IT HAS STARTED - SUN GARD NIGHTMARE

Well, it has begun. I have begun getting warranty calls for Sun Gard film. Have had two calls about Elite adhesive failure, and I think this may be just the beginning. So far the customers have been relatively understanding, but if this is a sign of the future, it's not going to be fun. I have been offering to repair for them at my cost, plus minimal labor, but am also giving them the contact info for the new company. If I have to hear it, so should they!!!

Good luck with the custys, they dont want to hear about the manu problems they want your head,

They seem to want something a little lower!!!!

I have paid the last 3 out of pocket. Glad I have not used the film for awhile

So true. Luckily, I did'nt use tons of it either. Just hope that the statement the former President made in a news story was'nt true. he had stated that they were making crap for awhile before the company closed it's doors. If so, there could be alot of film ready to fail soon. Just gonna keep my fingers crossed.

We feel your pain, but I wasn't an elite dealer, just auto. I don't know what to say to help you keep your spirits up, this is a truly frustrating situation for us dealers to be in and it's honestly difficult to look at this and remain optimistic. Whenever I'm in a tough predicament I always try to look at the glass half full rather than half empty, and for myself I haven't been able to do that with this situation. It is what it is.

We had two warranty jobs on the auto side this week, and the cars honestly had film on them for a long time...like 8 years. So when we warrantied them, I just look at the situation of taking care of my customer will keep them a future customer for us (after all their cars really aren't going to last forever). For us, we live in a very small market and not honoring the warranty could be detrimental to us, so we are covering them...

Let's just hope you don't experience thermal stress and the only issue you come across is adhesion failure.

we have 15000+ auto and 2000+ residential/commercial tint jobs out there with fti film on them. when sungard went belly up they left us hanging with $3000 worth of warrantys on auto film. sofar no resi/comm warrantys. when a car comes back with problems i explain to them what happened, i show the window film magazine article so they believe me, and tell them we are splitting the cost of the re-do. if the tint job costs --- we split it down the middle. i also tell them if they know ant attorneys they should start a class action law suit against them.

reason for edit- i cant spell for %$#@

If ya read the article, they went bankrupt. That means FTI no longer exist. All the lawyers in the world cant fix that...

we have done 3 remove & replace (with LLumar film this time) so far this year...ugh...hopefully most of our past custys have bought newer cars...then "SunG" calls and wants us to buy from them with their "new" company....sorry their is no way, we need a company to stand behind us for the long run...I hate warranty work...yuck. I lost at least $500 so far, not including the potential $$$ loss on not being able to bring in other work. LLu-LLu for us from now on!

i was talking about there asset's. when the new guys took over, they took over knowing that some time down the road there might be a class action over the warranty's and there asset's would be all thats left.

4 more this month............................ putting QDP back on them

bit of an older post.. but just wanted to comment.. seems strange having to deal with warranty,, in my 16 + years... we had warranty issues related to the film only one and it was back in 92 before llumar changed to hpr adhesive... a strange thought using film that fails... seems surreal.. lol...

it has to do with your location. we are in s florida. closer to the equator. film will take more abuse here than northern states. we get custy's that have lived in northern states with there cars tinted for years and never a problem. they move to s fl and with in a year there film that lasted in there home state is trashed. i thats why tint shops up north can use these off brands and not worry about it going bad any time soon. install that film where i live and your guaranteed a re-do.

The paint on my $35K truck did the same thing. Only 48 months old.(Whithered in the fLA sun). Manufacturer didnt warranty that either. So, why does everybody think a South Fla $59.00 tint job gonna last forever??

Hmmm.. where is Capt Bill to talk the usual talk

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR... CHEAP FILM = FILM

dryshinker... so companies like llumar , etc. that offer lifetime warranties on there product are consistently getting replaced in south florida... im having a hard time believing that...
.... the past couple of months, its been real hot up here... and we have more hours of day lite.... middle of June, it dont get dark till 11ish p.m.

no, not at all. i said shops using the "off brands" can get away with it because the film will last longer in bangor maine than it will last in sunny s fl. llumar was my staple film for years, very few warrantys. mostly there old AT and jett series. every now and then i get one with the lifetime warranty, i send them to performance and let them deal with them. IMHO llumar is good film. i just dont like jim clark, buying from him is like eating crow. he likes to make rules as he goes. made me go straight to martinsville to keep him in check... but, thats a story for another day.

Jimmy likes to make the rules... don't mess with Jimmy.

ok clear as mud... lol.... i know what ya mean about dealing with dealers... the canadian distribution of global is out of calgary, south of me... i liked the no static liner thingy,,, but ive always had a bit*h of a time shrinking it,, llumar has always been easy to shrink in my hon. opinion... but my auto days are over... im not getting into a back seat for nobody.. well tinting wise anyhow...

Jimmy likes to make the rules... don't mess with Jimmy.


yeah,, well jimmy cracked corn, and do you think i care.....

I agree with you and I think we as Americans are spoiled. I have been using SunGard for going on 14 years with very few warranty jobs that came back. I know customers can be difficult but I never pushed the "lifetime warranty" thing anyway. If I do mention it then it is only because the customer specifically asks. When they do ask I tell them it does have a "manufacturers lifetime warranty". Now I am not promoting word play or bait and switch but it is however the manufaturers warranty and not mine. My guarantee only extends to my own workmanship. If I were selling TVs or computers there is no way I would guarantee anything other than what the people who made the TVs or computers were guaranteeing. If the manufacurer doesn't stand behind it then why should I. If this becomes to often an occurance then I would sell a different brand of TV or computer. Now here is what I dont get. Why is it that dealers feel obligated to honor a warranty that the manufacturer is not honoring? Take your pick for manufacturers, SunGard, Johnson, Llumar, Madico, SunTek, SolarGard, it doesn't really matter. It is their warranty and if they don't or won't stand behind it then why should anyone expect the dealer to stand behind it. The "lifetime warranty" is nothing more than a marketing gimick. Manufactures offer it only because their competition does. All of them are banking on the consumer to trade cars after 3 or 4 years or less therefore releasing them of their obligations.

Now here is a scenerio for the ones who eat it and go ahead and replace the tint hoping to regain or keep a customer. Lets just say that you had been using SunGard exclusivly and without knowing every car you tinted for the past year ot so was with tint that the manufacturer had made that was less than acceptable and within only a short matter of time will fail. Now this tint you installed with "manufacturers lifetime warranty" all fails within the first year or two rendering your intire year worthless. SunGard will no longer warranty this film and how then will you be able to eat it just for the sake of taking care of your customer with this "manufacturers lifetime warranty" and it not being your warranty to begin with. I for one could not afford to do such a thing not only are you loosing money on the redo but also on the cars you could have done if not for your bays being full of cars you are redoing. I understand that if you have one or two come back for a redo then yes you would most likely benefit by redoing them just to keep down any negative word of mouth from spreading. There is a point where the "payoff" just would not be worth it. No Matter if it is SunGard or ANY manufacurer that may be faced with financial probelems due to a bad product or bad service or just bad business decisons I would believe they would do the same as SunGard by shutting down and trying to start over just as any dealer would do faced with similar problems. Yes it all sux but it is a fact of doing business. A business will succeed when it is profitable but if it is not profitable then it will end sooner or later. In my opinion a dealer can not be expected to stand behind a product that they did not make or have any control over how it was made. It is uncomprehensible that any dealer would assume this responsibilty on any sizable scale.

yes, it's all about keeping customers, and keeping customers happy. lot's of custys are one timers and lots are regulars. the one timers with warranty issues will be delt with differently than the reg's. we split the cost with all the custys who had sungard issue's. one timer llumar custys will be sent to llumar for warranty work. the cost of keeping the regs is nothing compared to the cost of loosing them over a few dollars worth of film.

vclimber, that jimmy episode was one of my favorite's.

It's still on Youtube enjoy!