8 | JANUARY 2019
Installer News
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
ARE PRODUCT LIABILITIES
TARNISHING YOUR REPUTATION?
In an industry that relies on reputation and referrals, installers have to face product liabilities
head on and in some cases deal with warranties that simply aren’t fit for purpose. Nick Dutton,
CEO of Brisant Secure, highlights the current situation and offers a Sweet alternative.
As consumers we have an
idea of how long goods are
likely to last and at the point of
purchase look at the warranty.
Typically, these warranties are
transparent and easy to exercise
and companies such as John Lewis
have even built a great reputation
for the way in which they handle
them.
But what of our trade sector?
For example PVCu profiles carry a
10-year warranty, yet their life ex-
pectancy is in excess of 25 years,
while IGU’s will carry a 10-year
warranty and will have a similar
operating expectancy. Yet the
hardware sector is different as our
research in early 2018 showed.
Out of the 270 respondents to
our installer research 88% had
reported pitting issues within the
last 12 months and in a second
question just 22.5% of them were
happy in the way in which their
suppliers handled the problems,
with 77.5% clearly not happy.
These are damning statistics for
installers who are seemingly just
making do with their current sup-
ply chain.
Like replacement PVCu win-
dows, composite doors have
extended life expectancies in
excess of 10 years and are sold as
a highly secure, near maintenance
free product. If consumers are
looking to pay £000’s on a new
entrance door they will expect it
to be highly secure and to look
good for many years.
You wouldn’t expect the door
handles on your new car to be
tarnished in the first few years
and so why has it been so com-
monplace in the entrance door
sector?
It seems the sector is now
awash with ‘me too’ products
that have been consistently value
engineered until there’s no quality
left and so the trade installer and
consumer loose out. Furthermore,
while quality has plummeted, the
administration of warranties has
escalated so it’s hard for faulty and
pitted furniture to be returned.
Some have then made mat-
ters worse by offering a 25-year
warranty, which only places the
onus on the installer to provide a
near lifetime service on the door
installation.
Our experience in the composite
door sector with Ultion, helped
bring Lock Lock to market, the
only Sold Secure accredited secu-
rity handle. Lock Lock has been
adopted by many of the leading
composite door manufacturers and
is sold by some of the UK’s most
trusted and respected locksmiths.
It also amassed over 8,000
hours in a salt spray chamber vs
the industry standard of 240 hours
and so the material specification
was used as a basis to create
Sweet.
Sweet is the industry’s first ever
truly suited range of door furni-
ture that shares the same regis-
tered design ethos across handle,
knocker, letterplate, escutcheon
and numeral. It’s a revolutionary
door furniture set that’s designed
to last and address the pitting ep-
idemic that’s plagued the industry
for what seems like decades.
We are so confident in Sweet,
that we are offering a direct to
consumer warranty, so that install-
ers don’t have to handle warranty
issues any further and face the
risk it can do on their respective
businesses. All the homeowner
has to do is to activate the 10-year
guarantee online with e-mail, sur-
name and date and then we’ll take
care of it in full.
Currently installers fit a door in
the hope that there are no reme-
dial calls for the door furniture.
As and when these do arise, as
our research has shown, then it’s
a call out to assess the job. At
that point the handle cannot be
taken off for return, but that a
replacement handle needs to be
ordered and paid for once back in
the office. When the replacement
handle is received, then it’s a case
of going back on site to replace
the handle, returning back to the
office and then posting the handle
back to the supplier for a credit
for just a matter of £’s.
However, the cost to the install-
er is the potential loss of referral
sales and the loss of time that
could be spent fitting new jobs
with the associated sales and
profit margins. Windows have a
life expectancy well in excess of
their 10-year warranties and so to
should entrance doors, albeit they
receive more day to day wear and
tear.
Product liabilities in all shapes
and forms can affect reputations,
but when it’s so widely reported
then everyone suffers including
door manufacturers, but mostly
those that fit the products. Sweet
will help address the balance of
warranty ownership, but arguably
more importantly, offers the trade
and consumers a beautifully and
fully suited range of door furni-
ture that’s designed to last. Tar-
nished reputations help no one.