I had almost lost hope in the term called "warranty". In india most of them have so many clauses attached to them, that you would have to consider yourself lucky if you ever availed warranty and someone really did give you some service. Nevertheless, you will not be spared from shelling out that bit of money when you purchase something. This percentage is especially high when you purchase something from a company originating outside the indian shores. This is because they charge you based on their calculations of "warranty" claims in their parent country where most likely the warranties are there to protect the customer rather than abuse him. An example for this is Samsonite bags. There is a big percentage of the price that goes towards potential warranty claims. However the service and the service centers in bangalores are so poor that i would rather continue to use my bag in the torn fashion than give it to their service center (which will keep the bag for a few days to check the problem and than "maybe" rectify it).
However, one recent exception that i would like to really mention is the "Asus" service. My motherboard stopped giving any graphics output and after trying to monkey around with the connectors i decided that the board has really got some problem and needs a warranty claim. One call to the call center (http://support.asus.com/Hotlines.aspx?SLanguage=en) and they will send a courier guy who will pick-up the board from your house. You will be provided with an RMA number which you can use to track the progress with the board. The board first gets shipped to the local service center ( Lalbag, Rashi Peripherals) and then if the folks are not smart enough to fix it, it is sent to Mumbai. In my case the board went to Mumbai, the problem couldn't be fixed so the board was replaced. You will get the new board/ fixed board with a slip which you should safe for your future problems (if any).
Bottomline at least in case of electronics, warranty seems to be working well. You can get replacement if really the product is faulty. However, the process is still slow ( i had to wait for 2 weeks before the board got fixed). There is no downtime compensation. But then, i am not complaining since I know that i am in "Yeh mera India!!".
