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In Reply to: RE: Warranties on AN gear/Kits/Response Audio... posted by RGA on May 14, 2009 at 01:56:12
Dear Richard,
We actually offer 2 years warranty on all manufactured electronics in line with current European Community legislation, speakers are and remain 5 years.
Unlike many manufacturers our warranty is fully transferable to second/third owners and between different countries, in addition we will support our products with FOC spares if the situation validates it, case in point being the failure of several batches of AN paper in oil copper caps over the past 3 - 4 years.
I think reliability and general back up is far more important than the length of warranty, especially if the warranty is confined to the place where the product was bought because these days customer move around far more than they ever did, so having a flexible and sensible warranty and support to all customers whether they bought new or second hand is essential in my view.
There is no real evidence from other industries that long warranties greatly affect second hand values, whereas reliability and durability/longevity certainly do, so the need for a long warranty is only really an advantage if the brand is an unknown entity on the market or has developed a bad reputation for reliability in order to reinstill some confidence in the market, although this seems to be a hit and miss affair, (let us see what FIAT do to address this issue when their products hit the US market shortly once the Chrysler deal is concluded, for example).
Sincerely,
Peter Qvortrup
Since my post I recently read about your caps issues and that despite servicing out of warranty you were still prepared to fix the problems - the mere fact that you admitted to failures on your website was surprising because I can't think of a single audio company who admit to problems but would far rather hide the problems. VW has a terrible reputation (at least in my circle) for blaming customers for failures saying "this is German engineering and if it breaks it must be your fault" kind of attitude. Needless to say I won't touch a VW with a ten foot pole.
Fiat has a terrible reputation "Fix It Again Tony" is what they're called here. Which is why they're not sold here. Hyundai/Kia came out with 10 year powertrain warranties and while perhaps not the best cars are no worse than the American Cars. Certainly the warranty likely helped some leary buyers.
I guess the concern is someone who spends $10,000 on an amp and the transformer blows up 2 years and a week later. This probably never happens but you gotta admit that's a big blow to someone when they see Fred down the road with his 19 year old $3k Bryston who has his transformer blow and they replace it free.
I know Rolls Royce use to fix things out of warranty with the attitude that "It should not have failed - therefore we fixed it" even when it was way way out of warranty - and maybe all "good" companies have such provisions where when something fails (like the paper in oil caps) the manufacturer will take it on their shoulders to get it fixed up. Especially since the 10K amp buyer may eventually be on the hunt for a $50k amp down the line.
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