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The current Asterisk PCI card landscape consists of three major vendors all vying for sales in the same space. Some view Digium as the obvious choice having created the market while others look to companies like Sangoma and Rhino equipment for hardware.

In the past few months all of the vendors have made changes to their warranty policies, the following is an outline of what you might expect to get from them.

Digium- Under the Risk-Free Guarantee, Digium will refund the purchase price of any qualifying Digium product(s) for any customer that is not 100% satisfied with the performance of the Digium product(s) they purchased. From what I understand this refund comes direct from Digium and doesn't require us to handle any of this transaction.

More On Digium's ESP

To qualify, the customer must:
---register the product at www.digium.com/register.
---contact Digium Tech Support within 30 days of installation.
---allow a minimum of five business days to resolve trouble.
---provide the original invoice for the purchase. During the troubleshooting / technical support ----process, the customer should expect to
---use a Genuine Asterisk® distribution.
---disclose server details (model, revision, Linux® distribution, etc).
---provide Digium Tech Support remote access to your server via an ssh connection.
---cooperate with reasonable testing to show symptom(s) and/or test a provided solution.

All Digium products are covered except for the following products which DO NOT qualify for this offer:
---TE110 single span T1/E1 PCI card, EOL
---TDM400 4-port analog PCI card, EOL
---S101i IAXy ATA

New Sangoma hardware now comes with a lifetime warranty for replacement and repair from the date of purchase. We rigorously test all cards to ensure our customer always receive the highest quality products.

In the case that a customer believes they have a defective card, they should first contact our Technical Support at or call 1 800 388 2475.

If the card is defective, Sangoma will issue an RMA for repair or replacement. To help their customers quickly, they will need the following information before issuing an RMA:
---Serial number of all defective items
---Customer name
---Name of Company or Organization
---Shipping address
---Phone number
---Email
---Product name
---Quantity of items being returned

For lifetime warranty customers, this information should match your product registration.

Perhaps the best warranty in the industry has been provided by Rhino Equipment. This Arizona based company has raised the bar by providing its endusers with a SLA - Service Level Agreement.

Five-Year Warranty: The following Rhino products are covered by this warranty for a period of five years from the date of original retail purchase: all CB24, MiniDAX, MPC, IP24, and Ceros models.

One-Year Warranty: PC motherboards, memory cards, hard drives, data storage products which are not manufactured directly by Rhino. If the original manufacturer’s warranty is longer than 1 year, we will honor that warranty.

This warranty covers only repair or replacement of defective Rhino products, as provided above. Rhino is not liable for, and does not cover under warranty, any costs associated with servicing and/or the installation of Rhino products. Rhino will not discontinue support of its products, nor obsolete its products, as long as there are component materials available and there is reasonable customer demand for the products.

Free Technical Support:
If you experience difficulty during the installation or subsequent use of a Rhino product, you may contact Rhino's Technical Support department prior to servicing your system. Rhino provides free English-language technical support to its customers worldwide for as long as you own the Rhino product.

Rhino Technical Support can be contacted directly by calling: +1 (480) 940-1826, option 4 during normal business hours in the United States, or by e-mail at: support@rhinoequipment.com.

All of the above - fantastic... But whenever I think of warranties I am always reminded of that scene from Tommy Boy

Tommy: Chicken wings! Let's think about this for a sec, Ted, why would somebody put a guarantee on a box? Hmmm, very interesting.

Ted Nelson: Go on, I'm listening.

Tommy: Here's the way I see it, Ted. Guy puts a fancy guarantee on a box 'cause he wants you to fell all warm and toasty inside.

Ted Nelson: Yeah, makes a man feel good.

Tommy: 'Course it does. Why shouldn't it? Ya figure you put that little box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter, am I right, Ted?

Ted Nelson: What's your point?

Tommy: The point is, how do you know the fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Building model airplanes" says the little fairy, well, we're not buying it. He sneaks into your house once, that's all it takes. The next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser and your daughter's knocked up, I seen it a hundred times.

Ted Nelson: But why do they put a guarantee on the box?

Tommy: Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of shit. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customer's sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality product from me.

Ted Nelson: Okay, I'll buy from you.

Tommy: Well, that's... What?