...or limited lifetime warranty, whether they are the best or the cheapest. What does that mean to you?.........without looking it up Im sure some here will know exactly but I bet most people dont.
I think in most instances it means the part has a lifetime warranty for the original purchaser only... not transferable.
This and if they somehow decide that there is some other problem wearing out the brakes they will not replace them.
OK, I was told today by couple diffrent parts houses that they are guaranteed against defects only (like cracks etc) not wear life, (that makes more sense)they did however say that the "limited" lifetime guarantee was a very common misconception and they had unfortunately had many arguements over the subject. (no free replacements, not even once if they are only worn out) It was a gliche that in the back of my mind, always made me know better to start with but I had to ask.... As many brake jobs as I have done over the years I may have already knew the details but forgot I think it is intentionaly confusing or misleading terminoligy.
this was a sore point between my counter guys and myself when i was assistant manager at a retail parts store. a couple of customers took the warranty absolutely literally to mean "lifetime pads", and it was not easy to argue against them. fortunately, i no longer do "auto parts", no longer have to listen to customers argue the fine points of fine print, and deal with counter guys who've had to give away pads to satisfy customers. oh, yeah; the company sided with the customer and handed the "defective" pads directly back to the vendor, but still; wear parts are WEAR parts. pads and rotors wear; calipers should not.
warranty against defect. correct. as a professional, however, i have had to warranty a couple of sets of pads due to excessive wear. of course i did have to go through a whole rigamarole with the store manager, but when two different sets of pads on two identical vehicles needed replacement in 5 months he sided with me and offered a different brand in exchange.
Bought a radiator from O'Reilly's for a '95 Ford truck with a "limited lifetime warranty" about 6 months ago. Since then the radiator has sprung a leak 3 times. Walked in with the radiator and they gave me a new one every time, no questions asked. I don't know if they do that for everyone, though, I buy a lot of junk there, so they kinda know me. I did give up last night and go somewhere else, cause, you guessed it the fourth one started leaking, hopefully this one was made in a different "sweat shop" in you know where. I'm sure O'Reilly's would have given me another one. And did I mention, antifreeze is kinda expensive.
back in the day, jc penney had auto centers. i bought a "jc penney battery," which had a lifetime warrantee, an offer which bit penneys where the sun don't shine. they wound up rescinding that warrantee and replacing the battery once. my original jc penney battery lasted 7 years, so i think i got my money's worth!
I got a clutch, pp, tob from Pep boys in about 1995. It had a lifetime warranty (for as long as you own the vehicle). I made a copy of the receipt as the text has a tendency of disappearing after after a year or two. They have honored it with zero BS. I got my THIRD (second replacement) one about two weeks ago and this time the receipt said "lifetime limited". I will pay for the next one gladly. I would be ashamed to get another one. I've never been done so right. Still high on that.
I usually laugh at those warranties too- but I just learned that Fred Meyer's has a warranty like that (jc pennys) on batteries. I took one in to get the core charge and they handed over a new battery. I explained that I didn't buy it new (it came in a used car) but they said policy was to exchange it- no reciept needed.
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