warranty claims

I have a few questions for you all.

1. What do you do with a customer that wants to cash in on a lifetime warranty. The work is over 6 years old, and through a film supplier you no longer deal with, and haven't dealt with in over 4 years.

2. Should the supplier pay you for the r&r?

3. If not, do you pay for it out of your own pocket?

4. Or, do you send them to a tint shop that warranties that suppliers product?

6 years is a long time ,BUT, if they are your customer,I would do whatever it takes to keep them as a customer.

Buisness owners have to take one for the team sometimes.

Stop right there.

The film has a lifetime waranty from the manufacturer and you applied it. Get the toll fre number to the manny and call them. Infrm them that you are willing to do their warranty work, but for film and cash(r check) since you no longer use their film. Or ask them to refer another shop for you to send the customer to. As long as the customer has their paperwork available, this should be a no brainer for the manny.

I agree,it should be a no brainer for the manny,
The chances of the manny paying someone who no longer carries the film is slim.
They would refer you to another shop,but,if it was a customer of mine I would take care of it to keep the custy.
Not send them off to another shop.

Thats what I was thinking

I dug up one of the old warranty cards, and the manu. warranty card states that they have to approve all warranty work, and approve who does it.

Otherwise, if they refuse to pay up, for me to suck it up and take one for the team to save a one time, six year old customer. I would have to find out what type of film was applied, order a partial roll of a product I haven't used in over 5 years, r&r what is defective, out of my own pocket, for a film I did not make, or warranty for life, to make a customer happy, I dont think I'm man enough to eat that much crap

Did the custy have all the paperwork?
Most people don't even keep thier cars for 6 years,let alone the warranty card and invoice

take care of it, don't send them somewhere else.

He believe's the paperwork is still in the glove box, he is suppose to call back today at lunch.

Look, on my previous post, I dont want to seem that I am one of those guys that set out to look for ways to get out of having to honor my work. That isn't the issue here, my work isn't what's defective, and I switched brands due to problems with quality, price, and customer service in regards to warranty claims. If I were to warranty the 4 door grand prix, I would have to replace all of the defective windows with the new film I now carry, so that all of the film will match, so that the customer doesn't rightfully complain about the film's not matching. When is it my responsibility to do this, we make it clear to all customers that the warranty is between them and the manu., since we did not make the product, just installed it. We stand behind our craftsmanship, but not after 6 plus years. If our installation was an issue, it would have surfaced before now.


Just got off of the phone with the customer, and it was installed 5/18/2000, so its been awhile.

Yeah , even if it was a one time customer they are still your customer. Taking care of them will add bonus points to the professionalism to your shop ,( I'm not saying that you do not run a professional shop, believe me ,its a bitch to loose $$ in a situation like this)
But word of mouth pays off in the long run , and how often will this happen.
Once every 4 or 5 years?

maybe you can explain the situation and work out a deal where you will cover the film and they pay the labor, since it's a film issue.

he came by the shop yesterday and seemed to understand the situation, and is gonna try to resolve this with the film man. co., first. I assured him that if they would not honor their product, to get back with me and I would work something out with him.


This is the very thing that bugs most of us about the lifetime warranty deal with film suppliers. Either they are gonna warranty the stuff for life, or do away with it. Even most car man. don't warranty their product for life, but the film is suppose to out last the vehicle, well, some cars, maybe.

Thats why we tell the customer that the warranty is with the film co., not us. Because we have a large military customer base here that cycle in and out regularly, so when they move away, what are they gonna do then. I'm sure they are not gonna drive across long distances to have us fix it, they are gonna want a shop close to them to warranty it, which is the way it is suppose to work anyhow.

I think we are gonna have to come up with our own warranty form in order to set limits as to what we will cover and for how long, in addition to the man. warranty. I think this is the way to cover any future misunderstandings and protect us from this sorta thing. We might even come up with a extended warranty that they can pay a premium for, just like on autos when you buy them, a no fault warranty for ex.

I've thought about initiating my own warranty card for our business. If we were in this situation, we would warranty the film and only replace it with the closest matching product we have available. I would not send them down the street to a competitor, but I'm not going to eat more film than I have to. Most people who want to cash in on 8 year old film know they don't get a complete redo just b/c it doesn't match. They get a redo if the film goes bad. So, if they end up with mismatched tint and they don't like it, they can pay for the rest. I rarely have someone complain to us about mismatched tint, they just want the free redo.

is'nt the life time warrenty a limited life time warrenty that expires after 5 years ? that's what lumars and beckart told me. but yes keep all cus. happy as the shop owner we handle the rest .
keep in mine how much money you spent with the old distributor.i would also think about asking a friendly shop that carry's that line of film and run it though them after all warrenty are sups. to be nation wide!

So, what I get from most of you all is that even if the supplier wont honor "their" lifetime warranty, not that this is or isnt the case here, you will then warranty all jobs for life, even though you did not make the film So, if the customer comes back and wants all of the film replaced due to the replacement film not matching, will you replace all of it, afterall, you dont want them going down the street, right.

How much are you charging up front, that seems to be a costly concept, especially if a major failure occurs, which does happen.

i vote for #4. Because same scenerio happened to me and guess what? Lulu wouldnt pay-so i did it cause i'm a good guy!

The hard part that most do not tell the customer is that the warranty covers it to be free from defect, due to manufacturing, for lifetime. This covers very few issues with film. Especially on vehicles, where scratching can occur from just about anything. As most state, 'coverage for ahdesive failure, bubbling, cracking, crazing, delamination or discolorization'. In all my years installing, I have not seen these issues very often (maybe 3x in 17 years). Unless a some worker on the line missed an additive for the adhesive or other such thing, films should last. When informing any customer of the warranty,, I will always give them full information on it and tell them to read it over themselves. Too many of my competitors will just tell them they have a 'lifetime warranty' and leave it at that. This is very misleading, in my opinion, and nit a business practice I follow.

Let us know how you solve this one.