This
month is the third and final article in a series
about how to most effectively deal with a service
center when you need to have musical equipment
repaired. The first two parts and my other previous
articles can be found in the Metro Music Mayhem
archives. This months topic is warranty repairs,
an almost universally misunderstood facet of
the repair business.
Let's begin by defining what a warranty is. It
means that manufacturer's of equipment will repair
or replace your broken equipment at no charge
under specific conditions. There are two main
criteria:
1-How long has it been since the purchase date?
Manufacturer's
vary in the term they will cover their products.
Most of the time it will be one year parts and
labor, but some manufacturers such as Fender
and Boogie cover you for five years with a few
limitations and some companies, Roland in particular
cover parts for one year and labor for only 90
days. There are also a few companies such as
Peavey and Korg who will extend their one year
term to two to five years if you register the
product with them. There are a slew of exceptions
and exclusions to all of this but we will get
to that later
2- Is the problem due to a defect in workmanship
or materials?
Here is a
main place that customer's get confused. Warranty
coverage is only applicable to defects in workmanship
or materials. If you drop it, scratch it spill
something in it, use the wrong power adapter
etc. it is not going to be covered. Yet more
than once I have someone say to me something
similar to this " My Korg
Triton fell out of my pickup truck while I was
driving on the interstate, I want to bring it
in and have it repaired under warranty". Or this
classic gem " My Gibson Les Paul was on a stand
and the head stock just fell off" Unbelievably,
we have heard this quite a few times. It may
not be evident to the customer, but most of the
time the service center can tell if it is a manufacturing
defect or not. As an example, yesterday I received
a Line Six Delay modeler pedal under warranty.
Upon inspecting its circuitry I saw that the
diodes that protect the unit from being connected
to an incorrect wrong polarity power adapter were
burned to a crisp. This immediately disqualifies
it from warranty service. You can swear up and
down that your 20 volt wrong polarity power
adapter that is actually from a telephone answering
machine is what you have been using to run your
device, but it's not going to get your unit fixed
for free under warranty.
What happens when the customer is insistent that
the unit be repaired under warranty at no charge?
I have been servicing for many years and I have
put policies in place over time that I believe
are fair. A service center is the field representative
for the manufacturer. We are charged with the
responsibility to determine a unit's qualification
for warranty service in the manufacturer's behalf.
When the customer will not accept our decision
we refer him directly to the manufacturer for
a decision. The manufacturer will consult with
me and possibly ask for digital photos before
making a decision. I will then abide by whatever
they decide. We will ask that we receive an email
or special authorization number from the manufacturer
stating their decision. Since the customer is
long gone by the time we file the warranty paperwork
and the manufacturer reviews it, we need something
to show in the case they reject the claim. We
had one obnoxious gentleman, a lead singer for
some death metal band, who brought me a wireless
microphone that was all scratched up and had
been taken apart. A ribbon cable connecting two
circuit boards was mutilated and the battery
compartment was cracked. It was obvious that
the microphone had been taken apart and tampered
with. I referred this back to the manufacturer
with photos and they initially denied the claim.
He drove them so crazy that in the end we got
permission to fix it but this is an extreme example.
For the most part, if something breaks during
its warranty period, leave it alone and take
it to an authorized warranty service center.
Even if the problem was one that could be covered
under warranty, tampering with the unit will
void the warranty.
ASKING TO EXTEND THE TERM OF THE WARRANTY
I often get a piece of equipment that is out
of warranty by a few days to a few months. The
customer feels that they should be accommodated
under the warranty since it expired so recently.
I direct them to contact the manufacturer to
discuss it. I have no authority to do this myself.
If I would submit the warranty claim for reimbursement
to the manufacturer, they would reject it based
upon it being passed the warranty expiration
date unless they have issued a special authorization
number for the claim to allow it.
WARRANTY EXCLUSIONS
There a quite a few exclusions to warranty coverage
which are usually a big annoying surprise to
the customer.
Accessories
Items included with a unit such as foot
switches cables VU meters etc are covered for
90 days or sometimes not at all. Items such as
externally accessible fuses, batteries
and pilot lamps are not covered at all.
Speakers
Speakers and horn diaphragms are generally covered
for one year for manufacturing defects only.
I am required to cut out and visually inspect
the speaker voice coil for any evidence of burn.
This is considered abuse and will not be covered.
And if you believe that your 500 watt speaker
can not be damaged by your 100 watt amplifier
you are very wrong. I could write a whole article
on this subject and actually I think I will.
Tubes
Tubes are covered for a 90 day-period. Tubes
are not built by the manufacturer's, but in one
of the few remaining tube factories left around
the world. Tube quality and reliability can vary
wildly even from different production runs from
the same manufacturer. In order to maximize profitability
on their products manufacturers consider tubes
a disposable item, much like tires on a car.
Shipping Charges
Many manufacturers will not reimburse the service
center for shipping charges on parts needed for
a warranty repair. The defective parts from the
customer's unit may need to be returned to the
manufacturer and these also may not be reimbursed
for shipping charges . The service center in
these cases will pass these charges along to
the customer. If the customer protests we will
show him a copy of the manufacturer's warranty
terms or have him call the manufacturer directly.
Cleaning and adjustments
Anything such as biasing output tubes, spraying
out noisy controls is not covered as it is considered
a maintenance issue akin to changing the oil
in your car.
Broken keys or controls.
Coverage of a broken keyboard key, snapped off
pot shaft or broken input jack varies from manufacturer
to manufacturer, but in general is considered
to be abuse and is not covered. There were a
couple of cases where the manufacturer considered
an entire key assembly defective. Roland built
one assembly that they used in thousands of units
throughout their product line. They used a pink
glue to hold in the weights under the keys. Under
certain temperature and humidity conditions this glue
would liquefy and run all over the key assembly
causing groups of keys to stick together. I remember
one poor guy in the Florida Keys who stored his
Roland in his car to protect it during a hurricane.
All was well until the hurricane passed and the
sun came out and melted the glue. Yamaha had
a similar situation. They had a weighted key
action that they used in many of their keyboards
such as Motifs and Clavinolas. The keys could
develop a crack at their rear mounting point
and would then react sluggishly. Both Roland
and Yamaha were very liberal in replacing these
defective key assemblies under warranty, sometimes
on a keyboard that was ten years beyond its warranty
expiration date.
Act of God / normal wear and tear
No manufacturer is responsible if a pipe bursts
in your house or their are power surges/lightning.
The equipment is warranted to work under normal
operating conditions and it is not the manufacturer"s
fault if their is a surge from your power company.
Normal wear and tear as in scratches to wood
or metal chassis or tears in tolex are not covered
either.
How much does my warranty repair cost?
Although it would seem that the answer to this
should be that the repairs are free, it does
vary.
Sometimes there are different terms to parts
and labor coverage as I stated above. If your
unit is six months old and you have coverage
for one year on parts and ninety days on labor
you are responsible to pay labor charges and
your parts are free. You also may be billed for
shipping charges both to get repair parts to
the service center from the manufacturer and
sometimes to return the defective parts back
to the manufacturer.
THE EXTENDED WARRANTY
When purchasing a piece of equipment, you are
usually offered the option to purchase an extended
warranty at an additional charge. This is basically
purchasing insurance from a third party company that
has nothing to do with either the manufacturer
or the store you are purchasing from.
The misconceptions about this coverage make the
manufacturers warranty terms look simple in comparison.
There are normally many coverage exclusions and
specific procedures to follow in order to receive
coverage. This confusion is usually exacerbated
by the salesman who sells you the coverage because
he either doesn't really understand the coverage
terms and is giving you his incorrect interpretation
of it or he does understand it and is telling
you anything you want to hear in order to get
you to purchase the coverage. Many times the
profit earned for the store on selling an extended
service plan is greater than the profit on the
equipment itself that they are selling. There
is much pressure put on sales people to sell
these extended service plans by the retail stores.
Often the salesman's performance is judged more
on how many service plans he was able to sell
than on how much equipment he sold.
The most important point about the extended service
plan is the one that is the most understood.
The coverage does not begin from your extended
warranty until the manufacturer warranty
has expired. Yet I often have people dropping
off their recently purchased equipment for warranty
service and proudly declare that they purchased
the extended warranty. The funniest example of
this was a guy who dropped off his Taylor guitar
and obnoxiously told us he had an extended warranty.
I asked him if he knew when the extended coverage
began and he looked puzzled and replied he didn't.
I told him that it begins the day after he dies
because Taylor guitars carry a lifetime manufacturer
warranty. Therefore someone sold him coverage
that was completely useless. Did they intentionally
rip him off? Probably not, I usually find the
sales people woefully lacking in their understanding
of anything related to warranty.
Therefore, before you consider purchasing an
extended service plan consider the length of
the manufacturer's warranty term. A 90 day to
one year labor term and one year on parts is
probably
a good idea to add extended coverage to, especially
on an expensive item. But do you really think
you need to pay to extend the term on a piece
of equipment that has a five year manufacturer
warranty?. Many times equipment is outgrown or
obsolete by the time five years rolls around.
This is the key point for the company that sells
the extended warranty. They get their money up
front and are counting on the fact that by the
time the extended service coverage starts the
customer will have forgotten about the coverage
or no longer own the equipment.
Before attempting to get coverage under the
extended warranty there are three key things
to do.
1- Get out your extended warranty contract copy.
It contains your contract number which you will
not be able to get coverage without.
2- Check the terms of the contract to make sure
there are no exclusions concerning the problem
you are trying to get covered.
3- Before you bring the item to the service center,
call the extended warranty company to get a repair
order number. This is a requirement and is clearly
stated on your extended warranty contract. You
did read what you signed, right? I get
people all the time who bring me equipment without
a repair order number and then are angry with
me when I can't take it in for repair. It is
the customer's responsibility to obtain the work
order number, the extended warranty company will
not give it to me.
So ends my discussion (rant?) about working with
a service center. Next month we will get back
to
a discussion on equipment.
