Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

Update on the A-Team of Extended Warranties: In a new burst of merger and acquisition activity, two of the top players in the extended warranty and service contract industry are moving things around. Assurant is buying The Warranty Group, AmTrust is taking itself private, and it's selling half of Warrantech to private equity investors.
January 25, 2018
Service Contract Market Research: Protection plan buyers are more loyal to both the brand and to the retailer, according to results of a consumer survey commissioned by The Warranty Group. And they're also happier with their purchases than non-buyers.
March 9, 2017
Legal Opinions: Two attorneys from Locke Lord explain how third-party billing for service contracts may open the door for cellphone carriers to be regulated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And the executive director of the Service Contract Industry Council explains how his group works with regulators to fight against deceptive marketing practices.
December 29, 2016
Appliance & HVAC Warranty Report: HVAC manufacturers have lower warranty costs but are more cautious than other kinds of appliance makers, keeping a much higher ratio between claims and reserves. But neither group has done much to reduce their warranty expenses, though some companies have cut their costs by hundreds of millions of dollars.
May 19, 2016
Auto Parts Supplier Warranty Report: Compared to the automotive OEMs, the suppliers have kept their warranty costs low and ytheir expense rates stable. And while some saw costs drift upwards last year, on average the group remained about the same, as they have for the last few years.
April 9, 2015
Automotive OEM Warranty Report: While warranty expenses are down significantly among vehicle makers as a group, the real progress has been made primarily by Ford and GM.
April 17, 2014
Appliance & HVAC Warranty Report: While we group them together, they're actually very different. Appliance makers pay higher warranty expense rates but for shorter durations. HVAC makers keep larger reserves on hand but they have to, given their longer-lasting warranties.
April 10, 2014
Mining Equipment Warranties: Most of the larger manufacturers of drilling and digging equipment are in many more industries besides mining. They make everything from medical instruments and food handling equipment to road paving equipment and diesel generators. So it may not be possible to analyze them as a single group.
June 27, 2013
Warranty Adjustments, Part 2: In the past few years, a small group of companies has made repeated and relatively large upwards adjustments to their warranty reserves. Are they simply bad at predicting the future? Or have they found a way to make their warranty costs look lower than they really are?
November 3, 2011
Power Equipment Warranty Report: While GE dominates the traditional end of the electrical power generation business, a whole group of new companies are jumping into the solar energy and electric car businesses. And some retailers that never had much to do with the gasoline engine are angling to become the new homes of the charging stations.
June 9, 2011
Appliance & Building Material Warranties: We conclude our mid-year product warranty report with a look at the supplier side of the homebuilding industry, where we find at least one group paying more for warranty claims this year than they did last year.
October 22, 2009
"Expiring" Warranty Scams: Existing laws are not much of a deterrent and the lawsuits are merely a cost of doing business. But a group of auto warranty finance companies think they have a better way to stop the pre-recorded phone calls and misleading postcards: banding together and refusing to do business with the scammers.
August 14, 2008
Warranty Research Report: There are only a few more days to download free copies of the latest report from the Aberdeen Group. Using survey data, it finds a huge correlation between metrics, analytics, and success in warranty management.
July 30, 2008
Automotive Warranties: Are claims soaring or falling? It depends how you slice the market. One way is to compare OEMs to their suppliers. Another is to group OEMs by the size of the vehicles they make. Either way, passenger car and light truck makers always seem to end up paying the most.
September 11, 2007
Computer Warranties: Though warranty costs increased only slightly for PC makers as a group in 2006, a few companies saw radical changes in their claims and accrual rates. And Dell's still missing, with no new warranty data in almost a year.
May 8, 2007
Extended Warranty Association: A new trade group aimed at vehicle service contract administrators plans to focus on certifying inspectors and other business issues, leaving the lobbying and legal efforts to others. But is that enough to attract the big industry players?
February 22, 2006
The Power of One: The Aon Warranty Group has turned vertical integration into a strategic advantage, expanding and acquiring its way to a position where it can sell extended warranties on electronics, homes, or cars, all of which it can underwrite itself.
November 30, 2004
Warranty Industry Associations: Readers respond to a brief survey, expressing a clear preference for an independent cross-industry warranty group and a multi-day warranty industry conference focused on quality, best practices, measuring return on investment, and benchmarking efforts.
May 4, 2004
Warranty Reserves: While the average manufacturer spends 1.9% of product revenue on warranty claims and keeps a little over a year's worth of funds in reserve, each industry is different. Computer manufacturers and automakers fund their warranty programs at different levels than telecom or aerospace manufacturers. But in any group, as with any trend, there's always the odd man out.
April 6, 2004
Don't TREAD On Me: While the top tier of automotive manufacturers fumes about the burden of TREAD Act compliance, a group of small trailer manufacturers mounted a grassroots effort to gain an exemption for themselves from Congress.
October 27, 2003
FTC Allows 50/50 Warranties on Used Cars Decision Supports Industry Group
and Contradicts Consumer Advocates
January 27, 2003