For years I've questioned the promise of 15 and 20 year warranties offered by some companies and, I have to say, they are too good to be true. Seriously, can anyone really expect any product built from concrete or steel to last 15 or 20 years, let alone have a realistic expectation that same product will have a warranty that long? Police cars, fire trucks, computers, electric generators, water lines or even the very building in which you are probably sitting right now... are any of them covered for 20 years? 15? Maybe 10? How about 5? In short, no they're not... and neither is your skatepark.
Can customers really believe this promise? These prefab steel parks have a history of 3-5 year effective lifespans after which time they are typically either removed, replaced or refurbished. So what, you say? After performing the necessary maintenance to keep one of these items viable and safe- or moving the ramp within the same park or to another location- the warranty is VOID.... period, done like dinner, it's all on you now. It's hard to imagine that moving a ramp across the lot (remember all the promises of being able to reconfigure the park to keep it interesting?) can some how be responsible for the steel walls rusting but it must be true, otherwise why would they write it?
Below is a copy of the warranty from a prefab steel and precast concrete ramp manufacturer. When a promise of a 15 or 20 year warranty is qualified by saying "installation of replacement parts... not covered under this warranty and freight is to be PREPAID by purchaser" I think the "purchaser" should be scared. Can you imagine not only paying twice for an item but prepaying for shipping on 10,000 pounds of prefab concrete? Then, once the item arrives at your site you have to remove the old ramp with a crane and dispose of it, install the new one with a crane and perform the necessary repairs to the surrounding site. Do we see a problem here?
Here's how I read this warranty-
* warranty is at the discretion of manufacturer
* warranty does not cover normal wear and tear (it is a skatepark, remember)
* warranty does not cover acts of God (such as freeze and thaw cycles?)
* if a purchaser does not follow the daily, weekly and monthly maintenance recommendations the warranty is void
In my opinion, these promises are misleading and intended to offer nothing more than an empty one-up to the competition in a selfish game of sales wars. And as long as "purchasers" hang their hats on the number of years the product is (supposedly) covered our industry will remain stagnant and the skaters will lose.
Seriously, isn't using a warranty written by the vendor like asking the fox to guard the hen house? WRITE YOUR OWN WARRANTY!!!
Companies like Who Skates do not hide behind caveats but rather clearly and honestly spell out what we will and will not cover and for how long. Cities and Towns should write the warranties as Exhibits to the contract and remove all of the wiggling and fine print... force builders to make the commitment to no-fine-print warranties covering EVERYTHING in their contract, give them little or no wiggle room and go for the jugular if they leave you hanging... in a test of only the strong (or experienced) survive you will be doing a service to the taxpayers and the skaters.
Oh, and make sure shipping is included...
