Recently a customer's 19" Samsung went on the blink and when I went to get the receipt, I was reminded that this TV was slightly older than the invoice date to the customer. I purchased the TV when the proposal was approved but two months later it was installed.

Now it is too late for the 1-yr warranty coverage. Thankfully I'm only on the hook for a $150 tv.

How do you manage inventory to avoid these types of issues?

You should only "be on the hook" for your installation service. Did your install cause the TV to fail? If not then it's not really your problem unless you have a policy that states you cover product repair and replacement forever. Big box has what 14-30 day return policy? Then its up to the client to contact the manufacturer for service. You are not Samsung. You have enough problems. Let Samsung support their products.

Remember that you are not selling a single "thing". Your primary business is service/installation where you provide hardware at retail. You are installing multiple products from multiple manufacturers that have multiple warranty/return policies. Sell all the hardware at once on one invoice. Once you receive payment order it and deliver it to the home where it gets signed for by the purchaser. At that point the hardware belongs to them. This is how all retail (just like if they ordered it from Amazon) operations work. Customer pays first then the product shows up. Once its signed for the warranty & return policy is between the person who owns the product and the company who made it.

If you want to be "on the hook" my advice is to use maintenance contracts to offset the out of pocket costs for covering products.

Do you use contracts between you and your customers, or is it all verbal?
And if you do use contracts, are you offering the warranty, or is the manufacturer offering the warranty?

I'm assuming you bought the TV at retail or through a disty and they were the last authorized reseller as far as the manufacturer is concerned for purposes of the warranty. Best way to handle that in the future is to clearly state in your contracts that all warranty periods start when you purchase the items, not when they are installed or invoiced by you.

Manufacturer's warranty always.

Yes.


The goal has been to take advantage of better pricing as it comes along and buy ahead of orders. I'm second-guessing that plan now.

Agreed. However, Samsung is asking for a purchase receipt that is now past warranty leaving me on the hook (for the first time) for the balance of the warranty. For my first five years of business, repairs have either been clearly within the warranty, or clearly outside the warranty.

My questions is why are you selling 19" TV's? Give your customer a link and have them purchase it themselves.

Because that's not taking care of customers.

I've had this issue in the past with TV's no matter the size.  For me, it depends on the installation itself.  If it is a small installation, I'll give them the contact info for the Samsung Service Center.  

If it's a larger installation and possibly out of warranty, I will sometimes send technicians to pick up the TV, deliver to Service Center and bring back.  Essentially acting as the buffer between Samsung and the client.  Client appreciates it, and you build a relationship with the Service Center. (hopefully not too much of one)

Yes, you lose some time paying technicians to pick up and deliver, but you're not buying TV's for clients either.

Service Centers Technicians will not remove TV's from walls, and they generally don't repair "in-home". We have a 3 year old 42" TV in our office that we'll use as a loaner for clients that are on maintenance agreements, if they're not, it's a good time to sign them up.

In a nutshell, I'll do everything I can to help the client, except buy them a new TV.

That being said,  19" TV's typically aren't worth repairing either. By the time you pay the $70 bench fee, the additional $80 for the repair, you might as well bought a new TV and saved the hassle.

When I should or shouldn't supply TVs is irrelevant.

Agreed.

I know someone else may have gone down this road but when was the TV delivered to the customer?

Just about a year ago. I have yet to contact Samsung directly to discuss my purchase date.

You cannot manage inventory to avoid this. You have to manage your sales.

As said, once the proposal is approved, get the stuff, deliver it, get paid. The warranty starts then. You tell your client about it.  (We recently had a two year hiatus on a project involving a DPI Lightning, and it was clean out of warranty when the client decided to resume work.)

If you get a signed proposal and then wait until the site is ready for product, the same product might not be available.  Often.

You've got to "manage your inventory" by havning none and by coming to an understanding with the client.  With our customer, we were able to work out a warranty extension and he understood that he had to pay for it.

My take is equipment warranty takes effect upon date of delivery to customer. Hopefully you can work something out with Samsung...