Breach of Warranty
If you’ve ever bought a product, especially a more expensive one, you’ve probably had the salesperson offer you a warranty. You’ve probably gotten warranties on lots of products without even knowing. And warranties can even be created by things a company says in their ads, even if they aren’t in the contract.
A warranty is a guarantee that if a product stops working, the people who made or sold it will either fix it or replace it. Usually they last for a certain period of time. And if you have a problem with a product you’ve bought, the first step is to go to the company and give them a chance to honor their warranty, fix the product, and live up to their promises.
But sometimes companies don’t do that. Sometimes the product is so expensive (for example a car or a motor home) that the business that sold it doesn’t want to pay the cost of keeping their promise. Some companies sell expensive warranties, but then come up with excuses not to make the repairs. And some companies are pure frauds—they’ll sell warranty plans (usually vehicle service contracts or home warranties) and they never pay for repairs for anyone at all.
Kneupper & Covey is experienced in protecting consumers from companies that breach their warranty. We’ve helped numerous consumers in lawsuits or arbitrations, and if you’ve tried to get a company to honor their warranty and they refused, we may be able to help. We don’t charge anything for consultations, and we take most of our cases on contingency, meaning we only get paid if we win.
Call us at 657-845-3100, or e-mail us at contact@kneuppercovey.com. One of our lawyers will review your warranty, review the company response, and see if you have a potential legal claim.
What options do I have if a company won’t honor their warranty?
If you’ve gone to the company and tried to get them to honor a warranty but they won’t, you may have a legal claim. Sometimes the company has a good reason – your warranty may have expired, for example. But we’ve found lots of businesses that don’t treat their warranties like the promises they are.
Consumers may be able to sue under state law. Most states have what’s called the Uniform Commercial Code, which gives consumers warranty rights and the ability to sue. Some states have even stronger laws. For example, if you’re in California, you may be covered by the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, a powerful tool for protecting consumers who buy certain kinds of products. Many states have laws covering specific kinds of products where warranty breaches are common. Lemon laws are a good example—car dealers are notorious for shady practices.
There’s also a federal law called the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act that gives consumers strong protections as well, and limits what a business can do in trying to weasel out of its warranty obligations.
A breach of warranty lawsuit demands that the business repair or replace the product—and that they compensate you for the damages you’ve suffered from their failure to live up to their promises in the first place.
What kinds of warranty scams should I look out for?
One thing we’ve seen a lot of is companies that specialize in selling warranty plans to consumers, when the entire plan is just one big scam. This happens most often with cars—you may get a letter in the mail offering you an “extended warranty” or a “vehicle service contract.” Sometimes they even pretend to be from the manufacturer or the dealer you bought from.
They’ll tell you that your repairs will be covered—but then if something happens, they have an entire team of people whose job is to stall you, demand lots of paperwork, and find excuses to deny your claim. Some home warranty companies do this too, and even the legitimate ones may look around for reasons not to pay for your repairs.
Our law firm has been very successful in recovering money from scammers that no one thought we could find, let alone get money from. If you think your vehicle service contract or other warranty plan was just a scam, we’re happy to take a look and see if there are legal options.
If a company breached its warranty, we may be able to help.
If you’re having problems getting a product repaired or replaced under a valid warranty, and you think your claim has been wrongfully denied, give us a call. We may be able to help you make the company live up to its word.
At Kneupper & Covey, we focus on representing consumers. We help people who’ve been mistreated by businesses, and we don’t charge for consultations to review your case. Most of the time we work on contingency, so we only get paid if we win. Call us at 657-845-3100 – Click to Call, or e-mail us at contact@kneuppercovey.com – Click to send an email. We’ll get in touch soon and review your claim.