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Bozo’s Question of the Day
By JLP | May 15, 2008
In light of my dishwasher fiasco that happened yesterday, Bozo sent me the following email along with his question(s) of the day (highlighted in bold):
I sure hope everything works out with your dishwasher and floor. Pardon my cynicism, but it seems these days the manufacturer blames the installer, the hardware blames the software, the designer blames the contractor, and vice versa. Our solution has been to ONLY go with “turn-key” providers (i.e., design, manufacture, install and maintain) so no matter what happens, you have one point of contact and no finger pointing. We also get all those extended warranties, lifetime if possible.
Nothing is foolproof, I know. We had a “50 year” roof installed with a separate ten year warranty on installation. The roofing manufacturer proceeded to go bankrupt. Thankfully, when the roof began to leak, the installer’s warranty was still in effect. Stand-up guy that he was, he didn’t try to blame the “product” and proceeded to fix the leak at no charge.
So the question for the day might be: “Have you ever had a problem with warranties, where the manufacturer blames the installer, the hardware blames the software, the designer blames the contractor, and/or vice versa? Did you change your buying habits as a result? If so, how?”
I suspect that question will spark a bit of discussion.
Again, nice blog.
Yours,
Bozo
I have to say that so far I have had pretty good luck over the years. In fact, I can’t recall a time when I have had a warranty problem other than the warranty expiring. I can definitely see how something like this could happen as people generally do not like to take responsibility for anything. It’s sad but true.
I do think that we should take Bozo’s “50-year” roof to heart and understand that the warranty is only as good as the manufacturer. Lots of people choose one product over another because of the warranty. However, before you buy something because of the warranty, ask yourself what are the chances that the manufacturer will still be around if and when you have a problem.
What about you? Have you had any really bad experiences with warranties and finger-pointing?
Topics: Question of the Day |
May 15th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Yikes! I haven’t really had much experiences with warranties but I just wanted to wish you luck getting the damage repaired, quickly, cheaply and completely!
May 15th, 2008 at 11:55 am
I was bummed to hear about problems with your GE dishwasher: I just installed a GE myself (although not the cafe’ series, I stick to the KISS principle with appliances).
Back when I first moved to OH, there was a company called Sun TV that sold appliances. Back before Best Buy and Circuit City came to town they had little competition and did big business. I bought a W/D from them with the extended warrantee. Needless to say, the went out of business and my warrantee was worthless. Since then, I skip the extended warrantee.
If the main seal to the DW failed, I’d like to see how they’d explain it was the installers fault. Getting them to pay for damage?? You could ask, they probably have a deny all claims policy. You could file through your Homeowners policy, but I can’t imagine the damage would exceed your deductble.
Unless you’re feeling froggy, you may have to eat this one.
May 15th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
According to Consumers Union, extended warranties are a bad deal:
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2006/11/15/consumer-warranty.html
When I sold computers way back when, I got 1% commission on the computers, and 10% commission on the warranties. I made as much selling the warranty as the machine. That should tell you something.
I’ve had good experience with standard warranties. In today’s market most products in a particular category have the same warranty from company to company.
May 18th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Ditto on the extended warranties — if you put the money that would be spent on extended warranties into a separate ‘emergency fund’ I daresay you would have plenty of funds for when things break– this is the tenet of self-insuring.
Also wanted to mention since this was a GE product — anyone notice GE is getting out of the appliance business? How is that for backwards — GE now is trying to make money off media and it’s other ventures and giving up on it’s roots.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Wow. Am sorry to hear about all your problems with your Cafe’ GE dishwasher, JLP. That was the line my husband and I planned to go with in our next homebuild. For this home, now two years old, we went with the entire Frigidaire Professional Series line. I’ve been thrilled with everything BUT our dishwasher. And for that appliance, we did NOT get the EW. I pretty much have to rewash every dish by hand. I’ve tried every Cascade and Electrasol product. The dishwasher’s just junk! And everytime I call Frigidaire, I speak with someone who can’t understand a lick of what I’m saying because they’re in India of all places. Anywho, best of luck getting your dishwasher taken care of. Unfortunately, as a currnet Louisville resident, I can’t see that you’ll get very far with GE now that they’re getting ready to ditch the whole appliance business altogether. I’m sure the 5,000 or so people working there are also a little peeved about that. It’s been the leading local story here since the story broke!