By Michael V. Freeze, Managing Editor, aftermarketNews.com

Lifetime warranties often warranty a product that can’t possibly provide a lifetime of service. Do lifetime warranties serve a bona-fide marketing purpose or do they do more harm than good in the eyes of the consumer by making them believe a product will last longer than it was designed to?

Bob Smith, Owner RTS Service Center, Willowick, OH:
If a brake pad has a warranty of a lifetime, and it isn’t going to last more than 30,000 miles, then why would it be lifetime warranty?
I do not offer that, because if I did and it came back worn, which it will, then all of a sudden I have to put new pads and rotors in, but the rotors aren’t warranted. I honor the muffler warranty and charge a half-hour labor and some additional parts if needed.
The customers are smarter than that now about a lifetime warranty muffler. The majority knows that (the rest of the items surrounding a muffler) is not lifetime, so those customers don’t want to the lifetime warranty.
You can buy a cheap muffler, down the street, and for extra $10 have the lifetime warranty. So, I put the good stuff on because I don’t want the cheap stuff to come back. The thing that people need to realize is that you get what you paid for. But people want the best price, and that what messes things up. I got customers saying ‘my brakes are pulsating and squeaking.’ I look in my records and say, ‘I didn’t do that job’ and they would say, “I took it down the street and had a $98 brake job.’
That (technician) down the street made money from that $98 brake job. He is not in the business of losing money. He put the cheapest stuff on that car. Lifetime warranties are the same way. They charge you a little more and they still hammer you on the rest of the stuff because the pipes are junk, especially, in this part of the country. You go down South and if you get lifetime warranty on a muffler, you may only have to replace that once with no salt (to corrode it) on it.
For the consumer and the business owner, I don’t think it’s a good thing. When you buy a new car, you get a one-year, 12,000-mile warranty, some give a three-year, 36,000-mile warranty. For Hyundai, it’s a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty, but if you look into the loophole, they charge you a little more for that car because of the warranty.
You are going to pay for the warranty regardless. You buy a cheap muffler anywhere, add $10 and you got a lifetime warranty. But if you buy a $30 muffler and get the lifetime warranty, you have a good muffler. With the cheap one, you’re going to be a little louder because it’s a cheap muffler and I (as the technician) will eventually hear about.
Warranties are good to an extent. If you have 12-month, 12,000-mile warranty, that’s fine. You know you are covered for that period of time. The auto industry and the auto mechanics get a bad rap because of the lifetime warranty and it’s the manufacturers that do this. I go to these manufacturer meetings and all I want is the best price for their product so I can compete with the Midas and Speedy Muffler shops. The reason I joined these clubs is to get a better price.

Mike Kerkmann, Store Manager Advance Auto Parts, Canton, OH:
They do more harm than good. In our case, it’s a limited lifetime warranty and in our store, the policy is for manufacturer defects (cracks, shattered parts, heat-worn, etc.). Customer satisfaction is first and foremost, as Advance Auto Parts is concerned. With the lifetime replacement, we satisfy the customer.
We try to regulate this on the counter. There are times when some people want to take advantage by changing brake pads every six months because he’s bored. We try to establish the limited lifetime warranty at the POS. If this was based on wear, we wouldn’t be able to sell pads.

Hank Bejian, Owner, Ann Arbor Auto Supply, Ann Arbor, MI:
I think it creates, in my opinion, an illusion. It will work forever and ever, and the truth is that it won’t. Brake pads and rotor are designed to fail and wear out, that is how they are made. And sadly, there are car owners who don’t understand physics and when they expect brake pads to be covered for lifetime, that it lifetime.
You don’t have a lifetime warranty on a pair shoes. The manufacturer understands that there is a wear factor.
Now, I think the manufacturers have got themselves in a dilemma. In my opinion, they don’t how to get out of it and save face.
I think its manufacturer’s problem. Those of us that are in the jobber business, simply enforce the warranty or extend the warranty the manufacturers provides.
If you are a wholesale-driven business as this store is, then you have delivery questions. One thing some don’t take into consideration is the incremental costs that are involved in supporting that kind of warranty. When it comes to the (shop owner/manager’s) jobber, it has become a receivables issue.
Our shops send the receivables whenever they mount up, once, twice a month, and it will take three to four weeks to get credit. So, if we got $1,000 worth of defective anything going back, then we give the credit back to the customer, but the credit doesn’t come back in the same billing cycle. Therefore, that ties up working capital,
The other issue is manpower. You have a counterman who wrote it up. If you have an ASE-certified parts specialist, then they cost money. Operating expenses cost money. All those things go into pricing.
But on a product with a lifetime warranty, we have invoiced it, we have dispatched it, we have delivered it in a $20,000 truck with a $20,000/year driver with gas at $2.50/gallon. Not only haven’t we made money, we’ve lost money.
This is an expensive issue for us to handle and we’re not compensated by the manufacturer, distributor or the customer. But the independent garages can get away with saying, these pads on your car, we going to warrant them, they have a lifetime warranty and all you pay is the labor. They have given up on the profit from the part, but not the profit from the labor. So, it’s not too bad a dilemma for them, where it is a cost issue for us.

Summary by Michael V. Freeze, Managing Editor aftermarketNews:
Lifetime warranties are simple and effective tools to attract consumer to product. But as the consumer eventually finds out, if it was too good to be true, it probably is. Maybe the replacement muffler or pads were free, but after the labor, extra parts and other costs, the consumer will most likely feel short-changed.
No matter if it is the technician or jobber, they feel the costs of a lifetime warranty. But the disappointment is spread throughout the industry. The manufacturer has a defective product returned, the counterperson has to deal with the displeased customer (technician), and the technician is working on discounted or free labor and their customer is the most disappointed of all.

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