Subscriber Discussion

Warranties Not Honored - Too Dumb To Fail?

U
Undisclosed #1
•Nov 13, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Was just listening to a conference call to several installers where a manufacturer (of LED lights/wifi modules) was indicating that they were not going to be able honor any field (non-DOA) warranties for product shipped to date. (And apparently there has been an uptick in claims lately).

Reason given? The cost of honoring the warranties would likely sink the company. And if the company is sunk no one will be able to support the wifi software integral to the lighting controls.

So, because we care about you, we are stiffing you!

Ever heard that one?

JH
John Honovich
•Nov 13, 2015
IPVM

Sounds like a class action lawsuit waiting to happen. Pretty sure a warranty is a legal obligation.

(1)
U
Undisclosed #1
•Nov 13, 2015
IPVMU Certified
In reply to John Honovich

For sure a legal obligation.

But this call was more like "it's up to you, do you want your warranties honored or do you want your product supported?"

They are claiming that they were sold a bad lot of caps, and that that company is no longer in biz.

They are not really a pure LED manufacturer per se, but instead take product and embed their own Linux module in.

Their lighting service is cloud based (yeah I know), so without them the lights default to on, with no dimming or scheduling. To make it worse, many new installs don't have discrete switches, instead relying on the module. So their would be a lot more angry people if the cloud failed.

And it sounds like, from the people on the call, that they are going to let them slide on it. But do they really have a choice?

Held hostage by the cloud. I think it's gonna be the major hurdle to overcome for cloud based providers, even bigger than security.

JH
John Honovich
•Nov 13, 2015
IPVM
In reply to Undisclosed #1

My point, though, is that if 90% of their customers agree and 10% sue, they are still likely going out of business.

As for me, if I had a product / service like that, I'd simply dump it and move on.

Btw, was this company crowdfunded? Sounds like a crowdfunding disaster.

(1)
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
•Nov 13, 2015

This is pretty much industry standard , different language though.

Warranty for 90 days parts , labor

1 year labor only

3 years Parts only Limited to certain parts.

The feel good warranty ( only related to the internal components

No Labor , No shipping , Handling or other related charges

The Clients of Today Just Want the Words Warranty in the language

If the company restructures, sells off, changes ownership, all bets are off.

No warranty

Labor, Trip, Expenses usually far outweigh the cost of the product

Better to replace , throw away and not use that company again then to fight it out for warranty.

unless it s fairly new.

Just have company's make products with 5 year advanced replacement built into there sales

Better Training for the installers, certified installers, techs so they wont mishandle the product and cause the failure.

Most Products are pretty robust and well made if they want to stay in business any length of time.

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