Why should I register this product?

February 7, 2004 8:21 AM

Should I register my new Canon CanoScan 3000F? What are the Pros and Cons of Product Registration?
posted by jaronson to Grab Bag (3 answers total)

The only thing I've ever gotten from product registration is junk mail from them having my address.
posted by mathowie at 9:25 AM on February 7, 2004

I think the only pros are warrantee coverage and upgrade eligibility. I was pretty happy, for example, to register my copy of Reason with Propellerhead Software, because it means my upgrades will be cheaper (or free, as 2.5 was) and if my CDs are damaged I can get new ones and stuff like that. But it's pretty clear they're actually still run by their goodgeek founders rather than having been taken over by marketing suits. So it depends on the company.

Canon has a rep of being better than the rest of the printer market when it comes to gouging you on refills. That might be a sign of something. But I've never had a hardware product fail inside a warrantee period that didn't fail pretty quickly, and I could therefore simply contact the company. So I don't even know for sure if it's worth it from a warrantee standpoint.
posted by weston at 11:46 AM on February 7, 2004

IIRC, in the US, by law, the warranty registration card does NOT have to be returned to "activate" your warranty. The only loss from not doing that is that your warranty will likely only be as long as since the product was manufactured (if the company is nasty), or since the date on your receipt (if they're nice).

HTH!

Oh, and if you don't want the spam, but still want to write back, just write "DON'T SEND ME JUNK MAIL" for your name. :-)
posted by shepd at 4:13 PM on February 7, 2004