Warranties: The Insurance For Your Business Part 2

Last week we talked about how important warranties are for the equipment in your office. However, just like insurance policies, there may be gaps, or things that can be misunderstood or misinterpreted. The following are some misconceptions our clients have had when dealing with their warranties:

• “Next Day Onsite”

Picture this: You come into work on Monday (already the worst day of the week) and your PC doesn’t turn on. You are staring at a black screen and you’ve tried everything you can think of, including smacking it once or twice, giving it a hard shake, and yelling at it profusely. Then you remember your computer has a warranty on it that is still active. You call. They will be out tomorrow to fix your PC. The following day, a guy comes to look at your PC and lets you know it’s the hard drive, but he has a spare in his truck. He replaces the hard drive, reboots the computer, and ta-da! It isn’t until after he leaves that you notice that all your software, documents, applications, and more are missing. When you call the company back, they explain to you that the warranty covers strictly hardware. Defeated, you spend the rest of the week getting your PC restored and back to normal. Often times, people don’t realize that the warranty they have strictly covers hardware. They don’t include the labor needed afterwards to restore everything back to normal.

• “24/7/4 hour response time”

Most warranties guarantee they have a 4-hour response time. So, your computer breaks, and you go online to fill out a service request, detailing what’s wrong, and you think, “Great! They will be out here in 4 hours to help me!” WRONG. The 4-hour response time means they have 4 hours to open the request, and respond. Then, they decide if they need to send someone onsite to fix the problem. If someone is deployed onsite, they will try and bring the parts they “think” they might need. Once they diagnose the problem, they might not have the appropriate hardware to fix said problem. They will then have to overnight ship these parts and come back when the parts have arrived. Worst case, those parts are on backorder. Now you are looking at a couple days before your computer is fully fixed. Most businesses cannot go this long without their computers operating. This 4 hour response time does not typically mean that your problems will be solved in 4 hours.

A malfunctioning piece of technology can be debilitating to your business, but not fully understanding what your warranties protect can be catastrophic. Don’t let these misconceptions fool you too!