Guaranties

GUARANTIES & WARRANTIES

Consumer protection, or a veiled corporate attempt at limiting liability exposure?

FLOODCHEK hoses are guaranteed for twenty years, or the life of your washing machine against failure due to defective design, materials and workmanship. “Should failure occur, we will replace both FLOODCHEK hoses at no charge. “This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state.”

Most Americans may be led to believe that the above warranty implies they have certain rights and remedies in recovering monetary damages caused by a defective product. As you know, it offers little, or no consumer protection at all. It seems vague to me, but it meets certain legal standards, and is well used.

Most washing machine hose producers are, with good reason predictably silent or evasive when the subject of guaranties and warranties arises. Many don’t have warranties and those that do, have limited warranties of little or no value. What good is a warranty to a consumer? Not much. They suffered through a $12,000.00 flood, paying a $500.00 deductible, and it’s going to take weeks or months to repair their property.

If their hose fails within 10 years, their limited warranty directs an owner to package and return the defective hose at their expense at which time they will replace the $14.00 hose at no cost. How very comforting. Maybe your insurance adjuster just paid the claim, took a loss, and passed on some of the losses to you in the form of premium increases, or cancelling your policy altogether!

Braided steel hoses do fail, you know. I had occasion to speak with one of their marketing manager who confirmed this. When I asked him about making good the property damage his product caused, he said that matter would have to be pursued legally. Their label should read “If our product fails, SUE US.” Many OEM hoses on the market have no branding and may be impossible to identify. So much for their hose warranties. So, just what should you believe?

The best warranty is an unused warranty. Even so, FLOODCHEK washing machine hoses are backed by a multimillion dollar product liability policy. It hasn’t been used in 20 years. FLOODCHEK hoses have never failed. No other product compares with FLOODCHEK.