Warranty
How Good is a Warranty?
A warranty is only as good as the company that stands behind it. A piece of paper can state any warranty information, standing behind that warranty is the only thing that matters.
There are products available that are manufactured in China. Most of these products, (ornamental iron fence panels) say they come with a 20 year warranty but if you do have a legitimate complaint you’ll be calling China for warranty claims. If the price seems too good to be true, more than likely it is. Be sure to do your homework and know you can rely on a company in the United States that will stand behind their warranty.
Nationally recognized companies such as, Merchant’s Metals, Master Halco, Ameristar Fence Products (Tulsa, OK) many others have premium lines of fence products with 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 year warranties. In some applications they may even offer a “life time” warranty, such as aluminum and vinyl fences.
Owasso Fence in Oklahoma offers a standard (1) one-year warranty from date of installation on the fences we install. This includes our standard installation labor. It does not cover most coatings and finishes on shop-fabricated fences, gates or on field-welded assemblies. Ask about our “Extended Warranty” option.
Fences – In many cases, a high quality, per-manufactured fence product, may be installed using field welding. This will always burn off the special corrosion protection coating. No amount of field touch-up can duplicate the manufacturer’s coating process. All of these field joints are subject to more rapid corrosion, for which there can be no guarantee.
Shop Fabricated Gates – Chain link and ornamental metal gates are usually welded fabrications. Owasso Fence shop welds are primer coated. Special width, racked, and non-standard ornamental metal gates are also primer coated in our shop and are not covered in the warranty. Chain link gates are then coated with commercial “cold galvanizing” products. Coatings on any gate welded in our shop, chain link or ornamental, is not covered in our standard warranty.
True Story:
Years ago there was a fence company, no longer in business, who advertised a 20 year warranty on their fences. When asked “How are you going to back that up?,” the installer replied “It doesn’t matter because I won’t be around in 20 years.” This installer had the warranty in writing, but with him no longer in business the little piece of paper doesn’t have any impact and left his customers high and dry.
There are Chinese made fence products out there that come with a 20 year warranty. Sounds good but the home owner will have to call China to have that warranty honored. Do you speak Chinese? Since fence companies around town are simply the installers, they don’t have the ability to make good on the manufacturer’s warranty.
At Owasso Fence we offer a standard 1 year warranty on most of our fences. 6′ SteelWood privacy fence has a 3 year warranty. Montage ornamental steel fences have a 20 year warranty and Aluminum ornamental fences comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
Our ornamental metal fences are manufactured by Ameristar Fence Products in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If something happens to Owasso Fence or any local fence company you hire, you can rest assure your warranty will still be honored by the manufacturer and you will not need to speak a foreign language. You may contact them directly at 918-835-0898 if you have any questions regarding their warranty.
Remember: A warranty means nothing without an avenue available to solve your warranty issues.
Call us at 918-272-5555 if you have any questions on warranties, service, and product information.