Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

Extended Protection Plans:
Breaking Down Risk Management Options: Service contracts sold by dealers or manufacturers to buyers of commercial products such as construction equipment can increase resale value, raise customer loyalty, boost uptime, and lower operating costs. But before extended protection plan sales can begin, the advantages and disadvantages of various risk management options must be considered.
June 7, 2018
Extended Protection Plans: Service contracts sold by dealers to buyers of products such as construction equipment can increase resale value, raise customer loyalty, boost uptime, and lower operating costs. But before extended protection plan sales can begin, dealers have several risk management options to consider.
November 30, 2017
Warranty Workshops: Before the upcoming WCM Conference begins, warranty professionals have an opportunity to learn from the experts about topics such as text mining, fraud detection, risk management, supplier relationships, and reliability engineering.
February 16, 2012
50/50 Warranties: Dealers who sell used vehicles sometimes can't afford or won't risk the cost of a limited warranty policy. So they ask customers to split the cost of repairs for the first 30 or 90 days. Some regulators say these types of warranties are unfair or misleading, but others say all that's needed is adequate disclosure.
May 13, 2010
OEM Extended Warranties: Working with a manufacturer to sell service contracts is a little different from working with a retailer. The OEMs need more help with sales and marketing, and they want more failure data analysis to help them with product quality and parts planning. They'll also need just as much help as the retailers with risk management, compliance, and regulatory issues.
May 28, 2009
Warranty Management: Warranty management for manufacturing and sales organizations is becoming an intense focus area. Warranty spending by US-based companies surpasses the Gross Domestic Product of some nations. But warranty is an avoidable cost, if managed efficiently and judiciously. As warranty also involves customers directly, the larger imperative of organizational image is at risk. A prelude to warranty management is information stability, consistency and transparency.

The Chief Information Officer plays a pivotal role to iron out the initial impediments before laying out a smooth track for warranty management in any enterprise. This article brings out the different sources of warranty data, a collaboration model for warranty data, the business dynamics of multiple stakeholders with respect to warranty management and displays ways to assess and improve warranty information maturity.
November 14, 2007
Warranty Reserves by Industry: Longer warranties usually mean larger reserves. And in industries where warranties are getting longer, the ratio between claims and reserves is growing. But in some sectors, the need for earnings may be forcing companies to live with more risk and smaller reserves.
June 12, 2007
Extended Warranties: The default of Warranty Gold Ltd. on the heels of the collapse of its Cayman Islands-based underwriter puts into question whether online sales of vehicle service contracts are worth the risk, and whether the risks were underpriced.
December 1, 2003