Warranty or Insurance

TADL Assist Ltd was established in 2000 – with the initial concept having been developed in 1999. It took a further two years to establish the operating principles and procedures underlying the company, and to finalise exactly the service levels that we are able to provide. Trading began 1st June 2002

TADL Assist does not run an insurance backed warranty, we run our own ring fenced fund.

Many other extended warranties that are available on the market are also not insurance backed for example manufacturer warranties, and dealers own warranty offerings. Also, quite a lot of extended warranty offerings from insurance companies are not insurance backed. This is because of the tax benefits that result from operating a non insured service plan. Just because an insurance company is providing or administering the extended warranty does not mean that the warranty is insured. The benefits that result from charging vat and being able to reclaim vat on a service plan outweigh the benefits of charging IPT (insurance premium tax) on an insured warranty which can reduce the sale price to the consumer but does not allow the vat to be reclaimed on costs incurred servicing the plan. The majority of extended warranties available today are not insured.

The Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission made in an in depth study of the market over the last two years and there is a lot of interesting information and comment on the market which can be found on their website on this link.

www.competition-commission.org.uk

We do recognise that some people do have concerns as a result of poor practise by other companies that have failed in the past. Dealers own warranties have proved to be worthless as no monies were set aside and ring fenced (as ours are). Retailers selling insurance backed warranties have been found not actually to have paid the premiums to the insurance company, so customers of these retailers have also been left high and dry despite thinking they had bought an insurance backed warranty.

Consumers are protected under the Sale of Goods Act and have rights to the quality of goods purchased and the time which is reasonable that they work which can be for up to six years. Making a claim outside of the standard warranty period supplied by a retailer can be a very difficult task – proving fault, proving inherent fault, communicating with Trading Standards and possibly solicitors or making a claim through the courts. This can involve considerable time and some expense. In general the manufacturers of the products do not take on any responsibility after their standard warranty but the Sale of Goods Act transfers the liability to the dealer or retailer that sold the goods – this is because the dealers are in the UK and in many instances the manufacturer is overseas.

Buying a reasonably priced warranty extension provides peace of mind and a backup for your purchase especially for more expensive investments in a product.

Electrical and electronic products are more reliable than they have ever been, and reliability continues to improve. However, even the best product from a top quality manufacturer can and does go wrong on occasion. If there is no warranty cover redress under the Sale of Goods Act will take time and effort with your product not working in the meantime, one option is a chargeable repair. The newer the technology and the more specialised it is the higher the repair bill will be. The repair bill will consist of parts, labour and transport costs. Labour can be relatively cheap for a good technician. Parts costs can vary significantly depending upon availability, the general failure rate of the product, and the item itself – whether it comes as a component or a complete replacement module. Transport costs increase the heavier and bulkier that an item is.

Customers do have options and choices and we are providing an option for those people that do want an additional first point of contact to resolve problems quickly and effectively.

To date we have sold over 16,000 warranty and insurance agreements. We do have two core products – the warranty extensions, and a separate all risks insurance product covering theft and accidental damage for PCs and laptops (this insurance is underwritten). The warranty extensions are not insured as this would result in higher prices and costs. We have recruited dealers across the country to provide our services.

Our product enables people to consider their purchase in that there is no pressure at point of sale of the product that the consumer must purchase the warranty there and then. Our pricing is structured so that the warranty can be bought at any time within 6 months from date of purchase – this has been our policy from day one. The recommendation of the Competition Commission is that a warranty should be available up to 30 days from date of product purchase.

TADL has also been appointed as a service provider for three major distributors to provide in warranty next day hot swap services for audio visual products. This is because some manufacturers offer a loan swap unit but availability is not guaranteed and delivery can be delayed. We have demonstrated our ability to provide hot swap loan units on site next business day and to date have a 100% achievement record.

We are demonstrating on a day to day basis that we are a credible long term provider of warranty backup.

Rob White
Managing Director

Last Updated 2007