Archived Copies of Warranty Week

January 1, 2003 to today

FASB Non-Compliance: While most of the major US-based manufacturers now include the warranty tables mandated by FASB FIN 45, at least one-in-five have chosen non-compliance. What happens to them? FASB says they can be called non-GAAP companies, but the SEC says little about enforcement plans.
December 29, 2003
The Warranty Reserve: Manufacturers apparently allowed their reserve fund balances to shrink by some $2 billion during the third quarter, not only because of a 4% rise in claims but also because of numerous downwards changes of estimate and cuts in accrual rates.
December 22, 2003
Warranty Claims & Accruals: In some industries, warranty claims and accrual rates move together in parallel. In others, they each seem to have a mind of their own. This week we take a look at nine months of warranty claims totals and the percentages of sales they represent in nine different industries.
December 15, 2003
Warranty Claims: While hundreds of manufacturers have now filed financial reports detailing their warranty activity during the third quarter, it remains unclear why claims rose by more than five percent. Is it a seasonal fluctuation? Or is it proof that the recession is finally behind us? Here's a down payment on the answer, highlighting trends among the top 50 warranty providers.
December 8, 2003
Extended Warranties: The default of Warranty Gold Ltd. on the heels of the collapse of its Cayman Islands-based underwriter puts into question whether online sales of vehicle service contracts are worth the risk, and whether the risks were underpriced.
December 1, 2003
Responding to the
European Commission's
WEEE & RoHS Directives: Electronics & appliance manufacturers must consider environmental impact beyond the point-of-sale.
November 24, 2003
Ford's Warranty Reserves: Standard & Poor's cut Ford Motor Company's credit rating from BBB to BBB-, citing write-offs at Ford Europe, reduced warranty accruals, and lowered reserves for bad loans by Ford Credit. But were those reduced warranty accruals justified by reduced claims costs?
November 17, 2003
Don't TREAD On Me: NHTSA has announced that TREAD Act reports will be presumed to be confidential. If, as some expect, NHTSA won't be able to analyze the flood of data it's about to receive, and it won't release that data to the public, what's the benefit of compliance beyond penalty avoidance?
November 10, 2003
Don't TREAD On Me: Estimates of the cost of TREAD Act compliance vary all the way from the U.S. government's own $89 million figure up to a $1.7 billion estimate recently published by AMR Research. While small manufacturers continue to count their actual costs, the government continues to insist those costs will be close to zero.
November 3, 2003
Don't TREAD On Me: While the top tier of automotive manufacturers fumes about the burden of TREAD Act compliance, a group of small trailer manufacturers mounted a grassroots effort to gain an exemption for themselves from Congress.
October 27, 2003
Extended Warranties: Heard of NAT? Even some within the automotive and insurance industries the company serves haven't. But with marquee clients such as Universal Warranty on board and a focus on meeting and greeting industry players, all that's about to change.
October 20, 2003
Letter to the Editor: Reader raises an issue with the data for warranty reserves, claims, and accrual statistics published over the past five weeks, suggesting the use of just printer hardware revenue to compute a claims rate paints a misleading picture.
October 13, 2003
The Warranty Reserve Fund: Given the availability of six months of data detailing changes in the warranty reserves of more than 600 U.S. manufacturers, what trends are becoming visible so far?
October 6, 2003
Warranty in the Air, Sea, and Ground: Compliance with FASB FIN 45 rules concerning product warranty disclosures has spread tremendously in just the first two quarters of 2003, making it possible to find ranges and averages for warranty accrual and claims rates in numerous market segments. In addition to the automotive and IT industry sectors detailed in the past two issues, here are charts for six more market segments.
September 29, 2003
Warranty in the IT Industry: Spending on warranty claims for everything from handheld computers to television transmitters showed a very slight increase during the second quarter, while both claims rates and reserve fund balances were down. Collectively, some 259 IT equipment manufacturers spent almost $2 billion honoring warranty claims during the period.
September 22, 2003
Warranty in the Auto Industry: Spending on warranty claims showed a slight decrease during the second quarter, while claims rates and reserve fund balances were both up and down. Here are the details.
September 15, 2003
The Warranty Week 500 Most of the major players in warranty claims management recently reported details about their warranty reserve funds, claims and accruals during the second quarter. Here are the summary results.
September 8, 2003
Guarantees, Customer Service and Chips? How RFID Can Transform
the Warranty Industry
September 2, 2003
Who Are You? Warranty Week editor asks readers to identify themselves and their places of business, and tabulates the results.
August 25, 2003
GM's Warranty Reserves:  Both GM and Ford made sizeable withdrawals from their reserve funds during the second quarter. GM cited increased product quality. But analysts said the move lowered earnings quality. Ford said nothing, and nothing was said. What's behind the changes of estimate?
August 18, 2003
Warranty Services: While most of the service providers in the warranty industry focus exclusively upon the sale and administration of extended service plans, a handful of intrepid companies have outsourced product warranty claims processing for manufacturers in the consumer electronics industry, where repairs can be performed by any of tens of thousands of service centers.
August 11, 2003
Warranty Software: Is there such as thing as a company conceived and launched to provide nothing but warranty claims processing software? Apparently not, but at least two companies decided a year ago to focus almost exclusively upon warranty.
August 4, 2003
Warranty Software: In the automotive market, sooner or later virtually every software package has to interact with warranty data. And why not? Warranty is a $9 billion activity for vehicle manufacturers, with a direct impact on the bottom line. It's also one of the best available measures of a product's quality and reliability, and it could be as useful to the engineers as it already is to the accountants.
July 28, 2003
Warranty Software: There's no heading in the software catalog for it, yet all manufacturers of warranted products have to use it. At Hewlett-Packard, two companies that don't even call themselves warranty software vendors are helping the company manage its warranty costs with analytical tools that weren't designed with warranty in mind.
July 21, 2003
Warranty Registrations: Given that nine out of ten consumers don't bother filling out the postcards, what can be done to boost response rates? Two new warranty registration systems from veterans of the messaging industry are spotlighted.
July 14, 2003
The Warranty Reserve Fund: Now that warranty accruals and warranty claims numbers are in the public domain, it's time to look at the differences in warranty reserve fund sizes and the estimates that are used to produce these differences.
July 7, 2003
Warranties in the HVAC/R Industry: As temperatures climb, so does the need for air conditioner and refrigerator repairs. But even in the cold winter months, HVAC/R vendors spent an average of 1.9% of product sales to satisfy warranty claims, according to recently filed financial statements.
June 30, 2003
More Details on the Top U.S. Warranty Spenders: Readers ask for the warranty cost of the 40 largest, with 85% of total warranty spending, to be retabulated on the basis of warranted product revenue only.
June 23, 2003
Home is Where the Warranty Is: Most of the major homebuilders recently reported details about their first quarter warranty spending. Here are the results, organized into segments for site-built homes, motorized recreational vehicles, and prefabricated/manufactured homes.
June 16, 2003
Introducing the Warranty Week 500: Most of the major players in warranty claims management recently reported details about their first quarter spending. Here are the results, organized by industry.
June 9, 2003
Windfall for Warranty Managers: FASB requires U.S. manufacturers to include never-before-seen details on product warranty costs and reserve fund balances.
June 2, 2003
Spam Causes Gridlock on the Information Superhighway: Some mailboxes will be abandoned, others will be walled off from the outside world, impacting information delivery services.
May 27, 2003
HP Integrates the Compaq Product Line, and Unites its Warranty and Service Upgrade Options. But extended warranty revenue isn't what it could be, and buyers facing too many choices may instead be choosing to do nothing.
May 19, 2003
Dell Cuts Warranty Cost,
Raises Warranty Revenue: Doing both at the same time is possible with
a shift towards extended warranty options.
May 12, 2003
Fujitsu Delivers Mixed Message: The company with the best plasma display panel warranties also has the most restrictive terms.
May 5, 2003
Diesel engine makers deliver upbeat quarterly results.  
April 28, 2003
Comparing Warranties at the New York Auto Show  
April 22, 2003
Don't TREAD On Me: Automakers and consumer advocates argue over public disclosure of early warning report data.
April 14, 2003
Don't TREAD On Me: Part 2: Service providers and software vendors assess the costs and benefits of TREAD Act compliance.
April 7, 2003
Don't TREAD On Me: Part 1: Because of the Firestone tire fiasco, automakers must begin compiling quarterly reports on consumer complaints and warranty claims beginning tomorrow.
March 31, 2003
Clash of the Titaniums How a golf club maker turned a shiny metal into a reason to dump its auditors.
March 24, 2003
Motown Breakdown: Auto supply glut could drive Detroit into unprofitability, Ford seen as the most vulnerable of the Big Three.
March 17, 2003
British regulators struggle with extended warranty issues. Multiple studies find problems, but voluntary solutions suggested by retailers haven't worked.
March 10, 2003
Meet the SCIC:  The Service Contract Industry Council fills the role of lobbyist and extended warranty industry watchdog.
March 3, 2003
Extended Warranty Deception: Two companies misuse the power of the Web to set their bait for unsuspecting auto warranty shoppers
February 24, 2003
Extended Warranties: Something worth buying or something to avoid?
February 17, 2003
Cummins Fights FUD with Warranties: New Diesel Engines Aren't Duds, In Fact They're Now Guaranteed
February 10, 2003
Chrysler's Transferable Warranties: Do They Boost Resale Values? Increase New Car Sales? Or Are They Just Confidence Builders?
February 3, 2003
FTC Allows 50/50 Warranties on Used Cars Decision Supports Industry Group
and Contradicts Consumer Advocates
January 27, 2003
CES Wrapup - What Recession? Consumer Electronics Thrives During Downturns, Las Vegas CES Show Was Packed
January 20, 2003
Telematics - Computer Car Crashes Do Automobile Telematics Boost Reliability? Or Will the Clock in the Car Soon Be Blinking Midnight?
January 13, 2003
Online Warranties - What's In The Box? Pre-sale warranty disclosures are sparse among online retailers
January 6, 2003