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Tales from the Sharp End: Who Should Bear the Cost of Failure? (5/1/2012)

By The Urbane Installer

Happy new year to you all! Like me, I hope you've feasted and rested well, and enjoyed the Christmas break. I have to say that I'm a fatter but happier installer, having had a rather good run into the festive season and rather too much alcohol during it.

For the first time in a few years, we actually managed to complete and hand over every project we were running before Christmas, which made for a really nice change. In fact I was thinking how Christmas for us, as an industry, is a definite full stop to the year. Nearly every job we have, has to be 'Finished by Christmas', meaning that we need to be off site, with all done and handed over before the celebrations commence. Of course it can end up in a mad rush, but at least it forces us to plan for total completion by the end of the year, and to plan for new work that tends to start in January.

Christmas puts a full stop to the custom installation year.

Warranty schmorranty

I've had a bee in my bonnet for a while about kit that fails on site. Having recently suffered a couple of rather catastrophic equipment failures of kit under warranty, I’ve started to question why we, and by that I mean us as an industry as well as us at Technology Towers, suffer the arrogance, inability or inflexibility of some suppliers to understand the ramifications or real cost to us of a piece of their quality hardware shuffling off this mortal coil.

I’ll outline a typical case. We have an eight-month-old amplifier in place from a respected and rather expensive manufacturer, and the amp has died. So we get a call from the client saying that something isn’t working. The install is eight months old and still under our warranty period, so we go to the site, diagnose the fault and come back with the amp in our rapid response vehicle. We then ring the manufacturer and are told that whilst the amp is under warranty, repairs are actually carried out by a third-party contractor, and we would have to ship this heavy amp off to the repair company for a diagnosis and repair service, at our expense. If it's faulty, then it will be repaired at their cost and returned to us under their carriage. Once it's back, we have to take the unit back to site, re-install it and test it.

To the rescue.

Sounds simple? Well if it works exactly like that then yes. But I now have a problem. Call me a grumpy old chap, but I don’t think that the liability for even part of the cost of a manufacturer's kit failing should be borne by us. If a manufacturer's kit fails, I have to pay for two site visits, and at least one form of carriage (and insurance on a GB£3k amp isn’t cheap), which can quickly add up to a few hundred pounds.

So this has started me thinking about the companies we deal with and the way in which they support their equipment. In the real world, I wonder what would happen if I sued a manufacturer for costs incurred as a direct result of the failure of their kit, and the cost of us having to support their warranty on their kit, that ensures that their brand remains respected and trusted in the consumer market space. I could imagine that a judge may look on that argument as fairly valid, and I’m likely to see a few hundred quid coming back my way.

I think, however, that behaving in this way may make the cost of a manufacturer supporting its equipment prohibitive, and see costs rise. That may not be a bad thing. We had an instance where a company’s product failed miserably after only two weeks, causing untold damage to the install and more importantly, their and our reputation. In my usual way, I wrote a small six-page letter explaining my position and the actual cost of fixing the issues that their kit failure had caused. I had a letter back not only about getting the kit sorted out at their cost, but also containing a cheque for GB£1800 to cover the labour costs we incurred.

So it can be done. And if, like that company, you are prepared to stake your brand and profitability on supporting your hardware properly, then you should expect to see installers migrating to you. On the other hand, if you are reading and thinking that it would never work and would cost you too much, then what does that say about your confidence in your products?

The cost of failure can be high.

My project for the New Year therefore, is to look at our suppliers, analyse their warranty period and processes and re-evaluate our supply-chain partners. I will base this not just on the hardware cost and performance but also on who is prepared to step up and support their kit properly and offer perhaps not big cheques, but some kind of 'service' payment to an installer for having to replace or fix a failed item. After all, if we installed it properly and it fails, why should it cost me money to put right?

I'd be interested to hear your comments on warranty, so why not send me a note via the HiddenWires LinkedIn group.

Product of the month

Whilst I’m talking about warranties, I was looking for some speakers for the Urbane cinema. I make no excuses for liking the Current Audio in-ceiling stuff for reasons I’ve previously described, but interestingly, Current offers a lifetime warranty, regardless of use - even in a sauna! So when I saw its new LCR series in-walls, I rang and placed an order. Part of my Christmas holiday saw me cutting holes in the walls, installing them and some AMX kit, a Linn amp and a nice new projector, and then sitting back and wallowing in four days of pure film fest!

I was being flashy with this install and got Current's better carbon fibre stuff, mainly because it just looks so sexy, but it installed as quickly and easily as their in-ceiling speakers. As usual, Current Audio managed to deliver a product that punches massively above its price bracket. We installed over GB£4k’s worth of in-walls just before Christmas, on a much better amp, but in all truth, the Current Audio speakers were on a par, if not better, for a lot less money. To cap it all, their grille mounting system pushed the grille to the wall so well that my client, with his much more expensive gear, would be jealous.

The Current Audio WSLCR654FL LCR speaker with woven carbon fibre cones.

So my product of the month is the Current Audio LCR series in-wall speakers. Mainly because I know what I spent, and my mates are all blown away with the sound. As the Americans say, you get 'more bang for your buck.'

ISE 2012

ISE is coming up fast, and Übergeek and I have already booked our tickets and hotel. We decided that we wasted too much time last year talking rubbish with people we know, so we're going to make a proper plan in order to get around this ridiculously large, but very useful show. (Editor's note: don’t forget to continuously check the HiddenWires ISE 2012 news section for tips on what to expect and whom to visit at the show).

I wish you all a successful 2012, and look forward to seeing you at ISE!

The Urbane Installer is a home control expert based in Middle England. Messages can be sent to him via the HiddenWires LinkedIn group.