We tell customers, “As long as their heart beats, we’ll cover labor and materials free of charge.”

In 1996, after selling brown siding, I told a customer in warning, “I haven’t sold this color for an extended period of time, but I could tell you, from my experience, anything that dark is going to fade.”

“Well,” she said, “I want it anyway.”

I ended up selling it to her and she called me about 15 years later.

“Mr. Harris, I understand that you are the CEO of the company, but it doesn’t matter. You gave me a lifetime warranty on the labor and material. My siding is no longer brown, it is pink. You told me what it was going to do, but you also told me that you would replace it.”

I said, “I sure did.”

We ripped the entire job down, at a cost of at least $15,000.  We put it all back up, brand new siding, and didn’t charge her a nickel.

Just recently, I did a similar thing to another customer’s siding. Hartland Manufacturer went out of business and a customers siding started fading on the house. Hartland would not replace it because they went bankrupt. We were left holding the bag. Still, we stood behind the contract.

To have that guarantee, we can not be the cheapest in town. We have to use the best quality products and have a very high quality installer.