What kind of support (paid vs. free) do you offer clients? I assume most offer a XX day replacement warranty if something dies pretty quick. just curious on ideas when a customer asks "what kind of support do you offer after the sale?"
if a product has an issue say 60 days out - do you refer them to manufacturer for warranty? offer free R&R? handle the return for them?
Margins on equipment are so thin in most cases (especially the pieces that would fail). I know retailers have tightened the window in which they will help - just curious what others offer??

This has been a hot topic for decades.

I remember in the 90's it was "if anything goes wrong in the 1st year, we will come make it right." Back then we had good margins on products and as long as you were using good brands, there was very little trouble out of equipment.

Then in the 2000's margins started shrinking... PLUS equipment started becoming more buggy. No longer able to support that kind of service, the free after service support got shorter. I went to 90 days.

Now, there is almost no profit to speak of. Thanks to the race to bottom that ever stupid executive pushes in a company and no support at all from any of the big brands... Plus equipment is buggier than ever and almost never works 100%, no matter what day of the week it was built on, it is simply NOT possible for any company to do any amount of labor for free. Not if they think even for a second they want to stay in business. This doesn't matter if they supplied the product or not.

A couple of things to take away from this.
1) Consumers do drive the market a lot. So consumers (as a whole) have a lot of blame for this. They demand the cheapest prices and demand awesome service. Their greed has become simply evil and their own undoing.
2) Manufacturer greed to cut out the middle man and cater to greedy customers, has also lead themselves to cut their own throats.

What is surprising to me, is the electronics industry doesn't have much of a true high-end anymore. Manufacturers that make high performance, highly reliable, high margin products (has to have all those things, not 1 or 2) with good support. It seems with such a void to fill, more manufacturers would be wanting to be there.
Maybe with such a small market, the demand is not enough to make enough money for a manufacture to survive in this high-end. Zektor comes to mind as a manufacture that is doing it right on the high-end. But I worry if they are making enough money to keep going long term, I certainly hope so.

Set up teared service place, ie, bronze is X per hour service for anything after x amount of time. silver is x per hour plus no charge for warranty work, gold is X per hour with no charge for warranty work and free freight back to manufacturer, etc. or whatever.

Do you do 3 levels, just 2, or haven't really pushed into it yet?

Just seems that with all the other choices clients have to make, hitting them with yet another choice on how good of service they get and pay for, might be a bit overwhelming.

I would think the better way is just offer the 'gold' as your company standard. And use it as a differentiator from you and the competition. Also becomes a good way to weed out those just looking for the cheapest price.
The downside being that you might shave off to much business and find yourself needing work.

I still cover any service issues during the first year for free, but am only completing 1-2 large projects each year which keeps this manageable.

For the shops doing small jobs that only span a few days with lower margin product I could see how this would be a problem.

Not really pushing it yet, still getting it all together. I have about 7 so far. Its not a profit center by any stretch, as it should be, but at least its something because for years i never charged anything to fix things. I just did it. Like Paul, we pretty much take care of everything the first year but I am going to start dropping that down to 6 months.

Part of my pitch to get customers to buy products from me, that are also possibly available either online or in a local big box, is that if I don't supply it, I can't properly support it. In order to make them feel that the support is realy there post purchase, I offer to re-move, bring to a local manufacturer service depot, and re install for one year from the install date at no charge. I also include trouble shooting. Outside of that, or if I havn't supplied it, then it's my hourly rate to re/re and the customer handles servicing (or I will for a fee). I don't offer contracts as I'm not available to be there at the snap of a finger. I often tell people that there is no such thing as an audio video emergency.

Spot.On.

To remain competitive, I offer my number, address, email and first born, but only on jobs under $300.
Everyone else gets the above plus my soul.

I offer one year on the workmanship (wire and installation) and Programming.
Any service call that is a result of an issue with how something was installed or programmed will be handled for free.
This still can lead to a few calls as we have HDMI that seems to suddenly cause it's own problems, or IR bugs that still get used and can die.
All other service issues are $xxx per hour.
I also make sure the client is aware manufacture warranty's might fix an issue for free but they do not cover my time to trouble shoot, remove and take to repair center and re install.
Depending on the size and scope of a project, I might extend a complete free service package for the first 6 months after a project has been completed.
As others have noted, giving a full year on products that no longer afford us the margins we used to enjoy just does not make sense anymore.
You barely make enough on a TV to make it worth touching, have to deal with an issue for free and now you are loosing money on that product.

How do you handle warranty problems with large TVs when the manufacturer provides in-home service, but only gives a service window? Do you hang out and organize your van while you wait for them to show up?

I miss the 90's!
I could actually feel confident that every job I did would last for years!

Today is another story.

The only reliable thing that I can offer is that I will be there 5-10 minutes BEFORE the quoted arrival time,the install will be flawless,and I'll be done on time.

Every thing seems to be shifting to the DIY market.

If it quits working,re-boot it Get used to it!
ATV 4K,SONOS,etc.? The next up date should fix it!

The list goes on and on.........

Throw in HDMI issues and I'm almost embarrassed to be in this industry!

I find that saying "There, there, shut up, boy" works pretty well. :D


If a problem is caused by my work, I don't charge for making it right. If the problem is caused by defective equipment or parts, I'll replace it if the problem occurs immediately or very soon but if I have to travel, it's not going to happen on my dime and I make them understand that.

Fortunately, I have only done one job that's hours from home, but Key Digital made the trip necessary and they still need to step up to deal with the bad part. The guy in warranty told me to terminate the four pairs of shielded wires in an RJ45 and use one of their HDMI extenders.

I had three Denon AVRs that lost their HDMI board and fortunately, I had the same model so I could use it as a loaner. I installed another that lost the HDMI board AND most of the amplifier channels- someone apparently tried to connect something after the initial install and allowed it to slide out of the cabinet, yanking on the wires. For whatever reason, the speaker wires were disconnected from two of the front speakers, at the speaker and everything but the network cable was disconnected at the AVR, yet nobody seemed to know what happened. That one didn't get a loaner and it wasn't free. She had the gall to ask if there would be a charge.

I have a line in my warranty part of my contract that if I show up and anything is not as I left it,ie, something was moved, someone else worked on it, someone added something, then any guarantee I made is void and anything I have to do to fix it is T&M.

I always pad my pricing with enough extra to cover a future "free" service call.

Am always priced higher than everyone in the area, but a good sales job takes care of that.

After that one free service call, it's normal rates.

The manufacturer warranty, useless as it might be, takes effect immediately upon installation. Can't make a reliable product, I am not spending my time fixing their crap products.

That one free service call can be use for me to remove the POS, but not to cover the cost of shipping either way, or re-installing the POS that will most likely not be fixed at all, or that will fail within weeks, days, or minutes.

It's a hard world.... ;-)