A Good Vinyl Swing Set has a Good Warranty

They say experience is a great teacher. When you are about 9 years old, holding an umbrella, and considering jumping from a tall height, maybe experience should take a back seat to someone coming at a full sprint and yelling, “Noooooooo!”

And yes, that about 9 year old was me. And yes, I thought an umbrella would serve as a parachute. I had climbed to the top of a haystack and now stood gazing down. It sure seemed a lot taller up here than down at the bottom of the pile. My trusty orange umbrella would surely slow my fall.

I wavered. Something was telling me this was a bad idea, but since my prefrontal cortex wasn’t fully developed yet, I pushed that warning voice aside and suddenly leaped.

I remember closing my eyes. I remember the rush of wind as the umbrella was yanked sharply upward. I remember it didn’t slow my fall.

As I crashed into the earth, I learned several important lessons. One, umbrellas are not parachutes. Two, that little warning voice should be obeyed. Three, if you will do something stupid, at least make sure someone is videoing you.

Buying a vinyl swing set is like a leap of faith. You do your research and think you are ready to take the figurative leap of faith, but you still have those warning whisperings in the back of your mind. But the good thing for you is that our King Swings warranty is your parachute. And unlike an umbrella, our warranty should give you the confidence to leap!

The Warranty

If you want to review the warranty in its final form, click here. I will lay out the meat of the warranty for you in a digestible bite. Here are the highlights:

• 6-year warranty on our workmanship and parts.
  
• 20-year warranty on the vinyl sleeve against fading or discoloration.
  
• Lifetime warranty on the wood inside the sleeve against rot, decay, or insect damage.

That sounds good. But like all of us, we are suspicious about what the warranty actually means and what loopholes are built into it to let the company get off free. We tapped our head of customer service, Shanea, to walk you through the warranty section by section to ensure you clearly understand what is covered and how it works.

The Process

I hate warranty processes. It can feel like if I say just the wrong thing, the company will be like, nope, not covered. The best warranty experiences are the ones that have a transparent, defined process that keeps you updated.

If there is a warranty claim on our vinyl swing sets, we do our best to keep you in the know about where your claim is. You don’t have to constantly ask for updates for fear of the process grinding to a stop. We want an empty warranty claim file just as much as you, and we move as quickly as possible.

To help speed the warranty process up, we ask for two things right at the start of the process.

• A copy of the original invoice to prove original ownership
• Media of the damaged area (photos or videos)

Once we have those items, we will review your warranty claim and get back to you within a few business days. Once again, we turn to our head of customer service, Shanea, for all the details.

Advice

When comparing our warranty to other companies, I do want to offer a piece of advice. Over my time in the swing set industry, I have noticed there are two approaches to talking about one’s warranty. There is an overly gushy approach and a straightforward approach. 

If you run into a company promising “20-Year Warranty!” on a vinyl swing set, I strongly recommend you read the fine print. That 20-year warranty is often on just the vinyl sleeve, like our own warranty, but the way it is presented makes it sound like the whole swing set. 

The best thing you can do is search past the marketing warranty blurbs to find an actual copy of the warranty and read through it. Ask questions on things you don’t understand. A vinyl swing set is a big purchase; you deserve to know what you are getting warranty-wise. 

Conclusion

King Swings cares about our customers, and we stand behind our products. We consider it an honor that you trusted us to bring the playground home to your backyard. We want that leap of faith to be fun, knowing that you have a trusty parachute if something goes wrong.