I see this warranty issue all the time with online merchants, consumer pays freight both ways for warranty service no exceptions or online seller offers no warranty at all and consumer must deal with manufacturer. Mot of these warranties end up making a decent paper airplane if you are lucky. Rarely can you just get the part you need under the warranty. This is one of the major reasons for buying some types of equipment from the local full service dealer over the lower cost online merchant. You have to carefully balance the actual cost differential against the possible under warranty period repair part cost.

That is if you trust the local distributor to fix it properly, and within spec. For example - do you trust the electronics repair guy to match transistors for your power amplifier or do you send it to the manufacturer. What about a watch? Or a watch with complications?

Ditto for an espresso machine.

It is not just the distributor. It is mainly the manufacturer. I love LM, Bryston, Fluke and Holtkotter for their products as well as their after market support. Versalab also did a good job when the portafilters holder proved too weak to support the LM holders.

Gaggenau has great products but just try to get support. Even their service manuals are locked behind NDAs.

Many manufacturers have the service manuals, parts manuals, and service bulletins locked down forever. All of these --What IFs-- become strawman arguments when evaluating the potential value of a specific warranty against the point/location of purchase. In most cases shipping anything to an authorized repair facility or the manufacturer exceeds the cost of a replacement with a new item or outright purchase of the needed repair part. Inherent in this individual evaluation is the potential purchaser's ability to diagnose, troubleshoot, and perform the needed repair successfully. The OP of this thread has stated that he has the experience and ability to perform this task so in his specific case it is a simple economic decision. Is the cost of warranty service worth the cost differential between the lowest purchase price and the purchase price that will provide economical warranty service.

AssafL wrote:That is if you trust the local distributor to fix it properly, and within spec. For example - do you trust the electronics repair guy to match transistors for your power amplifier or do you send it to the manufacturer. What about a watch? Or a watch with complications?

Ditto for an espresso machine.

It is not just the distributor. It is mainly the manufacturer. I love LM, Bryston, Fluke and Holtkotter for their products as well as their after market support. Versalab also did a good job when the portafilters holder proved too weak to support the LM holders.

Gaggenau has great products but just try to get support. Even their service manuals are locked behind NDAs.

One more reason to DIY my tube amps etc
I consider myself lucky with the fact that EU law has also brought pretty good customer protection (2year typically) but the s&h associated with the aftermath of online shopping can differ per shop so you need to check before you buy (if I recall correctly)

Edit it's even better: s&h is carried by the shop these days