Opinion ID: 854682
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Machine Error 41 (“ME41”) Defect

Text: Sometime in 2001, BIC began to receive phone calls complaining about the appearance of an error message— “Machine Error 41”—that would flash across the LCD screen of the MFC indicating a voltage issue in the print heads of affected machines and causing the machines to stop printing until the error message was cleared. Nineteen calls regarding the ME41 defect were received that year. In some cases, the message could be cleared by unplugging and replugging the affected machine. In others, the message could not be cleared without replacing the print heads, which, for owners no longer covered by warranty, cost approximately the same amount as the machine itself. By 2002, BIC knew that the ME41 problem related to complications in the machines’ print heads but had not yet determined the cause. In August 2002, BIC submitted a fault report1 to bring the quality issues and 1 A fault report is the method by which BIC alerted BIL of quality issues after some threshold triggering event, such as an unusually large number of customer complaints or a quality problem of a particularly serious magnitude. BIC 3 customer calls BIC had been receiving to BIL’s attention in Japan. BIL investigated the matter, and in November 2002 provided BIC with a “temporary troubleshooting guide” with potential solutions BIC field personnel could implement when encountering customers complaining of ME41 defects. In 2003, BIC opened two more fault reports concerning the ME41 issue, stating that the defect was the “number 1 quality issue on this product.” A. 1674. By the end of 2003, BIC unilaterally extended the print head warranty on machines affected by the ME41 defect to eighteen months, and requested from BIL “warranty reimbursement and a no cost print head.” A. 1738. In mid-2004, BIL informed BIC that it had discovered the cause of the ME41 defect but did not know how to fix it. By the end of the year, BIC lowered the cost of replacement print heads from approximately $130 to approximately $20 and $10. In early 2005, BIC again extended the print head warranty, this time, to two years from the date of purchase, and sent an e-mail notice to registered customers who were within the twenty-four month extended warranty period. In June 2005, BIL discovered a permanent fix to the ME41 defect and applied the fix to new MFC machines. The only permanent fix for old machines affected by the defect was replacement of the print head.