how they last

[GWD]

Mike,

Given the information in your post, then what is the logic for reducing the 5-year warranty to 3-years? The 5-year warranty is a great selling point and certainly motivated me to go with Everlast. It indicated the seller's confidence in the product that transfers to a buyer's confidence.

I know the 5-year can be had for 10% but it is either a profit margin increase or a hedge against future costs given the number of units out there now that sales apparently have taken off. Maybe Everlast thinks it has "arrived" and can go back to the industry standard of 3-years.

Don't get me wrong - I like the Everlast products very much and would like Everlast to stay in business and show a reasonable profit. It just seems the shortened warranty may interfere with the business plan.

It is also not a good sign that Oleg stifled the warranty discussion over on Welding Web. Maybe this post will get the same treatment.

[zoama]

Mike,

Given the information in your post, then what is the logic for reducing the 5-year warranty to 3-years? The 5-year warranty is a great selling point and certainly motivated me to go with Everlast. It indicated the seller's confidence in the product that transfers to a buyer's confidence.

I know the 5-year can be had for 10% but it is either a profit margin increase or a hedge against future costs given the number of units out there now that sales apparently have taken off. Maybe Everlast thinks it has "arrived" and can go back to the industry standard of 3-years.

Don't get me wrong - I like the Everlast products very much and would like Everlast to stay in business and show a reasonable profit. It just seems the shortened warranty may interfere with the business plan.

It is also not a good sign that Oleg stifled the warranty discussion over on Welding Web. Maybe this post will get the same treatment.

If I were to hazard a guess it would be that electrolytic capacitors have a normal life of 5 to 7 years before they swell and leak or dry out.
I'm not worried about it though because boards can be replaced or recapped and I may even want the newest model by then.

[performance]

Mike,

Given the information in your post, then what is the logic for reducing the 5-year warranty to 3-years? The 5-year warranty is a great selling point and certainly motivated me to go with Everlast. It indicated the seller's confidence in the product that transfers to a buyer's confidence.

I know the 5-year can be had for 10% but it is either a profit margin increase or a hedge against future costs given the number of units out there now that sales apparently have taken off. Maybe Everlast thinks it has "arrived" and can go back to the industry standard of 3-years.

Don't get me wrong - I like the Everlast products very much and would like Everlast to stay in business and show a reasonable profit. It just seems the shortened warranty may interfere with the business plan.

It is also not a good sign that Oleg stifled the warranty discussion over on Welding Web. Maybe this post will get the same treatment.

GWD,

I think the reason was pretty clear. We have eaten one cost increase after the other. We stated that. And we are putting more effort than ever, making significant expenditures toward more staff, visits to the factory, and tighter QC control...All have increased our costs. Our profit margin has diminished over the last year or so. The cost of production in China is rising. We have offered this warranty break down to keep things in check as much as we can...and let the customer choose what is right for him. It seems like a lot of misunderstanding that the cost of the warranty is built into the price. It's basic economics. These days it seems that people think a cost increase is "automatically" making the company more money. It is not. We have just had actual unit costs over the past two years rise about 20 percent on some machines. The fact that we have kept the price increases fairly stable has bitten off a major chunk of what we need to "grow". People want manuals in boxes, plugs on welders, longer and heavier cables, 24 hour tech support (it seems), heavier boxes and improved packaging, better accessories, more show appearances and improved quality. Does this not cost us more? The 10% additional for 2 years, represents the additional cost of carrying the warranty for an extra two years, including staff, support etc that must be maintained, plus some additional cost increase (and not all of it I assure you). Have we arrived? No, but we are not where we were in 2009 either. One thing we frequently heard, more often that "I am buying this because of the warranty", was that our warranty was not credible because it surpassed guys whose quality is unquestionable...We lost just as many sales because of that as we will probably if we offer a tiered warranty. We are still offering the 5 year plan, but all we are doing is showing the added cost of the warranty vs. our cost increases...sort of like showing the "tax" or giving a sales price and figuring in tax on the front end. It may not make some people happy...and we realize that, but its necessary and a pragmatic thing for us to do. The reason the thread was trimmed, was because it got off the focus of our announcement, and as much discussion as we have gotten, none of it dealt with the issues concerning the reasons for having to do this. It was all complaints, and threats. Its not germane to the discussion, and it does nothing to improve the company if we continue to succeed. Sales have been rising on nearly every unit. Some may choose to go to our "competitors" in the import world. We understand that too. But we also understand that the same forces that are applying to us are applying to them as well. So, buying from them, and their refusal to deal with reality will ensure their demise...because the math won't continue to add up for them. Look for some serious problems in 6 months or so from our competition...Don't forget we keep pretty good tabs on our competition, and we many times we know things about them before they know them.

We have been leading this import "revolution" in welders since 2004, as long as anybody out there. And, we will continue to...This may seem like a regressive policy for some, but I can assure you, we are making changes to the warranty that will "IMPROVE" customer buying confidence long term by "sweetening" the basic terms.

[everlastsupport]

This thread just took a turn from what I think Bob was asking.

I must agree with Mark and glad he shared that. People should understand Mark, Ray, Duncan, Oleg, myself and many others in the company, whos names are not here on the forum, have put in a lot of time without return (but with personal reward) to make it known that Everlast is the best in this area of imported welding equipment and it takes a lot of hard work (and it is not like red and blue really have their machines made 100% in the US, common people, it is stamped on the box).

Anyway, sometimes we as a company must make some changes. If dropping the warranty to the same as Lincoln and Miller is one of them, sounds fair to me. Why should they have a lesser warranty and even charge more; and they do? I would think we have proven our product welds well by now, see the videos online that are not even ours and at 1/3 of the price of the other guys.

I feel better now. whew!