Warranties have never been one of my favorite things. Normally whatever they give you in the first paragraph they take away in the next three, and 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, 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 from wear 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 its appearance is going to change especially in the concentrated, unalterable and pivotal foot traffic locations. This makes a complaint on the product almost inevitable.

Run Around

So you, the retailer, files a claim for wear or whatever else may be covered. The manufacturer denies the claim and tells you to contact the fiber producer. The fiber producer tells you it needs 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 the claim is denied again.

When you get passed around on a warranty issue, which is bound to happen, you get sucked in, ground up, thrown 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. Never mind what the warranty really says, what she thinks it says is reality.

Don’t Rely On Warranties

Part of the blame is on the dealer because he exaggerates the coverage of the warranty beyond reality. Unfortunately he relies, to varying degrees, on what the warranties say. This issue is not new, it has been with us for some time now and 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 manufacturer’s and industry standards, understand the product so you know what it will do and how it will react under certain conditions, you can ensure 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 this coverage.

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 use. 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 that is walked on and abused. Don’t believe it to be indestructible because some marketing people 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 she thought, then you have a real problem. However, if looks are not what she expected you are to blame. 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.