Viking has stepped up

Submitted by rllingstne on Mon, 05/09/2011 - 4:04pm.

viking has appeared to be putting their money where their mouth is by offering a 3 year parts and labour warranty on all Professional Series products except for undercounter refrigeration. In their announcement they have indicated that the service rate on all of these products has decreased significantly over the past 4-5 years due to their investment in the product reliability lab and the way problems are identified and solved.
Great move on their part.

Viking's Wicked Awesome Warranty

Submitted by advisor on Mon, 05/09/2011 - 11:30pm.

What a concept. Competing on quality and confidence but not price, coupons, or free dishwashers. While the big five stripped away their product warranty, Viking has chosen to add value for the consumer of their professional styled products.

But why only the professional products?
Here are the options we came up with:

the other lines do not have margins to support the expense
the other lines have quality problems
Viking pro-products are under pressure from the commodity lines, Chinese lines, and pro-style lines from the big five
Just a way to stand out in a recession. No big deal.
An official Viking response to reports of past service issues.

We're thinking, without any evidence at all, that the most likely drivers are the last three. An excellent move by the marketing department, that the finance department said Viking could afford, based on a reduction in the service call rate. Win Win Win.

Then why are undercounter refrigeration and ice makers the ugly stepchild of the pro-line? Well, we wondered about that too.

could be that these units aren't so good, and break alot, and this is how Viking tells folks that.
could be that Viking's supplier refused to support the warranty and told Viking to pay for the warranty itself or pee up a rope.
could be that these pro-products are really just standard products with pro-handles.

That's all the options we came up with. Maybe there are more. Whatever the actual reason to exclude these units, including the possibility that they have a higher failure rate, the decision seems to be a marketing error. Not sure how you fix it, but the asterisk * is always a problem.

Note: When was this warranty launched? We are trying to find out.

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See the Big Brands cutting the legs off their warranties in 2005
http://applianceadvisor.com/content/whirlpool-short-sheets-its-product-warranty

http://applianceadvisor.com/content/ge-sells-warranty-business

http://applianceadvisor.com/content/whirlpool-lies-and-electrolux-swears-it

http://applianceadvisor.com/content/ge-joins-pig-pile-consumer-bottom-benefited-though-seemingly-unconscious

Warranty

Submitted by joboxes on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 1:42pm.

This became effective on May 1st per the New York Distribution channel, Carl Schaedel. I would imagine that profit does play some role as there was just a 5-8% price increase across most of the profession line.As for the undercounter units, I would wager there are 2 factors in this.One is that the product is made by Marvel. Now, that's not to say that Marvel is more or less reliable than any other, but I would bet that as an OEM line the profit margins are MUCH slimmer than they would like.Two is likely the issue of the categories overall reliability. My experience has indicated that as a category, undercounter refrigeration is more repair prone than others. I'm not sure if that's the manufacturers fault or if it's just a complication of downsizing refrigeration to an extent. As a brand Marvel seems to be one of the better made products, but repair wise we see a lot of service calls on U-Line, Summit, Marvel, Avanti Etc.

Much ado about nothing ...

Submitted by Bermuda Bob on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 4:08pm.

... more than the installation location - sometimes !!!

My experience is that many under-counter installations do not allow the unit to "breathe" ... not all units are "front-breathers" which means the smaller, more concentrated units do not get the circulation around them that they need ... So it is incumbent on the Sales Associate to not simply sell a unit, but sell the right unit for the application ...

Marvel

Submitted by Cohiba on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 7:01pm.

Bob,

As Joboxes points out the units are sourced from Marvel and are designed for undercounter installation (no coils on back = "front breathing"). So, I suspect, in this case, the reason for the exclusion was service call stats.

But, you are othrwise correct in your assessment; undercounter installation of a "coil-back" unit, without adequate ventilation, would give the consumer nothing but grief.

"Cool Beans" ...

Submitted by Bermuda Bob on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 8:56pm.

Thanks for the clarification, Cohiba !!!