Nrchy: I am also a small business owner ( non audio related ) and offer a lifetime warranty on all of the equipment that i sell or service, regardless of who owns said product. I am the only one in my field in the USA that offers such a warranty and i know for certain that this warranty brings a large quantity of business my way. How i know this is that I have never done ANY advertising of ANY type. All of my work comes via word of mouth reference and that is it. As such, i know that offering high quality products / labor combined with an unbeatable warranty can only inspire confidence in customers to recommend me to other potential customers. At the same time, i know that the products that i have sold and / or serviced carry a higher value on the used market due to the fact that the warranty that i offer is transferable.
The point to all of this is that, if the product is well built to begin with and the work is properly performed, the company offering the warranty has nothing to fear. If the product is only offered with a warranty to the original purchaser, the manufacturer is actually warrantying the relationship with the purchaser for that period of time and not the actual product itself. This obviously lowers the confidence level in that product and the resale value that goes with it.
Having said the above, a manufacturer or repair facility would have to be certain that they built a product and / or performed labor that was up to the standards that such a warranty brings with it. This would mean weeding out less than reliable parts / circuitry, ruggedizing construction and maintaining good quality control of labor. As such, i am relatively selective as to what products i sell and offer the above warranty on when performing repairs / modifications to gear that i didn't sell. If i wasn't selective, i would lose my shirt giving away free labor for repairs on products that are built / designed like junk.
I would think that ANY manufacturer / dealer would want to do much the same thing. That is, if they wanted to be both successful and reputable. Like any other industry though, there are products that one can have faith in and others that should not have been manufactured to begin with. As such, i am up-front with my customers / potential customers as to what products qualify or don't qualify. From the information that i provide, they can decide whether or not they want to invest their money into buying that brand as a new item or if hanging onto or repairing a given product is a worthwhile venture. This is the same type of treatment that i look for when dealing with manufacturers and dealers of audio equipment. Even with their input though, only i know my personal tastes and the value that i place on each individual piece of equipment.
Obviously, companies / individuals that are willing to stand behind their products / labor are rare things in the audio industry. As such, i applaud those that do have the pride and conviction to build a product that they have unconditional faith in and will stand behind. Whether or not one likes or prefers those products is a different matter, but one can not deny the amount of respect that such a valiant stance deserves. Sean
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