Could 100-Year Warranties be in Works for Mattresses?
Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, July 22, 2011
David Perry Executive editor
Sometimes the mail brings deeply troubling news. That was the case the other day when I got a note from a bedding veteran. "And you have problems with 20-year warranties on bedding?" he began.
He enclosed a disturbing ad for Bellawood hardwood flooring that touts a new warranty: A Certified 100-year Transferable Warranty.
"We set the quality standard with a groundbreaking hardwood finish so tough it allowed us to offer a 50-year warranty," the company said in the ad. "We were the first to do it then and we just raised the bar again. Now Bellawood comes with a Certified 100 Year Transferable Warranty for peace of mind across a full century for you and homebuyers to come."
My bedding friend ended his note with this comment: "Apparently we are not the only crazy industry out there."
Where to begin? For starters, my friend is right: We aren't the only crazy industry to misuse warranties. It a strange way, it is heartening to see the flooring industry walk right into the same traps that we set for our consumers in the mattress industry. Yes, there is comfort in numbers, even if it is the number of crazy industries.
But this is also very sad. Does the flooring industry really want to sell just one hardwood floor to a customer every 100 years? Does our industry really want to sell just one mattress to a consumer every 20 years or every 25 years, to pick some of the longer warranty periods we now offer?
I know I sound like a broken record here, but I think long warranties simply confuse consumers about how long mattresses should last. Of course I know that the warranties are not guarantees of comfort life or product life, but do consumers really grasp those points? I think they see a 20-year warranty in big letters and think: Good, this mattress will last for 20 years. And that's not what they should be thinking.
A while back I called for shorter warranties, and some mattress warranty lengths actually increased. Producers tell me, privately, that they wish mattress warranties were shorter, but maintain that they simply have to keep up with the competition in offering really long warranties.
So I end these musings on the warranty conundrum by wondering if this latest outlandish warranty offer will spark any response in the mattress arena. Are any 100- year bedding warranties in the works?
Please say it ain't so. I mean, let's at least give 50-year warranties a shot first. (Note: I'm kidding!)
Contact David Perry at dperry@furnituretoday.com www.furnituretoday.com
Featured Company
-
Wright Labels
Bill and Tom Wright founded Wright of Thomasville in 1961 on the idea that printing was a creative medium and the belief that "a promise made is a promise kept." The Wright brothers focused their attention on providing exceptional printing for the... more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
