Are carpet warranties bogus?

[IIOY]

I visited a carpet store today and was asking about the warranties.  The sales guy said that they don't sell carpets on their warranties because the manufacturer sets the bar so high (daily vacuuming, monthly washing, etc.) that no human being could actually meet the standard required to trigger warranty protection.

Does anyone know if this is true across the board?  If it is, any warranty is meaningless.

[whitemerlot]

My friend bought a carpet warranty and her required frequent professional cleaning. It seemed like a rip off to me.

[IIOY]

The warranties come with the carpet. From what I'm reading, basically the stain protection requires that you jump through hoops to maintain the warranty. For example, if you get a stain in year 6 that absolutely won't come out, you have to produce receipts proving that your carpet was cleaned for each of the past five years (or however much is required by the manufacturer) or they won't do anything for you even if you have a "lifetime" warranty.

They also limit what types of stains are covered. Mustard? OK. Cat vomit? No. Normal wear and tear from people walking on it? No.

So yea, carpet warranties are a total sham, and we should just assume we will replace the carpet again in 8-10 years.

[Deleted]

WTF? That sounds like a total sham. Did you decide which type of carpet to go with?

[Deleted]

Yes. For ours you have to have it professionally cleaned annually by certified cleaners (there are only a few in my city that even qualify).

[IIOY]

Jul 24, 2013 14:52:06 GMT -5 @choco said:

WTF? That sounds like a total sham. Did you decide which type of carpet to go with?

Not yet.  When I go to these carpet stores, I feel as though I've been sucked into a vortex and basically I need a flow chart or Excel spreadsheet to organize the information.  I think (but am not yet certain) that carpets are like cars and you have multiple kinds manufactured by the same maker, but I'm learning that carpet salespeople basically don't want to tell you any more than the bare bones basics.  You know how when you go to buy a car, the first question they ask is what color do you want, as opposed to what substantive qualities do you want in a car?  That's what it's like when I talk to these people.  It's all about the aesthetics.  For the life of me, I cannot get these people to make distinctions between different brands on anything substantive.  It's all just color and pile.

The bottom line is that I need to start doing some internet research to sort this stuff out and make sure I'm not getting screwed a la the warranty issue.