Value of a Paint Manufacturers Warranty
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I just wanted to hear some opinions on this. Since I have been using Sherwin Williams clear in my BASF system I know that I am losing any warranty coverage from BASF. How often has anyone come across a product failure?? My father cautions me on doing this as when he owned a prior shop about 15 years ago he recalled getting a bad RM hardener. It caused about 50 jobs to fail and BASF payed for all of them no problem.
I’m curious as to how rare cases like this are. How often are you making warranty claims (if at-all)? I’ve made one to date, and in all honesty it was my screw-up (ran out of hardener, used a different one to harden my primer,,,,came back in a month with no adhesion…oops!)
We had some adhesion problems in the past.
RM rep came out , worked side by side with us to remedy the problem and payed for any and all come backs.
We also use a different clear from our base now and I also warned of the possible consequences of this.
Cheaper could be more expensive in the long runI know of several shops including ours that uses different clears over bases. I myself have been doing this for years with great success. Most come backs are usually for peeling clear(poor prep) and sinking(poor repair) most have nothing to do with product. It isn’t always about cost,some find a certain clear works for them and they have a certain comfort level with it. I would say that most reps would have a hard time identifying their clear over a competitors. As far as paint warranties, if you have a good relationship with your reps the few and far between issues get resolved fairly easily.
Not trying to be a smart ass but I have sprayed pretty much every product out there except ICI, and they all have they good and bad points.A warrenty is worthless until you actually need it. Then when you need it it’s priceless
From my point of view…
In my experience, genuine warranty claims (i.e. product failure) are very rare. One of the first questions I ask a shop when they tell me they have a potential warranty claim is “How many did you get back?”
…. if the answer is “Just this one so far.”, that tells me it’s not likely a product failure. If you have a gallon of bad clear, it’s going to fail on every car you use it on. If you have a single failure, it’s pretty sure to be a prep, mixing or application error. I always check it out & send samples to the lab for testing, but I have never (yet) had a single incidence failure come back as a product failure.
However, any of you may have experienced this, some times I might do something for the shop, in the interest of good customer relations. Maybe I can’t cut a check for the claim, but, maybe I can toss them a bone somehow – a free gallon of clear or something. Depends on the shop.
But… as soon as I get the results back from the lab indicating another product was used in the process – all bets are off. Everything ends right there. I haven’t ever actually had this happen.
So, my having said all that, you might wonder or ask if I wouldn’t be happy any time I can get someone to use my products. My honest answer would be that I wish for you and your shop to be successful and thrive. That presents my best opportunity to sell my products, right? If you lose out on a warranty claim because you use some of my product… how does that make me look in your eyes? Wouldn’t you be saying “That damn SW rep talked me into this, now I got screwed!”?
I can assure you, I’d rather get no sale at all, than to have something happen that risks you having a negative opinion of me or SW.
In that regard, I think on warranty work, your safest bet is to stick with a single paint line, from primer to clear. However, only you can truly assess the amount of risk you are willing to take. Do the benefits outweigh the costs (or risk)?
If the result is that you have one or two comebacks per year, that probably aren’t product failures anyway, then, it’s probably worth it for whatever reasons you are choosing those products in the first place.
In the case where there were 50 cars that needed to be re-done… OUCH! I don’t even want to think about it.
Locally, I have shops that mix different products all the time. I have some shops that use their “top line” system on insurance work, and use different products (i.e. lower cost) on the customer pay jobs.
I also am very involved with custom cars and car shows. In that arena, I can tell you it is *extremely* rare for me to find a car with a single paint line from primer to clear.
In the end… is it an issue to be concerned with? Probably not, most of the time. Can it be a huge risk? Definitely. Is it worth that risk? Only you can answer that.
Now… my salesman answer would be …. if you like my clear so much, let’s go ahead an replace that system in your shop with one of my systems. You’ll like our base and primers just as well, and you won’t have to worry about voiding your warranty. 😛
so far only needed it twice both times were defective products 1 sealer problem and 1 clear problem. sealer never made it to base and the clear issue never made it out of the shop.you can tell when a product is not working right when you use it everyday.
HAWK you said somethin important there and that is that we must look out for the survival of those involved in this and make the whole stage profitable
“So, my having said all that, you might wonder or ask if I wouldn’t be happy any time I can get someone to use my products. My honest answer would be that I wish for you and your shop to be successful and thrive. That presents my best opportunity to sell my products, right?”
Nighthawk_SB)
You’ve got that right Stone. There are a lot of players involved in this game, and we each rely on all the others doing their job well in order to survive. At the same time, it’s a relatively small world – you keep running into the same people day after day, year after year. Your reputation and integrity mean more than anything. Selling either to make a few dollars now can only result in long term damage.
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