I bought a brand new Hisense 65" TV in April of 2023. Two days before the warranty expired it developed a fault, white screen with vertical lines. Turned it off and unplugged it then called tech support. While on the phone to them, after about half an hour, I plugged it back in and turned it back on to find that the problem had seemingly resolved itself. Tech support gave me a case number and I said I'd call them back if it happened again. It did, two days after the warranty expired but this time the problem did not resolve itself. So I called Hisense again to make a warranty claim for repair, replacement or refund. As a case had already been opened I expected it to still be covered. But they instead told me because I had not bought it from an authorised seller that there never was a warranty, that it been void based solely on where I bought it. I bought it brand new from an actual store, not online, ebay, gumtree or anything else like that. A store with doors, windows, staff, cash register etc. But according to Hisense they only honour warranties on products purchased from "authorised sellers".
The store manager told me that they were an authorised reseller for JB Hi Fi, so I contacted JB in the hopes that they could help facilitate a warranty claim but they said that there is no such thing as an authorised reseller. So now I have a TV that doesn't work, three different businesses telling me it's not their problem and $995 less in my bank account.
Can Hisense refuse to honour a warranty based on where a brand new product was sold? Who is responsible? Is anyone responsible? I honestly feel like all three are just trying to make it as difficult as possible so I just give up. Do I just give up and throw the TV in the dam?
*Edit to ad- I asked this question here because the manufacturer, the distributor and the retailer were all pointing the finger at each other and denying all responsibility. It was hard to find precise information online because the search engines all suck now. Looks like the situation was not as simple as first thought in terms of distribution channels, and that may be the root cause of the problem.