What is the best warranty to protect my power reclining furniture?
Customer Question
I am buying a power sofa and recliner. I am most concerned should the power mechanism stop working. Will it cover that type problem? Is there more than one level of insurance such as premium that covers more than the standard warranty?
Furniture warranties are legal documents, created by attorneys, to protect their clients.
Those clients are the furniture companies or the insurance companies that cover extended warranties. Furniture warranties are not written to protect consumers!
Furniture warranties have three purposes:
- Marketing - Warranties are carefully crafted to reassure consumers that they will be fully protected if the furniture they have purchased is defective.
They will "appear" to protect you against the most common types of problems that furniture purchasers worry about.
- Protection (for retailers against their customers.)
These exclusionary clauses modify or completely nullify many of the broad claims listed at the top of the document.
- Profit - Extended warranties are one of the most profitable items sold by furniture retailers. The furniture retailer keeps approximately 30% of what you pay for the warranty, while transferring all responsibility for potential repair costs to a 3rd party insurance company.
- Extended warranties are written by the attorneys for these insurance companies to minimize their potential costs and maximize their profits.
Furniture salespeople work very hard to convince you that warranties are designed to protect you. They receive substantial bonuses for selling warranties.
- Salespeople are generally as clueless about warranties as their customers.
- They are aware of the broad warranty coverage claims -- and they will genuinely believe that these are protecting you.
- Few salespeople ever read the entire warranty document. They are as unaware of the exclusionary clauses that limit coverage as their customers.
Furniture retailers will usually take care of obvious problems within one year of purchase. After that, the most common problems are rarely covered.
- The customer's responsibility for labor or transportation costs often makes the repair impractically expensive.
- Labor and/or transportation costs typically become the customer's responsibility after 1 year.
Ask the Furniture Expert