<p>The “Consumerist” website has long recommended what it calls an “Executive Email Carpet Bomb” as a way to achieve satisfaction when products don’t live up to expectations:
<a href=“http://consumerist.com/2007/05/11/how-to-launch-an-executive-email-carpet-bomb/[/url]”>http://consumerist.com/2007/05/11/how-to-launch-an-executive-email-carpet-bomb/</a>
From past comments on the site (which stopped taking them after a massive hacking incident that took it offline for a long time), this procedure has helped many consumers. I’d give it a try, and in all correspondence I’d definitely quote this comment from RH’s website’s FAQ’s on returns: “At Restoration Hardware, we take pride in the exceptional quality and craftsmanship of our furniture. Our attention to detail in design, material and construction is unyielding. And so is our commitment to customer satisfaction.”</p>
<p>Something else to look into is whether Restoration Hardware’s limited warranty adequately relieved it of the warranties the law implies into merchandise sales, which would certainly run longer than one year for a medicine cabinet. Does the paperwork that accompanied your purchase make it perfectly clear that the one-year limited warranty is your only recourse, and that no implied warranties apply? If not, and if all else fails and you have the energy for it, you may have a small claims action available to you.</p>
<p>By the way, assuming it is properly installed, it’s not at all unreasonable to expect a medicine cabinet to last for 20 years, much less four. There’s no motor, no moving parts, no electronics, and a hinge is a device that’s been perfected for eons. Someone could have been seriously hurt from a heavy door falling that way. Don’t let RH off the hook.</p>
<p>^^ I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect my laptop to last for 3 years (and so far it’s at 5 years with no problems - Lenovo) yet if something breaks after the 1 year warranty I wouldn’t expect them to fix it simply because of my expectation whether reasonable or not. You can apply this same logic to thousands of items.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t expect an item like a medicine cabinet to have a warranty for any longer than 1 year and probably shorter just due to the type of item it is. There aren’t many things warranted for more than a year and many things are only 90 days or even less. There are some things with lifetime warranties but they’re usually proud of it and display it prominently and likely charge a bit more to accommodate the fixes/replacements they anticipate having to do as a result of the warranty.</p>
<p>I think it’s strange anyone would realistically expect a manufacturer with an explicitly stated warranty period to cover it for any longer than the period. It’s ‘nice’ when sometimes some manufacturers make some exceptions (like the Toyota mentioned above) but it’s certainly nothing I’d ‘expect’.</p>
<p>Complex electronic and mechanical things like computers, cars, and appliances–those I don’t expect to last. A medicine cabinet–that should last pretty much forever. If I paid $50 or less for an el cheapo one and it failed in a few years, I’d figure it was cheaply made and buy another. If I paid ten times as much, buying from a company that promotes an image of offering quality furnishings and fixtures, darn right I’d expect the thing to last far longer, limited warranty or not.</p>
<p>Part of this is also dependent on a given nation’s consumer protection laws. For instance, I read some months ago that in Great Britain, the “lemon laws” effectively force electronics manufacturers like Apple or Dell to cover the warranty of products much longer than the stated 1 year minimums without extended warranties. </p>
<p>Even if the contract states a given product is only covered for one year under warranty, those lemon laws override that and consumers in the UK are covered for much longer than that.</p>
<p>I do not think it is unreasonable to expect a $450 medicine cabinet to last WAY more than 4 years despite the warranty. Heck, I have lived in houses with 50 year old MC’that are still going do MC’s ever fail, or dstrong. Really, do MC’s ever fail, or do we just get tired of them?</p>
<p>I was editing the above and accidentally sent it. Don’t see how to delete it via my phone! What I was saying is that I think there is an expectation that a MC will not fail, especially as it has few moving parts. That is more true given RH’s pricing. Unfortunately, RH may not have any liability unless you can show that the unit is not marketable. More than the money, it is so annoying to me that such a large company would not stand behind their product. If they refuse to help, I would definitely turn to Twitter, FB, and Yelp!</p>
Oh GladGradDad, methinks you’re a bit of a pushover! There are so many instances where I’ve refused to let a limited warranty stand in the way of getting what I deserve. </p>
<p>I certainly understand that a properly stated limited warranty will give Restoration Hardware legal protection from any claim, but that’s not the issue here. At this point OP’s only recourse will be to convince the powers-that-be at RH that it’s completely unreasonable, a violation of their supposed commitment to customer satisfaction, and a risk to their reputation to refuse to make OP’s situation right. To that end, a sense of what a reasonable lifespan is for a $450 medicine cabinet is completely relevant to the argument I hope OP will be taking up the RH chain of command. The goal is to get to the person at RH who realizes that while the company doesn’t have to do the right thing, it nonetheless should. And the “right thing” is defined in this case by how ridiculous it is that OP’s expensive item lasted a fraction of its expected lifespan.</p>
<p>But there is something between, “sorry, nothing we can do, it is out of warranty” and good customer service, which would involve making some effort to help a customer who has invested in your product, and possibly will again. You can offer to send them the replacement part at cost, or at a discount, or send a repairman at a discounted rate. Now, if the item is 20 years old that is one thing, but a four year old hinge should not fail, warranty or not. If it does, how much would the cost actually be to the company to do something that creates a little good will. I wouldn’t be surprised if OP never purchased another one of their products because they don’t trust the companies quality control. </p>
<p>You can’t always keep problems from happening, but you can always control how you handle things when they do happen. I think that is the part people remember when considering your company for future purchases.</p>
<p>Rather than get an identical replacement hinge from RH, I would take the whole thing to a really good hardware store, get some proper hinges for it and be done with it. It sounds like the hinges are the problem in that they just cannot support the very heavy door/mirror. I’d replace both hinges. At some point this becomes too time consuming.</p>
My statements weren’t regarding the expectation of something lasting a longer time, they were regarding the expectation that the manufacturer would warrant something not based on the explicit warranty period but rather, the subjective ‘expected timeframe the thing should last in the mind of the particular individual’ or, ‘the relative cost of the item compared to other similar products - i.e. it cost 10 times the cheapo cabinet so I expected it to last longer and therefore you should warrant it to my subjective expectation rather than what’s printed on the documentation for the explicitly stated warranty’. (long sentence)</p>
<p>Also, when it comes to things like home furnishings, reliability is not directly proportional to the cost of the item - at all. The cost tends to be determined by brand name, endorsements by famous people, style, store that sells it, finishes, etc. For example, a $50 faucet could easily be more reliable than a $500 faucet but the latter is much more stylish or exclusive. </p>
<p>
I’m really just a teddy bear.
Actually, I might pursue it as well but if I did, I’d realize I was just relying on the goodwill of the manufacturer and not really have any ‘expectation’ that they should warrant something after the warranty period expired - which was the OP’s initial question.</p>
<p>I’d also realize that if the actual manufacturer was someplace in China or something and the store is really just a retail outlet (don’t know if that’s the case here), I’d ‘really’ have no expectation the manufacturer or store would do anything about it. I go out of my way to avoid stuff like this that’s made in China but that’s increasingly more difficult to do.</p>
<p>
I agree but does that really translate to an ‘expectation’ that they would do this? It doesn’t for me. </p>
<p>
That’s a really good point. The OP is already concerned about the heavy door possibly hurting someone if it falls and it’s clearly not a good mechanical design since it broke when one wouldn’t normally expect it to (I agree that it shouldn’t break - but that doesn’t translate into a lifetime warranty expectation in my mind). If an identical hinge is put back on or even if the entire unit was replaced, would you really trust it again? I’d either want to use different and more robust hinges or probably get rid of the whole thing and buy a new cabinet regardless of what was paid for this one. Of course, I’d buy it somewhere other than this RH place and I’d pay attention to the mechanical design in addition to the style.</p>
<p>To me, a store that charges a lot of money because of their superior “quality” and promotes their “customer service” does give me an expectation of a little more than the bare minimum they have committed to. Really, if I got a medicine cabinet at Walmart and paid bare bones price I wouldn’t have the same expectation. I buy things from the “other guys” because I do have the expectation that their quality will be better, they will stand behind their product to at least some extent, even if the warranty is up, and I will be made to feel like I didn’t make a sucker mistake by spending the extra money there.</p>
<p>Wow! I go away for a day and come back to all these helpful comments. MommaJ, I love your post - may I quote from it?</p>
<p>I also came back to an email from RH - offering to sell me a “universal hinge” for $10! And “Please note, this item was purchased back in October of 2009. Any replacement parts needed are at the customer’s expense.” </p>
<p>I am really irritated now. I will do the email thing MommaJ suggested and see how far I get. </p>
<p>By the way, there is no mention of a warranty on the email confirming my order, on the website description of the medicine cabinet, or anywhere on the RH site that I can see. I looked in all the possible locations and did a search.</p>
<p>Quote away! If you’re sure can’t find an explicit warranty limitation anywhere, that’s a plus, and be sure to say in your emails that you were never told of a limited warranty and would never have purchased such an expensive item from RH had you known they wouldn’t stand behind their product for a reasonable lifespan. State that in the absence of a limited warranty that was properly communicated to you, you believe they are in violation of their implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for purpose. Be sure to follow the Consumerist’s EECB advice to state explicitly and in detail what you want RH to do, so your message doesn’t come off as a mere rant. And please let us know the eventual outcome. Good luck!</p>
Wasn’t there something in the box with it? One of those pieces of paper we usually throw away?</p>
<p>This company looked to me like just a seller - not a manufacturer. Is that correct? If so then they likely have minimal access to particular parts. Most sellers don’t really warrant anything - the manufacturer does that. Some sellers will go extra (unexpected) miles to provide great service and help the customer to be able to retain them (Nordstrom comes to mind), but others really don’t care that much and even if it did, they don’t know what to do since they’re really just a seller and there’s no way they’ll simply replace a 4 y/o $450 item.</p>
<p>I wonder if their $10 hinge would actually work (some ‘universal fit’ items don’t really fit much of anything without customizing) and if it did you’d need a couple of them anyway unless you really want a hacked medicine cabinet.</p>
<p>If you can take the other hinge off (carefully so you don’t drop the thing) and maybe take a couple of pictures of the hinge mounting points and what the hinge looks like installed, and head to a decent hardware store with it all, maybe they can find something workable.</p>
<p>Don’t get my posts wrong - I don’t blame you for being irritated by this. I would be too.</p>
<p>Update: I’ve been going around with RH customer service about the “universal” hinges that they have offered to SELL me as a way to solve my problem. I’ve asked them to send me a photo, because I am sure that they are much, much smaller than the hinges that were holding up that very heavy door. Finally I got an email today saying that there are no pictures available.</p>
<p>I have decided that I don’t want another one of these cabinets. The door is massive, very heavy, and clearly even the heavy-duty hinges were not up to the job of holding it up for more than a few years. They failed, and I have pictures to prove it.</p>
<p>This is what I’m thinking of doing: I would like to write to them, tell them why I think it’s unreasonable for them not to compensate me for the premature failure of the cabinet, use text from this thread. I would like them to send me for free a different medicine cabinet that is about the same size, with a much lighter door (I know, because I have that cabinet in a bathroom that I renovated earlier). If they don’t, then I will take them to small claims court for the cost of the replacement cabinet (that I will buy somewhere else) and the contractor’s charges for installing it (will almost certain include enlarging or filling in the hole to fit, touching up painting, etc.)</p>
<p>My question is: Can I take them to small claims court for this? If I do, am I likely to win? If I do win, will they pay any attention to the judgment or will they just ignore it?</p>
<p>At this point, I would be reluctant to re-attach a heavy door that already broke one massive hinge. I too would be concerned that it might break another hinge/set and possibly fall off and injure someone.</p>
<p>The medicine cabinets in our home have been here since well before we purchased the house. I believe they were probably original with the house, making them 50+ years old.</p>
<p>Yes, you could bring a small claims lawsuit for any amount under the cap, but as others have said, not sure if you’d prevail and that would take considerable time and energy.</p>
<p>I’m definitely not re-attaching the door, HIMom, for the reasons you mention. </p>
<p>I have had medicine cabinets that were 50 years old in the past - the ones we replaced when we renovated the bathrooms were probably even older. </p>
<p>From what I can tell, shaming RH on facebook doesn’t work. They don’t have a presence. There are some pages set up by disgruntled customers, though.</p>