Upon honoring a lifetime warrantied part, can a vehicle repair shop change the terms of the warranty for the replacement part?
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Upon honoring a lifetime warrantied part, can a vehicle repair shop change the terms of the warranty for the replacement part?
I purchased a lifetime warrantied muffler from a national muffler chain that covered both parts and labor. When the muffler failed a few years ago the chain replaced it and gave me a new warranty on the replacement muffler that covers parts but not labor. Their replacement muffler is now defective and they want to charge me labor fees to replace it.
Asked on August 27, 2010 under General Practice, Virginia
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 14 years ago | Contributor
A warranty is a contract; it binds both parties. Therefore, the issue is what were the terms of the original "lifetime" warranty? If it said that it could be changed at will, or following the occurence of certain events (such as the car owner actually claiming on the warranty)--in which case it's not very "lifetime"--then it could be changed. Or, more to the point, was the warranty only over THAT, the original, muffler, and not over any subsequent mufflers, including any installed to replace the first one? If that was the case--if the warranty only covered that exact muffler (in which case it was really a "one use warranty, but you may claim it at any time over the life of the muffer), then the chain does not need to extend the same warranty for a new muffler. You need to look at the terms of the warranty in detail, especially all the "fine print."
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