Got To Glow

The battery went first, then the trackpad stopped clicking: a 2022 laptop, out of warranty, and a repair quote close to the price of a new one. Keep, repair or replace? Under right to repair after warranty rules, the answer turns on your address and the month the model left the factory, not on the fault. California and Oregon make the maker sell you parts. Most states don't.

Does right to repair after warranty cover your device?

It covers your device only when your state has a repair law and the device falls inside that law's dates and categories; the expiry of the maker's warranty changes nothing about the claim. If some guarantee might still apply, read who pays for a month-14 device failure first; a server shutdown is a different claim: who owes you a refund for a bricked smart device.

How long does a maker have to sell parts in California?

Seven years for any product with a wholesale cost of $100 or more, and three years from $50 to $99.99, counted from the model's last manufacturing date rather than the day you bought it. That is the reading in the state Bureau of Household Goods and Services' June 2024 SB 244 industry advisory, which applies the term "even if the 7-year period exceeds the warranty period."

The law took effect on 1 July 2024 but reaches products made, and sold or used in California, from 1 July 2021, so a 2020 laptop gets nothing and a 2022 one does. Parts must cost you no more than the "most favorable costs and terms" authorized shops get; a higher quote is a complaint, not a reason to replace.

Is parts pairing illegal in Oregon?

Yes, for devices first made and first sold or used in Oregon after 1 January 2025, a maker may not use parts pairing to block or degrade a working replacement part, even one it never approved. Parts pairing is software that locks a component to one serial-numbered device. Its reach, under Oregon Laws 2024, chapter 69, is wider: equipment sold or in use in Oregon from 2025, excluding only phones first sold before July 2021 and other electronics before July 2015.

Four numbers decide whether a claim is worth it. Two come from the statutes above, one is our count between the two cutoffs, and the multiple is California's fine scale as Wiley Rein's May 2024 state-law alert reports it: $1,000 a day at first, $5,000 by a third violation.

The model-year gap matters if you own an older Windows laptop or MacBook: no claim in California, a valid one in Oregon, since both laws count a device in use there.

Right to repair laws by state: who owes you parts

As of October 2026, California and Oregon give out-of-warranty owners the strongest parts claims, New York, Minnesota, Colorado and Washington add their own versions, and most Americans still live where no state law applies.

California gives a term you can count; Oregon gives wider reach but, for now, no penalty.

Worked example: a laptop bought in California in June 2022 for about $900, with a 12-month warranty, from a model last built in March 2024. Assumptions: made and sold after July 2021, and $900 retail clears $100 wholesale (our inference; makers don't publish it). Seven years from March 2024 is March 2031. The warranty ended in June 2023, so the parts duty runs 93 months past it. Your turn, in under a minute: last production month (or the successor's launch month) plus seven years, against today. A future date means parts are still owed: that is the sum to remember.

Where does a parts claim break down?

A parts claim breaks down at the law's edges, usually because the device was built before the cutoff or sits in an excluded category, and in Oregon because no fine can be imposed until mid-2027. Wiley Rein reports that New York's law, live since 28 December 2023, lets makers sell integrated batteries pre-assembled with other parts for safety. A battery swap can then cost a whole top case, often enough to tip an older laptop to replace.

Oregon is where we part company with the cheerful coverage. Its pairing ban only bites on violations from 1 July 2027, 30 months after the law took effect by our count, so we would not plan a repair around early compliance. If a maker takes payment and never ships the part, use chargeback rights when the seller says no.

• California excludes video game consoles and alarm systems, whatever they cost.
• Oregon still lets a maker limit a paired battery after a thermal event.
• Keep the receipt showing where and when the device was first sold.

Our call: inside California's or Oregon's dates, repair, because the law puts parts and price on the maker. Anywhere else, get a written quote and replace once it passes half the price of a comparable new device; keep it only if the fault is cosmetic. That rule is wrong if the device holds data you have not backed up, so recover that first. This week, find your model's last manufacturing date and run the seven-year sum.

You forgot to cancel, the trial ended, and your card now shows a charge you never meant to renew. A free trial charge refund is not automatic. Often the deciding question is simple: did the company warn you before the trial turned paid? Ask that first, because the answer decides which argument you can make.

Can you get a free trial charge refund after forgetting to cancel?

Yes, sometimes, because the claim turns on whether the seller warned you before the trial turned paid and on the law where you live. No federal one-click rule now supplies that test.

The Federal Trade Commission tried to make cancelling as easy as signing up. Its click-to-cancel rule was set aside by the Eighth Circuit on 8 July 2025, on procedural grounds. That removes the one-click duty a refund demand might have cited. The agency's wider power over offers that renew unless you opt out remains, so an undisclosed free-trial charge can still be challenged under ROSCA. For how cancellation rules now differ by state, see subscription cancellation rights in 2026.

California is where a notice rule bites hardest. Amendments effective 1 July 2025 require a seller, before a free trial ends, to say the trial is expiring, state the price that follows and explain how to cancel. The rules sit in the state's automatic renewal law, Business and Professions Code section 17600 onward. A missing notice gives you a concrete ground you can check against your inbox. The same rules bar phone-only cancellation for a single-click signup, so a phone call alone cannot be the way you stop the next charge.

What those dates mean in practice is that a missing notice is a state-law gap, not a universal one. A seller who only meets federal rules has less to answer for than one bound by California's, and a Louisiana seller carries the duty only once that law takes effect. A card dispute can be the other route when neither applies, which is why the chargeback rights when a seller refuses a refund matter here too.

The notice question also depends on which state you bought in, so the next section sets the rules side by side.

Does a company have to warn you before a free trial turns paid?

Only in some places, because the federal click-to-cancel rule that would have added notice duties was set aside in 2025, leaving California and Utah requiring the warning now and Louisiana joining from 2027.

Read the middle column for the rule and the right column for what it means for your claim. Each row can be checked against your own sign-up page.

In practice, a notice only helps if you see it. In Utah the warning can land in the final three days, so checking your calendar matters as much as the legal rule.

Where the notice argument runs out

The notice argument fails if the seller can show a warning went out, or if your state has no notice rule at all, so check both before you rely on it. Judge the claim by the terms you accepted and your state's law.

Check the trial confirmation email first (most people never open it again). If a notice arrived, the notice argument mostly falls away, and your case moves to whether the terms were clear at sign-up. Keep the sign-up page and the bank line.

• Confirm the notice went to the address on your account, not an old one.
• Save dated records of the sign-up page and the charge line from your bank.
• Expect the seller to argue the terms were shown at sign-up, and answer that point directly.

If the charge came through a financing plan rather than your card, the refund path changes. See Buy Now Pay Later refunds in 2026 for device financing before you write to the lender.

Decide this week whether the notice gap justifies a written refund demand. If the email shows no pre-expiry notice and you are in California, send the demand to the seller first, quote the gap and keep a copy. Move to your card issuer only after a refusal.

The battery went first. A renewed phone that lasted a full day in its first week was flat by mid-afternoon in month four, and the return window on the listing had already closed. So who fixes it? That depends on which refurbished phone warranty you actually bought, and on legal rights most product pages never mention.

My rule for a failing refurb: read the listing before the law, because the listing tells you whose door to knock on. Then decide whether to keep it, repair it or replace it.

Does Amazon Renewed have a warranty?

Yes, but its length depends on the individual listing: standard Amazon Renewed promises a 90-day return, some listings switch to a shorter return plus a third-party warranty, and Renewed Premium goes much further than either.

The catch sits in the small print. A refurb.me comparison of Renewed and Renewed Premium, current as of July 2026, found some standard listings replace the 90 days with a 30-day return and an 11-month warranty serviced by Asurion. Past day 30, the company answering your claim may not be Amazon at all, which matters when you want money back.

US law adds a floor sellers rarely advertise. Under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, 15 U.S.C. §2308, a seller who gives a written warranty cannot disclaim the implied promise that the phone works; it can only cap it at the written warranty's length. So 90 days written means at least 90 days of implied quality, never "as is". Same mechanism as our guide to statutory warranty rights when a device fails at month 14, just on a shorter clock.

Europe starts stronger, and sellers must now show the legal guarantee on the product page, as our explainer on the EU legal guarantee notice and GARAN label sets out. The same refurb.me comparison gives the battery grades, the Premium window and Amazon's Renewed Guarantee abroad. Back Market's help centre, updated 18 February 2026, allows a refund only inside the first month, or when the seller cannot repair or replace in time.

The battery threshold catches people. A pack worn to just above the line is the product as described, so complaining about shorter days goes nowhere. Premium's higher bar (above 90%) is the real thing you pay extra for, and I'd argue it matters more than the longer window.

Refurbished phone warranty or the law: which lasts longer?

The law usually outlasts a standard listing's promise in the UK and EU, because those rules attach to the trader who sold you the phone, not to whatever warranty badge the product page carries, and nobody can sign them away.

The rows set seller terms against the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 19 and 22, and Article 10(6) of EU Directive 2019/771 on second-hand goods.

My own arithmetic, not a published figure: a standard Renewed listing leaves 275 days of the first year without the seller cover a Premium or Back Market listing includes. Price that gap. If the Premium mark-up is smaller than one out-of-warranty repair, buy Premium; if larger, the standard listing is a bet you can afford.

Can I return a refurbished phone after 30 days?

Sometimes: a standard Amazon Renewed listing still takes returns until day 90 and Premium for a full year, but at Back Market you are normally offered a repair or replacement instead of your money once the first month has passed.

The UK Financial Ombudsman Service drew a useful line in decision DRN-6233587 (2026). It treated a Good As New handset, used for no more than two weeks and never repaired, as distinct from a refurbished one when judging a fair replacement. If a new phone fails, you can refuse a refurbished swap as not like for like.

Most advice says buy the protection plan at checkout. I wouldn't, not before counting what the statute gives you free, which is, I'll admit, the duller answer. And if a seller refuses, chargeback rights when the seller says no can pull the money back through your card.

• A listing that reads "30-day return" plus Asurion means Amazon steps away after the first month.
• A private seller on a marketplace is not a trader, so most statutory rights fall away.
• Log the date the fault first appeared; the UK presumption counts from delivery, not from your complaint.

So decide by the calendar. Inside the refund window, demand the money; past it, claim the repair; past both, check the law before paying for a fix. This week, screenshot the line on your order page naming the return or warranty period, next to the delivery date.