Feel bad for Abe. I had a same conversation with Garmin; it turns out when you buy lifetime maps it means for the duration we decide to support the product, which can have the lifetime of a mayfly and there is nothing they will do, and nothing you can do except not buy another Garmin product.
I did a quick google, you can torrent updates for free for at least some garmin products. Given you paid for lifetime map updates, I'd argue it's not even illegal.
It's such a bullshit argument. Imagine buying a Snap-On wrench because of the lifetime warranty, and they told you, "Oh no no no no, we meant the lifetime of the wrench."
I still have and use all my old Craftsman tools from the 90s. One of my 1/4 ratchets broke and since it's a made in the USA tool, I figured I would look for parts online and try to repair it. Unfortunately the parts cost more than the wrench on ebay, so I decided to take it to Lowes (who now distributes Craftsman tools) to see if they would honor the lifetime warranty. They had no qualms about honoring the warranty and replaced it with the current model, knowing full well the tool was 30 years old. The new ratchet is more ergonomic, has a finer tooth count and not nearly as sloppy as the old one. So shout out to Stanley and Lowes for doing the right thing.
Craftsman and Kobalt hand tools are honestly pretty great for like 99% of homeowner-handymen. My dad uses Snap-On because he's a farmer and he's hard on his tools. But me? Most I'm doing is tightening something in the house or wrenching on my car. I've never in my life had an issue with Craftsman tools.
Someone gave me a Dewalt tool set when I did a favor for them. Both Dewalt and Craftsman are owned by Stanley and the Dewalt tools are identical to the new Craftsman.
Also I had 1 small piece break in that Dewalt set and Dewalt replaced it with a whole new set of tools, so now I have 2.
Does this mean all products have a lifetime warranty? I mean if it breaks it's past its lifetime so the warranty wouldn't apply anyways. Why hasn't anyone thought of lying this new technique before?