Lifetime Warranty

[cupric]

What exactly does the old Guild warranty cover? Is the lifetime pre-determined? I know some of us bought our instruments back in the 1970s/80s. What would be the scope of the warranty this many years later. It would be very difficult to prove original ownership for one thing. Just was thinking about that, I bought my 1986 D15 in Rhode Island New from a long time Guild dealer. Probably their most prolific dealer at the time. The lifetime guarantee meant a lot back then.

 

[fronobulax]

The warranty on my '71 JS II bass was explicit in saying that it only applied to the original purchaser with receipt. If you can't find the receipt then this is probably just an academic discussion.

Given the various owners of Guild the lifetime warranty, in practice, was only for the lifetime of the entity that owned Guild. We know in some cases, in particular FMIC to CMG, the sale explicitly transferred some warranty liability to the new owner, but not necessarily all. I believe a warranty claim for a Guild made in Westerly after FMIC purchased Guild would be made to FMIC, but a claim against a New Hartford Guild would be made to CMG and we have reports of CMG honoring a warranty claim.

Seems to me there is a bankruptcy and/or a couple of owners between 1986 and FMIC which does not bode well for a legally enforceable warranty claim.

The warranty language usually includes "defects in materials and workmanship". It has been argued that a 30 year old guitar that needs a neck reset is suffering from old age or a design flaw and not a defect in materials or workmanship.

All that said, it is always possible that CMG has the expertise, parts and tools to fix a Westerly instrument and would honor a warranty claim, not because they had to legally, but because of the good will doing so would generate.

 

[dreadnut]

"The warranty language usually includes "defects in materials and workmanship". It has been argued that a 30 year old guitar that needs a neck reset is suffering from old age or a design flaw and not a defect in materials or workmanship."

Exactly as frono said. After 44 years it would be tough for me to argue that anything needing attention on my D25M would be due to materials and/or workmanship

 

[GAD]

I can’t imagine Oxnard honoring a Westerly warranty.

 

[fronobulax]

I can’t imagine Oxnard honoring a Westerly warranty.

I can see why they might if there was enough Good Will involved. I can also see them choosing the Replace option rather than Repair which won't make the owner happy but...

 

[Rambozo96]

Seeing from the Westerly era it changed hands from Avnet Corp (oddly enough I purchased oscilloscope leads from them last month...small world.) to FMIC and I believe another owner somewhere between I would be very shocked if Oxnard would honor a 20+ year old warranty they probably aren’t legally obligated to honor in the first place unless they wanted to go ahead and do so and do some write up story on it.

 

[cupric]

Thought this might be a good discussion. Lifetime can be a long time. I don't think many would want to go the legal route anyway. interesting to hear what others thought.

 

[fronobulax]

Thought this might be a good discussion. Lifetime can be a long time. I don't think many would want to go the legal route anyway. interesting to hear what others thought.

The thing many people forget is to ask "whose lifetime?". It can be the life time of the original purchaser, the lifetime of the manufacturing company, the lifetime of the dealer as a commercial entity or, in some cases, the "natural" lifetime of the object.

If I wanted a lifetime warranty that lasted my lifetime I'd probably buy a Martin. But as someone who has lived over half their life according to life expectancy predictions, I think a one year unconditional warranty would be of more value to me personally than a "lifetime" warranty

 

[chazmo]

The only "lifetime" warrantee I've ever seen is for the customer: Not the company; not the dealer; and not the anticipated life of the object. You guys ever seen a different definition?

Of course, as we all know, years ago, companies used to live long lifetimes. Then tech came around and, well, not so much. So the modern interpretation of a "lifetime" warrantee from many years ago clearly can't have the same meaning as it used to.

In any case, I remember that warrantee claims were being carefully examined in New Hartford, even for Fender-era instruments. And, in quite a few cases it was the "good will" thing when they took in a pre-NH instrument. It's worth noting that as a practical matter much depends on the rest of the industry as well. Folks who have watched Taylor really saw some industry-defining customer service, which was certainly a high bar to meet. I don't know if it's still quite the same, but it would not surprise me at all if Cordoba honors claims even for Westerly instruments, particularly for that reason.

 

[twocorgis]

I can’t imagine Oxnard honoring a Westerly warranty.

Well, Guild honored the warranty on my '73 D50 after 37 years in 2010 after it was determined that the neck set was defective. Took them nine months to complete the job, but all it cost me was shipping one way.

It pays to keep receipts!

 

[GAD]

I appreciate all your guys input. Call me a skeptic, but I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[chazmo]

Ah, New Hartford was very good to us!

 

[fronobulax]

The only "lifetime" warrantee I've ever seen is for the customer: Not the company; not the dealer; and not the anticipated life of the object. You guys ever seen a different definition?

Yes. That's why I said what I did. Talk to lawyers or look at case law. The life of the object comes up in cases where the object was destroyed or damaged beyond utility and a warranty claim was made anyway. The life of the entity offering the warranty (i.e. dealer or manufacturer) because when they are no longer around and someone has to be found to make good on the warranty.

 

[lungimsam]

My FMIC NSSFI bass warranty was for only two years. So looks like you grizzled original USA made Guild vets got the better of it!!

 

[adorshki]

I can’t imagine Oxnard honoring a Westerly warranty.

I like to hope I may be in that extremely small number of cases for which they might deem it warranted:
My '01 F65ce is suffering a tiny bit of bridge lift for about 15 years since I first noticed it.

Around '09 IIRC, took it to the local long-time Guild Authorized Dealer/Warranty repair shop, instrument's condition was assessed as not having suffered abuse and therefore qualified for warranty bridge re-glue. The hitch was that finish touch-up might be necessary which was extremely problematic in California at the time, so they couldn't handle it themselves, and Guild themselves weren't yet providing factory repair.

In any case the shop's advice was to simply wait and watch. I was OK with that.
But since then Fender sold the brand so I understand that effectively I don't really have any warranty on my guitars anymore. Fender's out of the picture, I wouldn't even approach 'em.

In the meantime the amount of bridge lift has remained so stable over the years so it's not a big worry to me..and that long time local Guild dealer finally abandoned ship when CMG bought Guild, along with which came with a re-vetting of the entire dealer/service shop network.

But like Frono said I've seen a couple of stories here of Oxnard (CMG) stepping up and honoring warranties they weren't legally obligated to honor as I understand it.

So if I decide I'd be OK with shipping the guitar to Oxnard for the bridge fix (and trusted they knew about the little build quirks of the model re the UST/soundhole mic), yeah I'd at least ask 'em to at least see what they say.

Couldn't hurt.

 

[SFIV1967]

Another thing Westerly required to mail in the owner's registration card within 10 days after purchase, so if you didn't, no warranty...It was the same during FMIC ownership, you had to mail it in after purchase. So now how the new owners after Westerly could check on this is impossible as most of the info got lost during transition of ownerships as we know... (EDIT: See Frono's post below!)

This was Hoboken's statement:

Now if we look what Guild offers since it is owned by CMG:

The full text for Oxnard is here: https://guildguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2019_Guild_Owner_Manual_092118_spreads.pdf

And what FMIC offered during Tacoma times and New Hartford times was this:

http://support.guildguitars.com/2012/manuals/Guild_Owners_Manual_2007.pdf

And in most cases that only applied to instruments bought from authorized dealers in the US and Canada, not for international sales.

Ralf

 

[fronobulax]

There has been some US case law that declared the warranty was valid whether or not the warranty card was sent in. My recollection is that the warranty and implied contract was created by the purchase and not returning the card after purchase. So the warranty contract was considered valid regardless of what was done with the card.

The current state, suggested by this, is that returning the product registration card does not effect the warranty unless that requirement is disclosed in writing prior to the sale.

 

[12 string]

I sent in a couple of those cards back in the '90s.. Wonder what happened to them.

 

[twocorgis]

There has been some US case law that declared the warranty was valid whether or not the warranty card was sent in. My recollection is that the warranty and implied contract was created by the purchase and not returning the card after purchase. So the warranty contract was considered valid regardless of what was done with the card.

The current state, suggested by this, is that returning the product registration card does not effect the warranty unless that requirement is disclosed in writing prior to the sale.

I'm almost certain that I never sent in that warranty card on my D50 (hey, I was young and stupid!), and it didn't matter. In a case like this, I would think that a receipt from an authorized dealer would suffice. at least it did in my case.

 

[SFIV1967]

I sent in a couple of those cards back in the '90s.. Wonder what happened to them.

Probably went into the "famous" Westerly dumpsters end of 2001...
Ralf