Well, it also may have been that in 2012, JC Penney was overinflating prices in order to claim a sale price http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/jc-penney-reintroduces-fake-prices-and-lots-of-coupons-too-of-course/
JCPenney, the iconic department store has not proved as enduring as its battery warranty. It offloaded itsauto service centers to Firestone in 1983, discontinued its catalog in 2009, restructured in 2012, sold its corporate headquarters in 2017 and declared bankruptcy in 2020.
Jim Zeman was born in 1964, bought his first battery from JC Penney strictly because of the lifetime unlimited warranty, and died in 2022.
“I’ve always considered myself a smart consumer, so when I had the opportunity to buy a battery from JCPenney with a lifetime warranty back in 1978, I jumped at it!”
He’d ultimately purchased two of them with lifetime warranties, and showed receipts of the four times he’d exerted the warranties in the 44 years since — in 1996, 1999, 2002 and 2006.
At age 80, he went for one more, in June of 2022... because “the way I look at it, I’m still alive, so the lifetime warranty is still in place.” but instead, he got the runaround
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintageads/comments/hzgn2n/the_jcpenney_battery_the_last_battery_your_car/
https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/jcpenney-lifetime-battery-in-my-72-fj40.698050/
I had a similar experience with the so-called lifetime warranty from GM on a muffler for my truck. Got one replacement fine, next one they sent me to a parts store and some part was paid but not all and the part wasn't quite like the original, and third time the lifetime warranty was met with puzzlement.
ReplyDeleteBack when I was a kid we had a Jeep that rusted badly for years, and my dad had a lifetime warranty on both muffler and shocks from Midas. They honored it for years. I bet we got a good five mufflers, and at least a couple of sets of shocks. A thing of the past, likely.
Best battery warranty in the world is from my local junkyard. They take the batteries from recent vehicles, test and charge, and mark with their ID. Sell them for, I think it's now $30 plus core, and no matter what vehicle or what age or what circumstance, bring in dead battery with ID showing, get another. Big juicy OEM batteries mostly, and usually a reasonable range of sizes available. Hard to go wrong there.
GM... not known for good customer service.
DeleteThose Midas lifetime contracts... well, Midas is still in business! I avoided mentioning the Midas and their competition, as they are above and beyond the topic of car parts stores, and indeed, still carry on the decades long tradition of replacement mufflers for free... unlike the JC Penney example I fall back on.
Plus, Midas simply deserves it's own post. Hell, any company that sticks to doing on thing, doesn't advertise anymore as it is so part of the collective conscious, and like a Walmart, is the go to for the thing, at a good price, survives the economic fluctuations, and still quietly stays in business, deserves a post.
A local junkyard?
I doubt many guys can say there still is a local junkyard anymore! But I love that they are making the most of the steady flow in batteries that otherwise would be landfill
Sometime in the early '60s American Motors had ceramic mufflers with a lifetime warranty. Dealer's still had them showing up right up to the end when Chrysler bought us out. The ceramic mufflers were long gone, but they still received new ones with the same guarantee!
ReplyDeletedang! Ceramic would probably do great for corrosion prevention and maybe heat insulation!
Deleteoh wow, we talked about that in 2017! https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-amc-ceramic-armored-exhaust.html
DeleteHow about that! And I had about the same comment then.
DeleteBest parts store out there is ebay 'but it now'......I shop the crap out of auto parts when in need and won't give the retail stores $145 for a $48 fuel pump.....it's nutz....I prefer local but they force a fella's hand most days.
ReplyDelete