What's in a warranty? Have you really read the warranties on floor covering closely? Do you believe they warrant what they say they do? Since the inception of warranties, I've said that what they give you in the first paragraph, they take away in the next three. If you sell flooring based on what you think the warranty says or because you think it will help you make the sale, you're unfortunately wrong.

I had a conversation with a dealer who, it would seem, had an iron clad case of a complaint that would favor his customer. The warranty in question was for matting and crushing. Remember, all carpet will mat and crush to some degree- it is a textile material and is positioned vertically, so traffic compression will cause it to crush. The denser it is, the less it will compress or mat and the more resilient it is, the more it will spring back and not appear to be matted or crushed.

The warranty I talked about with the dealer, however, had no exclusions we could see. Stairs are covered, which they virtually never are, in addition to hallways and the warranty is transferable. The kicker is, with all that would seem to be covered, the claim for matting and crushing was denied on a carpet that is only one year old.

How can that be? With no exclusions, caveats or gray areas, it would appear on the surface that the warranty was an iron clad guarantee the carpet would not mat and crush.

In a similar case, an inspector said the carpet was dirty and needed to be cleaned. The dealer said the carpet is not dirty and the warranty doesn't mention anything about soiling or dirt or anything else that would negate it. These situations make the dealer gun shy about selling the product, which he thought he could do without paranoia. He has, in fact, sold lots of the same product without issue, so why is this different?

Slow times = claims
Certainly, the economy has an influence. When times are slow claims increase and with the increase in claims, denials must follow. If you're a manufacturer and sales are down by double digits, would you tighten or loosen your claims policy?

If you're selling any flooring material based on the warranty it carries, stop right now. Sell the product based on how well it will perform, not on what a bunch of words say. Often, you and the consumer will believe that just because a warranty says what you think you read, doesn't mean it actually does. The paradise of coverage you think you're entering could be laced with land mines.

These are not times to gamble blindly by putting your faith in a warranty. You have to know first hand if what you're selling will actually do what the end user wants it to do. If it won't, sell her something different or send her to a competitor you don't like. If you don't take the gamble out of the sale, you'll be left holding a very hot potato that you'll unfortunately own all by yourself.

Heed these words, harsh as they may be: Never trust a warranty on floor covering. Even when it does cover everything, without exception, it can still be interpreted as not covering the one thing the complaint is filed for, the one thing the customer comes to you for that you go to the manufacturer with. It might be a good idea to actually sit down and read what the warranties say on the products you sell so you can sell the right ones and keep the money you've worked so hard to earn.

Questions? Call us. We'll help you.