A.D. Cantelmo Property Management
Our Business is Property Management in Orange County California
Guaranteed for life!
You hear all the time, that something you buy is guaranteed for life.
But what does that really mean. When companies give a guarantee, as consumers
you expect them to live up to it. One time I was in Line at Home Depot and a
woman was bringing back a few dead plants. When she was gone, I asked the clerk,
why they replaced the plants? To me, it was clear that the woman did something
wrong in her care for the plants, so why would she think she would be able to
return them. The clerk told me, that Home Depot guaranteed the plants for a
year and for any reason no questions asked. I was stunned, not only that Home Depot
replaced the plants, but that the woman would have the guts to return them. The
big picture was that the guarantee that Home Depot gave was a great guarantee and
they stood behind it.
The guarantee for the plants was a small issue, but what if you have a
roof installed on your home and the roof you put on has a 50 year guarantee. How good is the guarantee and who is
responsible for the guarantee? Is the manufacture of the roofing material
responsible or is the installer responsible? This question is a very important
question to ask yourself before you have anything installed in your home.
Back to the roofing example, let’s say you have ABC roofing company
install your roof, and you choose a 50 year roof. One month after the roof was installed;
you find that it is leaking. You call ABC roofing company and they are out of
business, so you call the manufacturer who made the shingles and they are going
to question who installed the roof. If you say that the company you hired is no
longer in business, you may have a very hard time convincing the manufacturer
that the roof was installed correctly. The 50 year warranty is only as good as
the people responsible for it. In the roofing example, it is not clear who is
responsible. Sure the manufacturer will stand by any defect in their product,
but it is the home owner’s responsibility to make sure that the installer is a
reputable Roofer. The real onus is on the customer to make sure they know who
will be responsible to stand behind the guarantee.
In our example, It
will probably cost the home owner money to have someone come out and find out
what the problem is, If the manufacturer of the roofing material is a reputable
company, the least they could do is send someone out and look at the roof to
see if it was installed correctly.
In my business of Property Management in Anaheim
Ca. I warn property owners
all the time to be very careful of who they hire to do work on their
property. Make sure you do your due diligence when checking out your
contractors to make sure they have been in business for a long time, and call
all the references they give you and go to see the work they have done. As
always, “Buyers Beware”.
A.D. Cantelmo Property Management Specializes in Property
Management in Orange
County Ca.