How to Compare Shutter Guarantees

If you’re getting more than one quotation for shutters, you’ll probably be comparing guarantees. One company says five years, another says ten, and the longer number looks like the better deal.

It often isn’t, and the reason is that the headline number rarely tells you what’s actually covered. Two guarantees of the same length can mean very different things, and a longer one can cover less. Here’s what to ask so you’re comparing like with like.

1. What does it actually cover?

A shutter isn’t one thing. It’s panels, a frame, louvres, hinges, magnets, tilt mechanisms, and on a motorised shutter a motor and a handset as well.

Some guarantees cover the panels and the finish. Others include the moving parts. Ask which components are named, because hinges and tilt mechanisms are the parts most likely to need attention, and a guarantee that quietly leaves them out is a shorter guarantee than it looks.

2. Is it one period, or several?

Most manufacturers set a different period for each part of the shutter. A single headline figure is usually the longest one in the table.

Ask to see the whole table rather than the headline. In particular ask about motors separately, because the period on a motor can differ from the period on the shutter it’s fitted to, and it varies by manufacturer.

3. Is labour included, and for how long?

This is the question that changes the answer most often, and it’s the one people forget to ask.

A manufacturer’s guarantee covers the parts. It usually says nothing about the cost of somebody coming to your house, taking the shutter down, fitting the replacement and taking the old part away. That labour can easily cost more than the part.

So ask two things. Is labour included at all, and for how long?

4. Is there a call-out charge?

Related, but not the same question. Some guarantees run for many years but ask you to pay a call-out fee each time you use them after an initial period. That’s still a guarantee, and it may be perfectly fair, but it isn’t free cover for the whole term, and that matters when you set it against one that has no call-out fee at all.

5. Who actually comes out?

In this industry a good number of apparent company representatives are self-employed, and the installation becomes a separate contract between you and whoever does the work. If that person moves on, retires or stops trading, the guarantee on the fitting can go with them.

Ask whether the people who measure and fit are employees of the company you’re buying from. Then ask who you telephone in three years’ time.

6. Does it transfer if you sell the house?

Most shutter guarantees are for the original purchaser and end when the shutters change hands, including when you sell the property. That’s normal, and ours works the same way, but it’s worth knowing rather than assuming.

If you’re buying a house with shutters already fitted, don’t assume you’ve inherited any cover.

7. What voids it?

Ask what would end the guarantee early. Common answers are unauthorised repairs, non-original replacement parts, alterations, and cleaning with the wrong products. These are reasonable conditions, but you want to know them at the start rather than on the day you need to claim.

8. What is never covered, by anyone?

Be suspicious of a guarantee that appears to cover everything.

No shutter guarantee covers normal wear and tear, accidental damage, or the natural variation in colour, grain and texture that comes with timber. Nothing coated by anybody is fully UV-proof either. Sunlight fades most surfaces over time, and shutters take that exposure first. We’ve written separately about what ultraviolet light does to shutters.

A company that spells out the limits is usually just as reliable about the cover.

9. What happens after the guarantee ends?

Almost nobody asks this one, and it’s the question with the least comfortable answer.

Companies that sell shutters and blinds mostly don’t make them. We don’t. We buy from manufacturers and we fit. So once a guarantee has run out, whether the thing can be repaired at all depends on whether the manufacturer still makes the part, and no manufacturer guarantees to carry out a repair or to keep spares available beyond the guarantee period.

That applies to us exactly as it applies to everyone else. Once your guarantee has ended we can’t promise to put a problem right, and if a component is no longer made, it can’t be replaced.

Ask the question anyway. What you’re listening for is whether you get a plain answer or a reassuring one.

Our answers

So that you can hold us to the same standard, here’s where we stand. The full detail is on our shutter warranty page.

Question	Our answer
What’s covered	Colour fastness, structure, hardware, and motors and handsets
How long	5 years on everything we supply and install, whatever the manufacturer’s own period is. Where a manufacturer covers less we absorb the difference. The only exception on a shutter is the motor, which follows the motor manufacturer: 3 years on S:CRAFT, 5 on Luxaflex
Labour	All labour and travel on a warranty claim, covered for the first year. After that the parts stay covered, labour may be chargeable, and we’ll explain that before any work is done
Call-out charge	None in the first year
Who comes out	Our own employees. We don’t use subcontractors
Transfers on sale	No. Like most, it’s for the original purchaser
Not covered	Wear and tear, accidental damage, unauthorised repairs, non-original parts, and natural variation in the materials
After it ends	We can’t promise a repair. We don’t make the products, and no manufacturer guarantees repairs or spares beyond the guarantee period

The second row is worth a sentence of its own, because it’s the part most people never think to ask about. Manufacturers each set their own periods, and some of them are shorter than five years. We don’t pass that on. Where a manufacturer covers less than we promise, the difference comes out of our pocket rather than yours, and you never find out there was a gap because there isn’t one.

That’s a different thing from a long headline number, and it’s the reason we’d rather you asked the nine questions above than compared two figures.

One last thing

A guarantee is only ever as good as the company standing behind it. Whoever you choose, the useful question isn’t how many years are printed on the page. It’s whether they’ll still be there to honour it, and who turns up when you telephone.

We’ve been fitting shutters in Scotland since 1987, and we’re the ones who answer the telephone.

Team SSC