I recently spoke with a floor covering dealer about warranty issues and his frustration with them. As readers may recall, this is a subject I've written about on more than one occasion. Since the inception of warranties, they have created frustration for not only the flooring dealer and consumer but manufacturers as well.

Warranties are more of a marketing tool to sell product and less of a real performance issue. Some warranties are legitimate but others aren't worth the paper they are printed on. A comment I've often made at speaking engagements and in writing is whatever most carpet warranties give you in the first paragraph, they take away in the next three.

From the horse's mouth
The retailer said, "Warranties drive me insane because I want to be honest with customers about what is and isn't reality. I don't want to create a false expectation that later reflects poorly on me and hurts my reputation.

"The challenge I run into," he continued, "is if a potential customer has been to another retailer and the sales rep pushes the term of a warranty without explaining what it covers or she has no information, I tell her the truth. Sometimes it looks like my store is less trustworthy than others. Or, as my father likes to say, customers are told lies elsewhere and when we tell them the truth it makes us look like liars."

I love the observation that telling the truth makes retailers look like liars. Isn't it sad when you, or other retailers, try to be honest with a customer? You have to unravel a tangled mess of misinformation. Only then can you get on track about which product will work best for them.

The retailer went on to say my experience with claims encouraged him to contact me and was hoping I could answer the following questions:

• What does a stain warranty cover?
• What does a soil warranty cover?
• What is an ideal cushion to protect a customer's investment in good carpet?
• Is an 8-pound truly better than a six, or does it sound better because the number is higher?
• Fiber companies do a great job selling why their products are better than the competitors, but is there any real difference?

Stain and soil warranties
Stain and soil warranties cover stains, not dark spots which most people think are stains. Stains either put color in, like red wine, liqueurs and red-dyed beverages or take color out like bleach or acne medication. Which stains they cover and how they are covered is usually included in the first paragraph.

Soil warranties would have you believe any dirt is covered. How can this be? People walk on carpet, tracking soil while gravity pulls airborne soils onto a carpet. Can you have a warranty for soil because it will be interpreted as anything that gets the carpet dirty? This would be like having a warranty on your new car against it getting dirty, which we all know isn't going to happen. It is ludicrous to offer a soiling warranty on carpet. If you want to open yourselves up for claims this is a fool-proof way of doing it.

The industry tried to introduce soil warranties back in the '90s and it didn't fly then, so it shouldn't fly now either. It did nothing but generate claims. Consumers aren't stupid, but if you tell them dirt's covered they'll take advantage of the opportunity created.

We'll cover the rest of this in the next issue of FCNews.