Archived Copies of Warranty Week

December 2002 to Today

HVAC Equipment Warranty Report: The big news is that after years in which most of the top HVAC companies were part of much larger conglomerates, now we have two new "pure play" industry members after the latest round of spin-offs and divestments.
May 28, 2020
French Automaker Warranty Expenses: Renault has always kept its warranty expenses low, but three years ago PSA suddenly cut its costs by more than two-thirds. Now they're creeping up again as the makers of Peugeot and Citroen works to integrate the acquisitions of Opel and Vauxhall it made from GM.
August 8, 2019
Aerospace Warranty Report: Claims and accruals continue to fall for the top aerospace OEMs, though the warranty expense rates of aerospace suppliers has been rising for two years now. And the recent acquisition of Rockwell Collins by United Technologies has made the industry's largest warranty provider even bigger.
March 28, 2019
Service Contracts and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act:  This article, by two expert attorneys, is intended to help readers navigate the subtle boundaries between the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and the service contract laws of the U.S. states, and to help explain the key differences between product warranties, service contracts, and insurance.
February 7, 2019
ServiceBench Signs Cross Country: While the appliance service contract and home warranty businesses have remained separate and distinct, the products they protect are frequently the same. Now, the crossover between the two is increasing, with home warranty companies linking to the network used by many service contract administrators, and retailers selling home warranties in their stores.
February 8, 2018
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
WCM Preview, Part Two: Given that so much of the knowledge and wisdom in the warranty management profession is passed on verbally, this annual gathering of product protection industry experts is an unrivaled opportunity to hear both vendors and their customers tell the stories of their journeys.
March 2, 2017
Service Contract Pricing: Microwaves: Built like electronics but sold like an appliance, the microwave oven is a hybrid of two different product categories. And with service contracts costing almost 19% of the product's price on average, it also has one of the highest average costs of protection. And there's a big difference in the cost of protection plans for units priced at the high or the low end of the market.
February 2, 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
Warranty Mergers: Either because the acquisition wasn't big enough or the product lines are too similar, the merger of two warranty-providing manufacturers has little effect upon the baseline warranty expense rates of the combined companies. But sometimes it does, and here are seven examples where expense rates change noticeably.
August 11, 2016
Solar Equipment Warranties: While product warranties that last for one or two decades are reassuring to buyers, they're not worth much unless funds are available to pay claims. That means betting on young startup companies eventually becoming old industry veterans. But who knows how reliable a system installed now will be in 10 or 20 years, and how much it will cost to repair or replace?
July 28, 2016
Warranty Workshops: In less than two weeks, a team of warranty and service contract experts are going to conduct six half-day workshops aimed at both basic and advanced practitioners of topics such as warranty metrics, analytics, legal issues, service delivery, cost-cutting, revenue-raising, and ultimately an improved customer experience.
March 3, 2016
European Auto Warranty Report: In this initial piece of a two-part series, we look at the claims rates and accruals-per-vehicle rates of five of the top European automotive OEMs. Whether we count in euro or dollars, some of them have the most expensive factory warranties in the world. But a few have managed to cut those costs over the past decade.
July 9, 2015
WCM Conference Keynotes: The technology is changing. The need for repairs is changing. Even the concept of ownership is changing. And the way people shop is changing. Two industry experts describe how they see these changes impacting warranty and service contracts.
February 26, 2015
Warranty Conference: Opening in two weeks, the WCM Conference provides both basic and advanced presentations about both manufacturer's warranty and extended warranty issues. So how can one person see it all? This week, we look at the sessions most appealing to manufacturer's warranty professionals.
February 28, 2013
Warranties During Disasters: While warranties cover defects and insurance covers damage, there is quite a bit of overlap between the two. And in the past month, disasters and disturbances have made people aware that it really can happen to them.
September 1, 2011
Warranty Reserves vs. Accruals, Part Two: A handful of computer, electronics and data networking companies have gotten very good at controlling their warranty funds, both in terms of how much they set aside and how much they keep on hand. Others just take their best guess and hope it all turns out well.
June 23, 2011
WCM Conference, Part Two: Even just the highlights expected over the course of the three days would take a month to detail. So here are just some of the themes and topics selected by the warranty experts headed to San Diego next week.
March 10, 2011
WCM Conference, Part One: With less than two weeks until the annual WCM Conference opens in San Diego, we take a look at some of the major themes expected. And almost every speaker has the same advice: don't try to do it alone without help from some of the warranty industry's experts.
March 3, 2011
New Board Members Sought: As president and co-founder Glen Griffiths steps down, new leadership is sought for the Institute of Warranty Chain Management at its annual meeting on March 15 in San Diego. Two members have put their names in the hat, but additional openings exist.
February 24, 2011
Implementing iWarranty: 4CS Inc. has a long history of outfitting agricultural and construction equipment makers with its Web-based warranty claims processing software. More recently, it's added a pair of electric car makers, along with two of the biggest construction equipment makers headquartered outside the U.S.
October 28, 2010
Worldwide Auto Warranties, Part Two: It turns out that Volkswagen, BMW, and Fiat do disclose their warranty data, if one knows where to look and what to look for. And thanks to the help of a reader who's fluent in five languages, we now have hard numbers for the warranty costs of more than half the world's vehicles.
July 23, 2009
Selling Peace of Mind: With all the negative publicity generated by the "expiring warranty" telemarketing scam, these days it's the auto dealers that need some reassurance about the value of selling vehicle service contracts to consumers. Below is a list of some of the benefits of the different types of VSCs, followed by two different lists compiled by industry associations that can help consumers spot a scam before they buy into it.
July 16, 2009
Extended Warranty Insurance Companies: The advice columns tell you not to buy extended warranties, but they never tell you not to buy extended warranty companies. Of the four largest publicly traded warranty insurance companies, at least two offer dependable dividend yields and perhaps also capital gains as the recovery takes hold on Wall Street.
May 14, 2009
Warranty Optimization Workshops: Warranty data analysis can help you understand where you've been and where you're going. But can it also help you choose the right way to get there? At pre-conference workshops next month, two leading warranty optimization companies plan to show how both product warranty and service contract programs can benefit from the careful use of analytics.
February 12, 2009
Warranty Workshops: What's the probability that two Russian physicists with degrees from the same university would deliver back-to-back workshops on new statistical approaches to warranty data? On March 10, that's exactly what's on the agenda for the WCM Conference's opening day.
February 5, 2009
Warranty Institute Opens: The Institute of Warranty Chain Management begins accepting memberships this weekend, more than two-and-a-half years after forming. The Web site's almost done, some 60 white papers are waiting to be downloaded, and a training program for warranty professionals is scheduled to begin in March.
October 30, 2008
Green Warranties, Part Two: While product warranties are focused on repairs at the beginning of a product's life, anti-pollution efforts aim to reduce energy usage over the full life of a product while recycling efforts are focused on waste disposal at the end of a product's useful life.
May 21, 2008
WCM Preview: Attendees at the Warranty Chain Management Conference will have their choice of two panel discussions and survey overviews on Thursday morning. Via different routes, both come to much the same conclusion: more work needs to be done on document communication and collaboration efforts.
March 4, 2008
WCM Workshops, Part Two: The day before the opening of the Warranty Chain Management Conference next month, attendees have a chance to hear experts talk about how to reduce warranty-related litigation and how to cut down on the amount of warranty fraud.
February 21, 2008
WCM Workshops, Part One: The day before the opening of the Warranty Chain Management Conference next month, attendees have a chance to hear two experts talk about the pitfalls of relying upon seemingly simple statistical measures of warranty cost.
February 14, 2008
DVD & Hard Drive Recorder Shopping: Recording television programs has never been easier, thanks to a new crop of DVD and hard disk recorders with capacities of two to 400 hours. But some carry only 90-day warranties, which makes service contracts even more appealing.
December 19, 2007
Warranty Benchmarks, Part Two: Big companies really do pay more. The larger the manufacturer, the more warranty claims they pay. And in both the automotive and computer industries, OEMs tend to pay more claims than their parts suppliers.
October 31, 2007
Warranty Acquisitions: When companies merge, what happens to their warranty expenses? Is it just a mathematical sum of the two? Or does the frugal side of the business teach the other side how to reduce its warranty expenses?
July 17, 2007
The Warranty Dashboard: If a picture's worth a thousand words, then two graphs should be enough to detail a company's warranty history at a glance. Readily available data can be used to compute three key ratios that can illustrate trends and highlight anomalies.
February 6, 2007
Warranty Reporting vs. Analytics: One turns the past into charts. The other turns the future into actionable items. But some people who know the difference between the two don't want to talk about it, for fear that they'll lose an edge on their competition.
July 11, 2006
Warranty Conference,
Part Four: Your best customers buy extended warranties. And the proper administration of extended warranties can boost customer loyalty. Two top executives explain how it's done.
March 29, 2005
Warranty Conference,
Part Two: Members of the AIAG detailed their effort to create an early warning system that uses new warranty data communications standards to improve product quality.
March 15, 2005
Extended Warranty Income: If comparing extended warranty to net income is misleading, then let's correct the record by comparing apples to apples: warranty claims paid to recognized revenue over the past two years.
November 9, 2004
The SAFE Guys: As with manufacturer's product warranties, the extended warranty industry is huge yet easy to take for granted. Two industry experts explain why they left the comfort of the insurance business to open their own extended warranty consultancy.
September 28, 2004
Warranty in Europe: As a major part of consumer protection, warranty has a high priority in the policy of the European Commission. Consumers are protected by mandatory warranty periods of two years, by legal instruments to guarantee access to the aftermarket for automotive spare parts and by stringent rules for product safety. However, increasing warranty costs in the automotive industry may indicate that the reality of product quality has not yet met the requirements of those legal rules. A warranty industry association is needed to satisfy consumers and to reduce these tremendous costs.
June 29, 2004
Stadium Warranties: Like any other large construction project, sports stadiums come with product warranties. Just because there's no warranty registration card in the box doesn't mean that the builders don't face warranty claims from stadium owners. Two examples follow, from Seattle and Houston.
February 17, 2004
Auto Warranties: While the Big Three sold two-thirds of the vehicles purchased in the U.S. in 2003, they settled three-quarters of the warranty claims. On average, Detroit pays twice as much in claims per vehicle as Toyota and Honda. But that's not the only quality gap. Recent research finds striking gaps between perceived and actual quality levels.
January 27, 2004
Warranty in the Air, Sea, and Ground: Compliance with FASB FIN 45 rules concerning product warranty disclosures has spread tremendously in just the first two quarters of 2003, making it possible to find ranges and averages for warranty accrual and claims rates in numerous market segments. In addition to the automotive and IT industry sectors detailed in the past two issues, here are charts for six more market segments.
September 29, 2003
Warranty Software: There's no heading in the software catalog for it, yet all manufacturers of warranted products have to use it. At Hewlett-Packard, two companies that don't even call themselves warranty software vendors are helping the company manage its warranty costs with analytical tools that weren't designed with warranty in mind.
July 21, 2003
Warranty Registrations: Given that nine out of ten consumers don't bother filling out the postcards, what can be done to boost response rates? Two new warranty registration systems from veterans of the messaging industry are spotlighted.
July 14, 2003
Extended Warranty Deception: Two companies misuse the power of the Web to set their bait for unsuspecting auto warranty shoppers
February 24, 2003