Warranties have never been one of my favorite things in the industry. Normally whatever they give you in the first paragraph they take away in the next three. They are subject to interpretation by the end user. For example, wear to the end user is the change in appearance of the carpet or whatever product. To the issuer of the warranty wear, relative to carpet, is the abrasive loss of fiber. No carpet has ever been replaced because the fiber wore out. They’ve been replaced as an accommodation but not because it wore out. Nylon will wear out steel. It wears through guides on the equipment used to produce it. Synthetic fiber will ugly out, which is wear to the consumer, but it will not abrasively wear out, which is wear on the warranty. Specifically, wear in the warranty is a 10% loss of fiber over the period of time the warranty covers, say 25 years. And certainly in 25 years the appearance of the carpet is going to change especially in the concentrated, unalterable and pivotal foot traffic locations. This makes a complaint on the product almost inevitable.
So you, the retailer, file a claim on the carpet for wear, or whatever else may be covered. The manufacturer of the carpet denies the claim and tells you to contact the fiber producer. The fiber producer tells you they need the receipts for cleaning. If the carpet was not cleaned you’re out of luck. This is a colossal run around only to find out that the claim is denied again. You’ve waited weeks to hear from the manufacturer, more weeks to hear from the fiber producer, only to have to tell you’re customer that their claim was turned down. They wonder why when they surely believe and perceive that the warranty covers the issue of concern.
When you get passed around on a warranty issue, which is bound to happen, you get sucked in, ground up, go to the bottom and get eliminated from the system. You are left floating around to fend for yourself with nothing to cling to and no answers for your customer. They still think the carpet should not look the way it does because it is covered under the warranty. Never mind what it really says, what they think it says is reality.
Part of the blame is on the retailer because they exaggerate the coverage of the warranty beyond reality. They unfortunately rely, some anyway and all too varying degrees, on what the warranties say. This issue is not new, it has been with us for some time now and it has not ceased. The industry has increased warranties to lifetime, particularly for installation. Now this is a warranty that can have some teeth. If you install the carpet, or any flooring material for that matter, according to the manufacturers and industry standards, understand the product so you know what it will do and how it will react under certain conditions, you can insure that there will not be an installation failure. If you acclimate the product in the installation environment, use the right cushion or adhesives, and don’t compromise any of the procedures that will keep you out of trouble, you will not have an installation problem. Of any warranty this is the easiest to guarantee. You are in complete control of the coverage on this warranty.
Issues with the product such as wear, appearance retention, spots, stains, soil and anything else are open to interpretation by the consumer. Whatever a warranty says is covered is interpreted as “these things will not occur.” Dirt will not jump off by itself, dark spots, most often interpreted as a stain when they are not, will not go away by themselves. Stains will add or strip color from the carpet and are most often permanent damage. Dents in wood are from something that would dent the wood if it were still a tree in the forest. Scratches on vinyl are from something that would scratch the paint on a car. Can you see the relationship here of what can and will influence a condition on a flooring material? It’s on the floor, gets walked on and by the very nature of how it is used, will change in appearance over time and with that use and don’t forget the importance of how well it’s maintained.
My best advice to you is not to get trapped in the dead zone of warranties. Understand the product you sell and how it will perform, based on experience and product knowledge. Don’t let yourselves believe what is not real. Warranties cannot change the law of physics and words cannot change science. Carpet is a textile, walked on and abused. Don’t believe it to be indestructible because some marketing department wrote four paragraphs they thought could change science. Carpet will mat, crush, stain, soil and ugly out. Now if there’s a warranty for tip retention and the plies separate, that is something you can measure and cover in a warranty. When it’s a wear claim because the carpet does not look like the consumer expected it would for however long they expected it, then you have a real problem. However it looks is not what they expected and you are to blame. At this point you are on your own, and you thought you could sell the warranty to keep you out of this kind of trouble, right? Think again. If you have a problem or question call us, we can help you.
Author: Lewis G. Migliore
LGM and Associates – The Floorcovering Experts