The True Cost of Doing Warranty Work

As you all know, with custom installs, the dealer has a higher degree of "ownership" in the system than someone who vends retail products over the counter.

Accordingly, custom dealers have to take exemplary care of their clients, and expect their vendors to do the same for them. That's why vendors who cater to the custom channel typically offer extremely customer service-friendly warranty policies to their dealers and end users.

But it's not always that simple. When it comes to warranty service, there are issues in the custom channel that remain challenging to integrators, especially in the video category.

How Do You Handle a Mounted Flat Panel?

When flat-panel displays break down, the vendor's warranty for bigger sizes typically specifies in-home service.

Realistically, most flat-panel TVs sold by integrators are inevitably mounted, whether on a wall or on a motorized lift. In my market area, none of the vendor-authorized TV repair centers will dismount a TV in order to service it.

They're both unpaid for that aspect of the labor and they're unwilling to accept the liability of damaging the TV or the home's walls or cabinetry by dismounting it. So if one of your client's TVs breaks down, that's the first impasse.

The second is that because of the nature of the integrator's business, the client expects, even demands that the integrator takes ownership of the installation over a long timeframe.

That means that if they have a dead TV, and the TV repairman refuses to dismount it in order to service it, the expectation is that you, the integrator will have to do so.

The True Cost of Warranty Work

On the dollars and cents side, it takes two installers fifteen minutes to a half an hour to dismount -- and again to remount -- the TV.

That's after an hour or two servicing the TV, and doesn't even count travel time.

So who's paying the integrator?

The client? Unless you've specified that from the beginning in your relationship, it's hardly fair.

The TV vendor? Good luck. I've spoken to more than one representative for video vendors, and while they all agree in principle that the integrator should be looked after, I've yet to meet one who's willing to do so themselves.

Even brands that I've known to replace a client's display and upgrade them to a new model -- rather than have it serviced -- are still loath to compensate the dealer for their labor.

All the dealers I know who've had to deal with defective video displays have swallowed the costs of assisting the TV repairman as a cost of doing business.

In many cases, since they're committed to this course of action, they'll go all the way, including transporting the unit to and from the service center. However, that doesn't mean that any of them like it.

So the question to CE Pro readers is this: do you have a better solution?

If you're an integrator, have you figured out how to turn TV service work into a profit instead of a cost? If you're a video vendor, have you partnered with your dealers to better service their clients?

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Lee Distad is a freelance CEDIA Certified Professional Designer who offers design and process consultation to firms in the Custom Installation industry, as well as copy writing and other professional writing services. Lee’s business and industry blog can be read at http://www.leedistad.com