Installation Guarantee Conundrum

SRE · Oct 2, 2011

We offer a standard 2 year warranty on our installation work on the premis that if anything is going to happen it's going to happen in the first few days/weeks of installation and certainly within the 2 year period. We only install locally and provide a great follow up service to our customers who are then recommending us to others.

We're now being asked to guarantee our work for 10 years instead of 2 because the nationals are offering that.

What is everyone else offering? At this rate I don't know whether I'll be alive in 10 years - I'd hate to be offering a guarantee I can't honour

Do I just bite the bullet and go down the 10 year route???

telectrix · Oct 2, 2011

you could sell a 10 year insurance backed guarantee.

BruceB · Oct 2, 2011

Do not know the answer. I currently do exactly as you do. But there are better guarantees from others available, albeit whether they will be around to honour them and what their small print excludes are relevant questions.

I have chosen:
- not to join trustmark
- not to join the consumers protection association
- not to pay BANES an annual fee to be on their list of recommended solar traders
- not to pay various other lead companies and advertising companies

At the moment I get plenty of work; if that changed I would reconsider.

Regards
Bruce

dansk · Oct 2, 2011

I offer 5 years as the norm, but my view is I install the system to last, and therefore have no hesitation backing that up with 10 warranty and insure it via REAL for £35

To add, I gave a 10 year the other day to win a job, panels 10, labour 10, fronius inverter 20.

SRE · Oct 2, 2011

Dansk - are you paying the £35 Real fee?

I think I'm just a bit peeved that we do what you and most local firms do - install a job to last so I don't see the need to offer a 10 year warranty. My LA background always makes me a bit cautious and I worry that I end up sorting out problems caused by another electrical installation by someone else. I suppose I can offer the guarantee with the caveat that the electrical work has not been tampered with since installation...... It just annoys me that it's used as a sales technique for big installers to look good where if they installed properly in the first place it wouldn't be a problem and they wouldn't need a guarantee.

BruceB I'm with you - we haven't joined anything we didn't have to because the cost is just passed back to the customer in the end. We don't buy leads etc - although we had some samples to start off with and they indirectly kicked off our business when we started.