When you’re shopping for carpet and the carpet salesperson begins to stress that a given carpet has a 10-Year Wear Warranty!!! — you should perhaps begin to question how honest he as been with everything he’s told you.
Oh, the carpet may well have such a warranty. The problem is that the salesperson may also be trying to trade upon a very common, consumer misunderstanding. You see, many people think that the word ‘wear’ in the warranty has to do with carpet performance—that it will keep its pleasing appearance for 10 years, … won’t pack down or ‘ugly out’ for the life of the warranty.
Not so!
The fact is that wear warranties have very little if anything whatever to do with a carpet’s long-term appearance or with wear as most consumers define the word.
All a wear warranty guarantees is that no more than 10% of the yarn will ‘wear away’ for the life of the warranty. Nothing more. The pile can pack, fray, gnarl, … ‘ugly out’ in every conceivable way, but none of these problems are covered by this warranty type. If you want a warranty that covers appearance, then you want a ‘performance warranty.’ But you should read it to learn what it covers.
