What’s Better Than a Warranty? The DaVinci Group Announces WarrantyPLUS

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The DaVinci Group announced today a significant upgrade to its warranty program – already one of the best overall warranty programs available. Currently, the company offers 2-years parts and labor on all wireless products, 5-years parts and labor on all amplifiers, and an impressive Lifetime replacement warranty on all architectural speakers, volume controls, and speaker selectors. How do you improve on a solid warranty package like that?

What is The DaVinci Groups’ WarrantyPLUS™? If you’re a dealer, you’ve got to see this…

The DaVinci Group (TDG) is an up-and-coming supplier of primarily architectural audio products tailored specifically to the needs of the custom integration business. Launched last year, and formally announced at the recent CEDIA Expo in September, TDG has a unique business model that involves a true partnership – including offering ownership shares to all key stakeholders in the company such as dealers, sales representatives, and employees.

TDG was founded by Danial Kippycash and Alex Chiou who, along with Vice President of Sales Jeff Francisco, all have a long history in the custom integration business – including all three seeing their careers intersect at SpeakerCraft. The company has three primary divisions: The DaVinci Group, Vanguard Dynamics, and Blue Aura.

Creating new kinds of innovation…

Kippycash and Chiou are out-of-the-box thinkers, looking to create innovation not only in product and technology – but also in the structure of their business…and in new ways to demonstrate their unflagging commitment to the custom integration channel. It was from this posture that the company developed its new WarrantyPLUS™ program.

Thanks to their unique business structure, the company is able to regularly convene various advisory panels to tap into their rather significant brain trust. These advisory panels discuss a variety of topics relative to the issues they face in running their businesses.

Dealers are frustrated…

It was in discussions with a dealer advisory panel that TDG learned of the frustration that many dealers and integrators feel when they have to deal with defective products. Traditional warranty plans providing replacement products are all well and good…but what about the cost to the integrator of having to roll another truck just for the purpose of swapping out the defective item?

The answer from most vendors is, in essence: You’re out of luck. Why should the dealer, or the customer, have to pay additional charges to remove and reinstall a vendor’s defective product?

WarrantyPLUS – the better solution for dealers…

But now the DaVinci Groups answers this dilemma with their all-new WarrantyPLUS™ program. Now, any time a product fails during the warranty period, the company will not only provide the customer with a replacement unit, it will also issue the dealer or installer a full $75.00 credit to offset the cost of uninstalling the defective unit and installing a replacement. As far as TDG can ascertain, they are the only company in our industry offering this type of warranty program on a regular ongoing basis.

“This change in warranty coverage, compensation and how support is handled to the dealers is something that has bothered me for years,” said Daniel Kippycash, CEO & Co-Founder of The DaVinci Group, in a prepared statement. “Dealers are the lifeline to happy clients. There are many good warranty programs being offered within our industry. While the manufacturer carries the burden of product replacement this doesn’t cover any of the costs encountered by the dealer. For the dealer they still have the cost of a truck roll and the time to support the product. So we created this program with the input from our dealers to step up and let them know we appreciate their support and efforts to ensure we all work together to keep our clients happy.”

Plugging the drain on profits…

TDG’s new WarrantyPLUS™ program is sure to be popular with installers and integrators, as dealing with defective products can be a significant drain on their profits. And even if TDG’s credit doesn’t fully offset their cost of processing the defective…dealer’s are sure to appreciate the fact that this program is 100% better than those vendors who offer no labor recompense.

We assumed that TDG was looking to this program to be a competitive advantage over other manufacturers. But surprisingly, when we spoke by phone with Kippycash, he told us otherwise.

“I’d like to see programs like this spread across the custom integration industry,” Kippycash told us in a sincere tone. “It would help differentiate custom or the CEDIA channel from the mass market.”

Dealers are the critical link…

Kippycash went on to explain that he has real concern that the front-line dealers and integrators are getting the level of support they need from the industry to be in a position to fully support their customers. At the end of the day, Kippycash told us, we all benefit from end-users who are thrilled with our systems…and the dealer is the critical link to ensuring that happens.

Kippycash is not worried that his TDG will suffer any undue financial burdens by offering this seemingly generous WarrantyPLUS program. Thanks to military-grade and outdoor-grade build-quality, the company’s actual product defective rate is extremely low, he confidently assured us.

But he is concerned that integrators and installers feel confident that they can install TDG products without any question as to the company’s commitment to partnering with, and sharing the burden of, taking care of the customer.