I replaced the kitchen sink and faucet in our home 7.5 years ago at the request of my wife who was tired at looking at the stock "contractor grade" faucet and sink that was in the house when we bought it. The house was only 3 years old when we bought it but the previous owners did not take many (if any) upgrades when they had it built. But I digress.
When I replaced the sink and faucet (a real challenge for me) my wife had chosen a decent mid grade El-Kay sink and Delta faucet. Unbeknown to me at the time, it had a lifetime warranty.
Fast forward to last week. I am working from home and my comes rushing into my office and tells me she needs me to come into the kitchen, ASAP. I get there and she shows me a leaking faucet. Now the model that she picked out and I installed is one of those where the sprayer hose is built in to the neck of the faucet. The sprayer is the neck and the hose is inside the rest of the neck. If you get a leak there, you really cannot use the faucet until you get it replaced.
I drove over to Lowes to see about getting the replacement hose and when I got there the guy in plumbing told me about the lifetime warranty. "All you have to do is call them up and they will get you another one, free of charge.", he said. Armed with that information, I headed home to order the part.
I got home and went to Delta's web site and found the contact number for support and after a few keypunches later, I had a live person. I related my story to her and after confirming the part number I needed, she told me all she needed was proof of purchase. Hmmm...I had no idea the thing had a lifetime warranty until an hour ago but a good geek always saves the manuals until the item is in the trash. I wondered if that would do. My phone rep told me that if I took a pictured of the faucet with the manual beside it and e-mailed it to her, she could get my part ordered. She gave me the e-mail address and I got busy.
Two business days later I got a confirmation e-mail that my information had been received and that the part had been ordered. It was expected within 10-12 days. Argh.
So that is the downside to lifetime warranties. The part is free but there is a lot of time wasted.
BTW, had the part not been free, it was $85 from Delta...specialty part.
