Guarantee or warranty?

[jmarc...@comcast.net]

Yakkers,

I am scratching my head over a short document entitled a 保証書, for an on-line purchase of a Lado watch from Matsuya Shoten. At the top, just below this title, is the indication 1割保証. Further down is the 保証期間 (6 months from the date of purchase) and the 保証の内容 (which covers the sorts of things a product warranty normally does).

The thing that has me puzzled is the 1割保証. Somehow a "10% warranty" sounds odd to me; surely this should be a "10% guarantee", presumably of the price of purchase, right? Or am I misreading this completely, and it means something entirely different in this context? The other uses of 保証 clearly indicate that this is a standard warranty.

TIA for any help with this, small matter but I am curious.


John Marchioro

[Alan Siegrist]

John Marchioro writes:

> I am scratching my head over a short document entitled a 保証書, for an
> on-line purchase of a Lado watch from Matsuya Shoten. At the top, just
> below this title, is the indication 1割保証. Further down is the 保証期間
> (6 months from the date of purchase) and the 保証の内容 (which covers the
> sorts of things a product warranty normally does).

I am taking a guess here, but perhaps 1割保証 refers to the cost of the
warranty. Ten percent of the purchase price is perhaps not an unreasonable
cost for one of those add-on warranties one is often pestered to purchase in
order to cover things not covered by the manufacturer's warranty.

Do they have these add-on warranties in Japan too? I don't know.

Regards,

Alan Siegrist
On the Road

[Doreen Simmons]

On 2009/12/30, at 9:42, Alan Siegrist wrote:
>
> I am taking a guess here, but perhaps 1割保証 refers to the cost of the
> warranty. Ten percent of the purchase price is perhaps not an
> unreasonable
> cost for one of those add-on warranties one is often pestered to
> purchase in
> order to cover things not covered by the manufacturer's warranty.
>
> Do they have these add-on warranties in Japan too? I don't know.

Yes, Every time I buy something big (and 2009 has ben a major
replacement year) I am urged to buy an extra hoken for, usually, five
years (and at least one), with the salesperson pointing out all the
additional things that might go wrong. :-}

> Doreen Simmons
jz8d...@asahi-net.or.jp

[jmarc...@comcast.net]

I wrote:

> I am scratching my head over a short document entitled a 保証書, for an
> on-line purchase of a Lado watch from Matsuya Shoten. At the top, just
> below this title, is the indication 1割保証. Further down is the 保証期間
> (6 months from the date of purchase) and the 保証の内容 (which covers the
> sorts of things a product warranty normally does).

And Alan responded:

I am taking a guess here, but perhaps 1割保証 refers to the cost of the
warranty.

Alan,

Thanks, I had not thought of that, and it sounds like a reasonable guess. It just does not seem to fit well with the rest of the document, which gives the product price, date of purchase, and so on, but lacks any line item for the additional cost of the warranty, or a final line for "total cost". A bit odd, but there just is no explanation of those few characters.


John Marchioro

[Malcolm James]

John Marchioro wrote:

>> I am scratching my head over a short document entitled a 保証書, for an
>> on-line purchase of a Lado watch from Matsuya Shoten. At the top, just
>> below this title, is the indication 1割保証.

FWIW, googling on "MATSUYA 1割保証" (without the quotes) produces the
following explanation:

"当店専用保証になり、保証期間は6ヶ月の1割負担になります。 (お客様9割 1割店負担です）"

HTH

Malcolm
________________________________________________
Malcolm James
Fontaine Limited, Kyoto
Japanese to English translation by native speakers
web: http://www.translation.co.jp