I’m not a big fan of “lifetime” warranties. They rarely execute as advertised. It seems there is always a hitch, always a problem, always a hidden caveat that is never fully explained or disclosed.
I’m never quite sure what the “lifetime” in those lifetime warranties is all about either. Whose lifetime is it: the product’s? The customer’s? The vehicle’s? Mine?
Who or what has to die before the warranty can be exercised?
As a shop owner, lifetime warranties always leave me feeling vulnerable and uneasy. Perhaps it’s because of all the times I’m left to explain to someone who doesn’t quite understand what his or her responsibilities are why whatever it was that was supposed to be covered isn’t, or wasn’t or won’t be, and why, of course, there is a charge for labor.
Case in point: a pre-purchase inspection revealed a set of weak and leaking shock absorbers on a 1974 Pontiac Firebird. When informed, the vehicle owner told us that the shocks were covered by an “unconditional, lifetime warranty” and should be replaced by the manufacturer at no charge.
Did he buy them from us? No, but that shouldn’t matter! Did he know whose shocks they were? No! Isn’t the company’s name listed on the shock? Did he remember when he purchased them? Don’t be absurd; that was more than a decade ago. Did he have a receipt? If the shocks are guaranteed for life, what difference should a receipt make?
Are you starting to see a pattern here, a pattern that suggests the absolution of the motorist’s responsibility? So what if they don’t understand the limits of the liability, separate what is covered from what is not or can’t see their responsibility in all of this. Isn’t that what a lifetime warranty is supposed to be all about? Doesn’t it guarantee that if I buy that part I don’t have to worry about it anymore: that it’s someone else’s baby — not mine. And, what about labor? The customer certainly doesn’t think they should have to pay — not if the part is guaranteed.
I understand offering a lifetime warranty as a statement of confidence and/or as a device to entice a client to return to the shop for future work; I’m just not sure many understand how the people who purchase their products or services ultimately perceive warranty.
I know they don’t often understand just how selective a motorist’s perception of what is covered can be, or the impact of that warranty on the service dealer who has to explain it, submit the claim, get it authorized, wait for the credit and/or ultimately make good on it to keep a customer.
The guy who owned the Pontiac didn’t understand, and to be 100 percent honest with you, neither did I. Regardless of whether or not he had the receipt or remembered where the shocks were purchased, when or from whom, he made that purchase in good faith with the understanding that it would be guaranteed by the manufacturer for the life of the product. Now, when it was finally time to honor that warranty, he was being told by the manufacturer how and why that would be impossible.
He wasn’t happy. Someone had lied to him about his unconditional, limited lifetime guarantee and he didn’t like it so he gave me an unconditional, limited lifetime guarantee of his own. He guaranteed that for his limited lifetime, he would unconditionally refuse to purchase another product from that company again. And somehow, I think he might be more inclined to keep his word than the shock manufacturer was willing to keep theirs.
