I had a Vermont Castings woodstove installed recently, and after less than a month, the damper gasket came loose. There was no sign of cement on a 6†to 8â€segment of the gasket that was hanging loose – it appeared to have been improperly cemented when it was manufactured. A photo is attached.
I called the dealer who sold and installed the stove, Bennington Pool, Spa & Hearth, and asked them to repair the gasket. They told that me that if they came to my home to make the repair, they would have to bill me for travel time at $65 an hour, as Vermont Castings doesn’t cover their travel time if they make warranty repairs. I’m about 50 minutes from their storefront, and don’t feel that I should have to pay over $100 to repair a product that was immediately defective.
The dealer’s suggestion was that I buy some stove cement and repair it myself, which is something I don’t know how to do, and I don’t want to risk creating a leaky stove.
When I called Vermont Castings’s customer service department, they told me that, indeed, they don’t cover travel time for warranty repairs, even for an item in place less than a month, and told me that the dealer is responsible for all repairs.
Vermont Castings needs to stand behind their products – making a customer pay for a product that has a manufacturing defect appear almost immediately after installation is inexcusable, and making the dealer choose between absorbing travel time costs or charging the customer for them also makes it far more likely that the customer will pay for a manufacturing defect.
I called the dealer who sold and installed the stove, Bennington Pool, Spa & Hearth, and asked them to repair the gasket. They told that me that if they came to my home to make the repair, they would have to bill me for travel time at $65 an hour, as Vermont Castings doesn’t cover their travel time if they make warranty repairs. I’m about 50 minutes from their storefront, and don’t feel that I should have to pay over $100 to repair a product that was immediately defective.
The dealer’s suggestion was that I buy some stove cement and repair it myself, which is something I don’t know how to do, and I don’t want to risk creating a leaky stove.
When I called Vermont Castings’s customer service department, they told me that, indeed, they don’t cover travel time for warranty repairs, even for an item in place less than a month, and told me that the dealer is responsible for all repairs.
Vermont Castings needs to stand behind their products – making a customer pay for a product that has a manufacturing defect appear almost immediately after installation is inexcusable, and making the dealer choose between absorbing travel time costs or charging the customer for them also makes it far more likely that the customer will pay for a manufacturing defect.
