects.
Do they have such little faith in the quality of their product that 4 months is the extent of time they could stand behind their product? I've read that the company has an "unspoken policy" to accept warranty claims up to 1 year, but if they can't explicitly acknowledge that fact in writing anywhere, it doesn't count. "Unspoken" warranties make it far too easy to simply deny a claim outright. This gives me little confidence that the company will actually step up when there is a defect.
The warranty claim process
My keyboard was delivered to me with a wonky "W" key. I submitted an RMA request as the website stated I should do. Apparently they wanted me to ship the case to them at my own expense and then they would ship another case to me once they received mine. But I also had to get tracking on it so that I could let them know when the keyboard arrived at their facility.
Uh, I shouldn't have to pay for the return of a defective item and I surely shouldn't have to inform YOU of when the item arrives. Isn't that the whole point of an RMA # anyways? So that you can link the product to the purchaser returning it? Perhaps I've been spoiled, but I'm accustomed to receiving a replacement first and then returning the defective item (postage-paid) in the packaging the replacement came in.
In the end, I didn't want to deal with a return process that could take two weeks or more and shell out additional money to ship a defective product back to them. I did my best to clean the "W" key to see if there was something inside that was causing it to stick. I wiggled it around some and shoved some paper underneath. It appeared to help and it doesn't stick as often or as pronounced anymore. Every now and then I can hear the key sticking for a fraction of a second, but I've learned to deal with it.
Maybe that's their goal. Make the return process difficult enough so that they'll have less returns to process.