Archived Copies of Warranty Week

January 1, 2011 to today

Top 100 Warranty Providers: While most manufacturers keep cutting their warranty costs, some report massive spikes in their claims and accrual rates for the year ended in September. Others continue to recover from past spikes, with some of the largest declines of the year.
December 29, 2011
Solar Warranties, Part 3: What happens if my manufacturer goes under? Insurance carriers may have an answer for that question, both as backers for lengthy manufacturers' warranties and as underwriters for extended warranties. Homeowners want peace of mind and so do the investors behind the huge projects.
December 15, 2011
Solar Warranties, Part 2: How the manufacturers of photovoltaic systems themselves explain the risks and metrics behind their product warranties, and how a few are securing warranty insurance to help reduce those risks.
December 8, 2011
Solar Warranties, Part 1: They can last up to 25 years, but what does that really mean when the technology is changing so fast? And even if a company really expects to pay claims in 2036, how do they prepare for them now by making the right amount of accruals at the time of sale?
December 1, 2011
Warranty Reserve Capacity: The ratio between warranty reserves and claims payments is always changing. But by measuring departures from the baseline average, we can detect which companies have either too much or too little money in their warranty accounts.
November 17, 2011
Warranty Adjustments, Part 3: While all exporters must deal with foreign exchange fluctuations, some companies seem to be affected more than others. In fact, when compared to other warranty metrics, some of these fluctuations are huge. Is that caused by the unique nature of their businesses, or is it a sign of sloppy warranty accounting?
November 10, 2011
Warranty Adjustments, Part 2: In the past few years, a small group of companies has made repeated and relatively large upwards adjustments to their warranty reserves. Are they simply bad at predicting the future? Or have they found a way to make their warranty costs look lower than they really are?
November 3, 2011
Warranty Adjustments, Part 1: When a company discovers it has more in its warranty reserve than is needed, it can withdraw the excess funds and add them to profits. Some of these financial adjustments can be huge, and can help dress up an otherwise disappointing financial report.
October 27, 2011
Warranty Acquisitions: Big companies are buying smaller companies all the time. But then they have to merge their product lines, combine their warranty reserves, and publish all the details. Divestitures, meanwhile, also happen once in a while, but not as often as entire companies are sold as a single unit.
October 20, 2011
Warranty Cost Reductions: While the warranty costs of most companies are falling, the causes aren't always the same. The big companies are making the process more efficient. But for many of the smaller companies, the biggest cost reductions seem to arise after mergers and divestitures.
October 13, 2011
Mid-Year Warranty Report: The good news continues into the first half of 2011, with massive warranty cost reductions extending their streak into a ninth straight year. With sales finally getting back to normal, product reliability has never been better, and repair costs have never been lower than they are now.
October 6, 2011
Computer Warranty Report: The bigger the box, the smaller the warranty expense. And when phones get smart, and when computers get small enough to fit into pockets, warranty costs seem to grow proportionally. That's what the industry's warranty claims and accrual data, gathered over the past 8-½ years, seems to suggest.
September 29, 2011
Automotive Warranty Report: As vehicle makers get back to normal and sales rebound, one thing that's not bouncing back is their warranty expense. Key warranty metrics continue to decline, including claims as a percentage of revenue. And once again, the warranty reserve fund balances of the top vehicle makers and their suppliers are growing.
September 22, 2011
Warranty Software Acquisition: Engineering wants to talk to warranty and so does manufacturing. And warranty needs user manuals and parts from them. No single company's software can make them all talk to each other, not even a CAD/CAM company like PTC. So it bought warranty software company 4CS to round out its product line.
September 15, 2011
New Home Warranty Report: New home sales continue to fall and so do warranty costs. As homebuilders wonder if this is the bottom of the economic cycle, we wonder whether they may be keeping more warranty reserves on hand than they need.
September 8, 2011
Warranties During Disasters: While warranties cover defects and insurance covers damage, there is quite a bit of overlap between the two. And in the past month, disasters and disturbances have made people aware that it really can happen to them.
September 1, 2011
How to Buy Extended Warranties: Step One: Read the contract. Research the terms and conditions of the service contract while you compare the prices and features of the products themselves. Then use your common sense and Google to decide if the extended warranty offer is a deal worth adding, or if you should shop elsewhere.
August 25, 2011
Sports Equipment Warranties: Though the uniforms and hats might be apparel, the equipment used for many team sports and outdoor activities carries product warranties. More importantly, the companies making the gear manage those warranties with accruals and warranty reserve funds, just like any other manufacturer.
August 4, 2011
Farming & Mining Equipment Warranties: Some of the companies whose heavy duty equipment is used to move the earth exhibit an annual pattern closely tied to the growing season. Others have seen the same recessionary rise in claims costs as the passenger car companies. But a few have been able to consistently reduce their warranty expenses across all cycles, both astronomical and economic.
July 28, 2011
RV, Boat & ATV Warranties: All that's left now are the survivors, after a big drop in sales proved fatal to some of their peers. Looking back, it's revealing how some of those survivors handled their warranty expense accounts through the recession.
July 21, 2011
International Warranty Costs: What you make matters more than where you make it. As in the U.S., the makers of appliances, computers and telecom gear have significant warranty costs. But for most consumer electronics manufacturers, warranty is not such a significant burden.
July 14, 2011
Warranty Accruals per Vehicle: While we can't say who builds a better car, we can figure out which automakers are budgeting for the lowest warranty costs per vehicle. Worldwide, Honda leads and Daimler lags, but the order of the six OEMs between them is somewhat surprising.
July 7, 2011
Toyota's Warranties & Recalls: For the first time ever, the automaker's worldwide recall costs have exceeded its warranty costs. And that has changed both what Toyota reports and how it gets reported in the company's financial statements.
June 30, 2011
Warranty Reserves vs. Accruals, Part Two: A handful of computer, electronics and data networking companies have gotten very good at controlling their warranty funds, both in terms of how much they set aside and how much they keep on hand. Others just take their best guess and hope it all turns out well.
June 23, 2011
Warranty Reserves vs. Accruals, Part One: With 32 quarters of data, it's becoming easier to see which companies carefully calibrate their warranty budgets and which make it up as they go along. Here are the "scores" for the top three in each of six industries.
June 16, 2011
Power Equipment Warranty Report: While GE dominates the traditional end of the electrical power generation business, a whole group of new companies are jumping into the solar energy and electric car businesses. And some retailers that never had much to do with the gasoline engine are angling to become the new homes of the charging stations.
June 9, 2011
Appliance & HVAC System
Warranty Report: Every journey includes a few bumps, and both appliance and HVAC makers have hit a few in the past couple of years. But like other building material suppliers, they're doing much better than the homebuilders, because they have both home renovations and replacements to fall back on.
June 2, 2011
Fixtures, Furniture & Building
Material Warranty Report: Sales have fallen but warranty costs aren't falling as fast. Still, it's not as bad as things in the new home industry, because suppliers can fall back on existing home renovations.
May 26, 2011
New Home Warranty Report: Though sales keep falling, claims are rising after several years of declines, and the accrual rates are holding steady. So is the worst over? Or are there homebuilders out there with bigger problems ahead of them?
May 19, 2011
Medical & Scientific Equipment
Warranty Report: Though there is a strong seasonal pattern that drives their warranty costs up in the summertime, companies in this sector have generally been able to reduce those costs from year to year. Even the companies making warranty-intensive X-ray and laser equipment have been cutting costs in recent years.
May 12, 2011
Telecom Equipment
Warranty Report: The makers of network gear are generally seeing lower warranty costs, though their reserve funds are barely able to cover claims. And there's a new market leader, in terms of both the size of their warranty budget and the way they've been able to steadily reduce costs over time.
May 5, 2011
Disk Drive & Semiconductor Report: Warranty costs are falling for most of the high tech component makers, both in dollars spent and as a percent of sales. And unlike in the auto industry, the computer OEMs are not yet as accomplished at pushing their warranty costs back onto their parts suppliers.
April 28, 2011
Computer Warranty Report: After years of cost cutting, warranty expenses remained low last year and look to stay there this year, even as sales continue to rebound. Apple, meanwhile, is beginning to feel the effects of the increased warranty cost that comes in small packages.
April 21, 2011
Aerospace Warranty Report: While the airframe makers and their suppliers pay out roughly the same percentage of product revenue for warranty claims, they keep very different levels of reserves. The airframe makers keep a balance equal to four years of claims, while their suppliers keep half as much in their warranty reserve funds.
April 14, 2011
Automotive Warranty Report: After spiking to worrying levels in 2009, automotive warranty claims rates returned to normal in 2010, while the OEMs' accrual rates have never been lower. Their parts suppliers, however, continue to see their warranty costs escalate as the OEMs insist they share a bigger slice of the burden.
April 7, 2011
Eighth Annual Warranty Report,
Totals & Averages: When sales fell, so did warranty costs. But even though sales are rising again, warranty costs are remaining low as a percent of sales. That reflects a change in reliability, and caps a multi-year success story resulting from the increased attention paid to warranties.
April 1, 2011
WCM Conference, Part Three: The future of the consumer electronics industry was the subject of a panel discussion that brought together retailers, manufacturers, repair service providers, insurance underwriters and extended service contract administrators to talk about everything from OnStar to iPhone.
March 24, 2011
Top 100 Warranty Providers of 2010: The biggest warranty providers also seem to be the most stable. Those that saw the greatest annual changes in warranty claims, accruals or reserves tended to be a bit smaller, whether the changes were up or down.
March 18, 2011
WCM Conference, Part Two: Even just the highlights expected over the course of the three days would take a month to detail. So here are just some of the themes and topics selected by the warranty experts headed to San Diego next week.
March 10, 2011
WCM Conference, Part One: With less than two weeks until the annual WCM Conference opens in San Diego, we take a look at some of the major themes expected. And almost every speaker has the same advice: don't try to do it alone without help from some of the warranty industry's experts.
March 3, 2011
New Board Members Sought: As president and co-founder Glen Griffiths steps down, new leadership is sought for the Institute of Warranty Chain Management at its annual meeting on March 15 in San Diego. Two members have put their names in the hat, but additional openings exist.
February 24, 2011
The Abt Experience: Not content to merely collect a sales commission and be done with it, Abt Electronics keeps tight local control over its extended warranties and service organization from a single location. And customer loyalty? We're talking customer love.
February 17, 2011
NLA Circuit Board Repairs Offer Profitable Service Addition for Appliance Contractors 
February 10, 2011
The First Service Contract: A GE appliance dealer sold it to a customer in Chicago nearly 77 years ago, along with a refrigerator that turned out to be highly reliable. Yet the same sales drivers used back then -- peace of mind, repair costs and technological worries -- still work today.
February 3, 2011
Home Warranties for Appliances? Though home warranties are mainly for heating and cooling systems, and are closely tied to resales of existing homes, their ability to cover major appliances overlaps somewhat with store-bought extended warranties. Or does it?
January 27, 2011
Top Appliance Retailers: In an informal online shopping excursion, we found all but one retailer selling extended warranties, typically for between 10% and 20% of the price of the appliances they cover. Durations ranged from two to five years, though one regional retailer also offered a ten-year "major component only" plan.
January 20, 2011
The ServiceBench Legacy: In the household appliance industry, it's more or less assumed that warranty and service contract claims data will cross the ServiceBench network. In most other industries, each manufacturer and third party administrator has its own network, and its own claims submission format.
January 13, 2011
Appliance Service Contracts: While hard data is difficult to find, one retailer discloses lots of details about extended warranty sales in its financial statements. But as detailed as these metrics are, they may not apply to other less forthcoming retailers.
January 6, 2011