Why is it that home builders have to take care of demands and requests that many other manufacturers do not? Generally, most builders try to control the warranty process themsleves after selling, building and delivering the home. Other manufacturers realized long ago that this process is not the best route to take.
When you look at a typical consumer's warranty expectations, it goes something like this:
1. Consumer buys a product, maybe a computer monitor or coffe maker.
2. They find a warranty card in the packaging, fill it out and send it to some third party, not the store it came from or the actual manufacturer.
Now, when that consumer buys something of higher value/cost the warranty is more like a book than a postcard and the book generally is thrown in a file cabinet or bottom kitchen drawer.
As we go into higher and higher priced items, it changes. Take for example automobile manufacturers. They realize the importance and value of 3rd party companies. Consumers accept that an insurance company must be in palce prior to delivery of the car. Although, insurnace can't be purchased from the manufacturer or the dealer, just a 3rd party.
Also, could you imagine if a consumer went to a body shop to have a ligitimate, covered repair done and requested to have countless other touch ups to be done as well. It happens all the time with builders. The builder goes back to correct a drywall crack and ends up spending hours and a bucket of paint on non-warrantable items.
Since a home is so expensive, generally the biggest investment of ones life, demands are high and expectations are higher. This is why a 3rd party presence is so crucial to builders.
Homeowners are increasingly hiring private home inspectors and attorneys during their buying process. There is no better time to have an unbiased, third party mitigator between the builder and homeowner. There is no need for builders to take unnecessary risk by attempting to perform warranty service in-house.
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