Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

Nineteenth Annual Product Warranty Report: While the erratic nature of accruals continued in 2021, claims totals remained stable. But warranty reserves hit a new record high late in the year, and expense rates briefly set a new low record early in the year. Manufacturer's warranty expenses are sorted into 18 industries and three major sectors: vehicles, electronics, and building trades.
March 24, 2022
New Home & Building Materials Warranty Report: What you won't see in this week's collection of warranty expense reports are soaring or plunging warranty metrics. Most of the building trades' warranty expenses were fairly stable in 2020, with those metrics generally rising or falling by 10% or less. But just as there are exceptions to every rule, there were also a handful of big moves up and down last year.
May 6, 2021
Warranty Snapshots of Planes & the Building Trades: Unlike the passenger car industry, there is no clear trail of pandemic-induced calamity in the warranty metrics of the building trades or the aerospace industry. It hasn't been a good year for many manufacturers, but it hasn't been the Worst Year Ever, as it has for many students and workers, not to mention all the families that lost their loved ones.
November 19, 2020
Building Materials Warranty Report: The warranty expenses of most companies in this industry are reasonably steady and predictable. Charts for both the total expenses and the average expense rates are fairly flat, compared to most industries.
June 11, 2020
Building Material Warranty Report: As we've seen in recent reports, warranty costs are generally far below their levels of 16 years ago. But in the building trades, depending how we break them into groups, the most recent expense rates of the top manufacturers are the same or slightly higher than they were in 2003.
June 6, 2019
Nine-Month Warranty Expense Data: While vehicle and building trade warranty expenses continue more or less unchanged, high-tech electronic warranty spending is still falling. And a new accounting rule is forcing companies to separate break/fix warranties from sales returns, reducing some expense totals significantly.
December 13, 2018
Building Materials Warranty Report: Warranty costs are generally rising in recent years among the suppliers of building materials, fixtures, and furniture. The latter group has seen the most noticeable cost increase, though expense rates across the industry are still generally on the low side (below one percent of revenue).
June 14, 2018
Building Trades Warranty Report:  Unlike most other industries, in the new home construction business, the builders have lower warranty expense rates than many of their suppliers. But the makers of appliances and heating/cooling systems are now cutting their costs and narrowing the gap between their expense rates and those of the makers of fixtures, furniture, and building materials.
April 27, 2017
New Home & Building Materials Warranty Report: The name of the game is stability. Some of the builders and their suppliers have gotten very good at accurately predicting their future warranty costs and keeping them stable. Others let them rise and fall without much of a thought about warranty management. And it's easy to see the difference relatively quickly in a chart.
May 26, 2016
Building Materials Industry
Warranty Report: While some sectors have been able to reduce their warranty costs, others have seen them slowly rise. A few have seen costs rise as revenue falls, making warranty expenses even more painful to manage. But some have gotten their costs back under control after seeing them spike in recent years.
May 28, 2015
Homebuilder & Supplier Warranties: Unlike in the automotive industry, where the OEMs have compelled their suppliers to pay a larger share of warranty costs, the homebuilders are reducing their share by selling fewer new houses. It's the building material suppliers who have learned how to cut warranty costs by reducing their expense rates.
September 11, 2014
Solar Power Equipment Warranties: First Solar and SunPower have emerged as major warranty providers, building megawatt power plants in the desert. And Tesla Motors, while not solar powered, has emerged as a major warranty provider in the "green" energy industry. They're still not as big as GE or GM, but they're no longer small either.
June 12, 2014
New Homes & Building Materials Warranty Report: As sales recover, warranty expense rates are getting back to normal for the builders. But some of their suppliers, such as the makers of electrical and plumbing fixtures, are now enjoying the results of a decade of warranty cost-cutting.
May 8, 2014
Warranty Estimates, Part 3: Companies in the building trades are supposed to carefully estimate the size of their warranty liabilities. But sometimes, their estimates are too low, and the amount they set aside is too meager to pay all their expected claims.
November 21, 2012
Most Improved Warranty Metrics, Part 1: While many companies manage to reduce the percentage of revenue they spend on warranty, some do it better than others. Rising sales helps. So does building a better product. And then some companies are merely returning to normal after ending a "warranty excursion."
October 11, 2012
Fixtures, Furniture & Building Material Warranties: Though few of the companies in these segments are reducing their warranty expenses, some are actually seeing sales increases. In other words, some of the suppliers are seeing the beginning of a turnaround before the builders. How can that be?
May 24, 2012
Appliance & HVAC System
Warranty Report: Every journey includes a few bumps, and both appliance and HVAC makers have hit a few in the past couple of years. But like other building material suppliers, they're doing much better than the homebuilders, because they have both home renovations and replacements to fall back on.
June 2, 2011
Fixtures, Furniture & Building
Material Warranty Report: Sales have fallen but warranty costs aren't falling as fast. Still, it's not as bad as things in the new home industry, because suppliers can fall back on existing home renovations.
May 26, 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
Appliance & Building Material Warranties: The economic downturn that started with the homebuilders is showing its effects on the makers of appliances, fixtures, tools, furniture and building materials. But some segments haven't seen very big recent declines in warranty expenses, and some companies have actually seen their warranty costs rise.
April 16, 2009
New Home & Appliance Warranties: At the midpoint of 2007, sales are falling faster than claims can be reduced, driving claims rate percentages upwards for many companies in the building trades. But unlike in the automotive or computer industries, claims in this sector were always rather evenly distributed among new home builders and their suppliers.
September 25, 2007
HVAC, Appliance & Building Material Warranties: Since so many manufacturers straddle the plumbing, appliance, and HVAC industries, we're profiling them together. But warranty occurs at very different rates for each product type. And some of the most expensive products from a warranty point of view seem to be small kitchen and personal grooming appliances.
May 22, 2007