Navigating Manufacturer Warranties: Part I

TNT

By Shawn Warden

ou know we have all asked the question about material warranties, but it’s usually too late when the client has brought it to our attention. Today, I am writing this article as a small business owner who primarily installs Other Peoples Graphics (OPG)!

As an installer with over 10+ years of experience with installing a variety of materials from multiple manufacturers, I have been lucky and only had a few issues (knock on wood) from my clients in regards to coverage. That being said, I am not responsible for any purchase or production of materials. I am usually 3-4 tiers down from the logistics and responsible for the installation only.

When I was asked at the last trade show in regards to how I warranty my installations. I have a default that I use which is 1 year crack, fade, peel that I have on all my invoices to my clients. Most failures that are caused by the installer are present within the first year. Anything after that is most likely the material or production. One of the first steps you should do when receiving graphics is to have valuable information on the material from the manufacturer—the type of material, ID or part numbers, production dates, etc. Also, the important information that I feel is necessary is the production date, which is when it was printed. This is very important because all materials have a shelf life for production and also after they are printed. Most manufacturers of materials spend millions of dollars on product development and lawyers to produce warranty information that reads like a mortgage contract with fine print for days!

Regardless of the shop size, having the label information will help during the warranty process is essential. If we look at the entire pipeline and not just the purchase we can get a picture of how just simply adding the information in your invoicing could help with replacement and even labor in some cases. The material we mainly use for our wraps is a petroleum base and spends most of its time decomposing and/or shrinking back to its original state. Once you store it for a few months, then print on it in a high-heat situation it only speeds up the process. So, knowing when it was produced and started its life is the primary information to start any warranty process.

One of my personal experiences was for a fleet container wrap job a few years ago. I requested all the information before I accepted the project which had a date of manufacture including lot numbers because it was multiple rolls. I also requested the date of production of when it was printed/laminated and shipped to the client. The red flag for me was the amount of time the client had these prints at the location awaiting the final container locations. I inspected the shipping date which was 18 months previous and then the material was shipped in different manufacturer boxes. This is very common for contract installers and asking for verified information is important on any size job. Once I requested this information it started a shitstorm. This was a large contract and the client had mentioned that the other locations had numerous issues with the vinyl not sticking which I qualified with the information provided. These prints were on a material produced 5 years previous and printed 18 months before shipped to locations. They were experiencing over 80% failures and submitting chargebacks to the installers of which most of them were walking away.

My point is having the necessary material information on ALL your jobs and maintaining a standard to basically “cover your ass” should be practiced regardless of the size of the job. I'm sure anyone reading this has more than a few experiences at many levels, more than once.

I’m calling out to everyone to start gathering this information to hold everyone who touches your materials before they end up in your hand or your client's equipment and/or surface to be put on notice. If you are a shop like mine that installs other people's graphics only, then put on your invoices, “guaranteed installation only 1-year crack, fade, peel”. As long as the hiring client can produce the information needed from the manufacturer and/or distribution company for any warranty claims you should be covered. Any failure that is the installer's fault will normally happen in the first year, even in the next few months and that is on you to cover. If you're confident that it is a material failure then the best quality of service is that you requested this information before the installation. This helps everyone involved and your client will thank you many times over.

Test this out anytime and ask your hiring company for the material information, 90% of the time it would take weeks to even find the correct information. If you're doing the production of the material, start putting this information and tracking it on all your jobs. It will make sense in the long term and address an issue that most never even thought about or just stopped doing it. Believe me, it will not happen on the small job!

I hope this information reaches at least 1 installer or shop somewhere and makes a difference in your daily operations.

Shawn Warden Owner/ Installer City Sign Co, LLC Contract Installer New England, USA gowrapdaddy@gmail.com