HOW MUCH GUARANTEE

[Robert Lambie]

ide say the problem is the foam board. by now it will be as brittle as hell… any kids chucking stones will burst it easy. then comes the wind and its blown out.
or, the sign has been too deep for the trim, with a join. over time the join has come loose and the panels blown out.
or the panel has been cut a bit shy of the required size and has been blown out… in fact, without seeing the end result there could be many reasons. even the trim being fitted wrong can do this… end of the day, an "act of god" is covered by the customers insurance, if winds aren’t high enough to get the cover it might be back to him for shoddy workmanship.
personally, using the foamex is a bit of a bad starter for a fascia. but i guess its what the customer is willing to pay for at the end of the day. 😕

[Stephen Ingham]

hi, cheers for that rob

the bloke is a bit of a tight wad so it will have been done on a very tight budget (cheap)

problem is he asked my opinion as to responability and i said "i’d get back to him" would it be classed as an "act of god?"

should he just claim on his insurance?

cheers
stephen

[Robert Lambie]

lets say the sign was blown down two weeks ago, the insurance will check a weather report and if around that time winds were high enough to cause the damage. he can claim it as storm damage, (act of god). if this is the case, both the sign guy and customer will benefit as one gets new sign, the other repeat business.
on the other hand… if no winds, it could easily be vandalism with that material being used. one brick and its burst to bits…
like i said mate… tricky one without seeing it.

[Stephen Ingham]

cheers rob, i’ll tell him to speak to his insurance company

cheers again

stephen

[Peter Normington]

Stephen,
Insurance will not automatically pay even if a high wind speed was recorded, they will get a loss adjuster to decide if the damage was totally down to the wind speed. If no other damage was caused locally, it would be unlikley they would pay out,
The customer is entitled to have goods that are fit for purpose, so you need to ask, is it reasonable to expect a sign to last more than 18 months?
and is it reasonable to expect the sign to be of good enough substance to withstand a strong wind in this country?

Peter

[David Rogers]

I’d never offer more than a one year guarantee on parts & labour. That’s normally the minimum required by law unless you speciafically sell something as ‘temporary’ eg. banner for a one weekend show. Saying that, I will give projected lifespans for signage of upto 10 years.

Guarantee on fittings is always a tricky one. I must always believe & be confident that come storm or whatever other natural occurance, my signs will still be attached to whatever I put them on.

With PVC in alloy frame if over 3′ high I always put on a bottom retaining strip (and top hanger) and slide it in from a side, any joins are fixed with either d/s tape or glued board / interlocking section on the rear & more often than not a screw or two for added comfort. I’ve yet to meet a customer that when explained to them that they wanted a cheap sign, and I don’t want it blowing out a subtle face fixing is a major problem if hidden in a letter, or hard against the frame.

Dave

[Simon Clayton]

I had one guy on the phone saying he was unhappy with the vinyl signwriting on his van, and what do i suggest he do
He told me how it was already pealing off and had rips in it…
I said he should get straight on to the guy who had done the job and either get him to redo it or get your money back…

Turns out the sign writing had been put on five years ago 😕

I only give one year, as Rob and Peter have said it could have been the wind, vandals or bad workmanship, its impossible to say, but all in all you get what you pay for IMHO if i bought a £70 bed, i wouldn’t expect it to last as long as a £700 one.

I would tell him to just get new perspex or dibond panels, the old foam ones would have well paid for themselves in 18 months

Simon

[Phill Fenton]

I think the answer to this is to put yourself into the customers position:

In this situation I would ask myself how I would expect to be treated.

If the sign had only just been installed and had come down in the first high wind then I would be pretty upset if the sign company that supplied the sign didn’t accept some responsibility. However, if the storm had been particularly severe and was of a category that may cause structural damage – then I might expect this to be an act of god -bad luck in other words.

No one can guarantee a sign in all circumstances. You have to look at the particular situation and make a judgement based on that situation. So if you feel that the customer would be right to be upset that the sign was destroyed then you should replace it free of charge. On the other hand – if the storm was very severe and there was structural damage in the area (e.g tiles off roofs – parts of trees blown down) then the sign company that fitted the signs should be absolved of any blame.

I have had situations where I have repalced a sign panel free of charge because I felt the sign had not been up for very long and had been destroyed in the first storm. Equally , I have had situations where we have had very severe weather shortly after instalation which has caused structural damage in the area and the client has been able to claim succesfully on his insurance for a replacement.

It’s not black and white – each situation should be considered according to its own particular circumstances.

I never offer guarantees – but will always rectify any work that I have done if I believe it has been sub standard. Equally- I will not accept responsibility for damage that has occured in unusual circumstances