Find Out What Your Lifetime Workmanship Warranty Covers
It's Thanksgiving morning, and the first guests are twenty minutes away. You tap the Entertain scene keypad button, and the lights brighten, and the shades lift. Music settles into the kitchen. Then you notice the family room TV is sitting a few degrees off level, and, worse, the audio keeps cutting in and out.
Most people don't realize that problems like these fall into two very different categories. Some trace back to the equipment, while others trace back to how your smart home system was installed. Either way, the first step is finding the root cause, and when the issue is the installation, SB Comm stands behind its work with a lifetime workmanship warranty. Knowing which is which before the holidays saves a stressful afternoon.
Keep reading to learn why the yearly audit that keeps your warranty active fits so well into the weeks before guests arrive.
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Workmanship and Infrastructure Are Covered
SB Comm's lifetime workmanship warranty covers the physical side of the system we install: wiring, terminations, mounting, and equipment racks. When the root cause is how something was installed, your labor and trip charges are $0.00.
Take that holiday morning we described above. A TV sitting off-level points to a loose mount, and audio that keeps cutting in and out often traces to a failed termination on the speaker wire. Both are installation issues, so both are covered, along with a drooping projector bracket, a sagging rack shelf, or a bad HDMI connection.
Plenty of service models tie workmanship coverage to an ongoing contract, but ours doesn’t. There's no subscription to maintain and no expiration date.
What Falls Outside the Warranty
A workmanship warranty covers the work itself. Four kinds of service fall outside it and are billable:
- Equipment failure or replacement
- Software and firmware updates
- Upgrades or requested changes
- Damage from lightning, power surges, water, or accidents
Hardware that fails may be covered by the manufacturer's warranty. Labor to diagnose and replace it, and to reprogram the system, is still billable.
So how does SB Comm sort one from the other? It comes down to root cause. A technician starts with remote triage whenever possible, then runs a diagnostic checklist on-site if needed to see whether the issue stems from installation or equipment. If it's installation-related, the labor and trip charges drop to $0.00. If it isn't, the technician explains the issue and your options, then confirms the cost before any billable work begins.
A service plan helps on the billable side. Members get remote support around the clock, and in many cases, a technician can fix a common issue without visiting. Billable calls come with preferred labor rates and priority scheduling.
Why the Annual Audit Fits Before the Holidays
To keep the warranty in force, SB Comm requires an Annual System Health Audit. A technician inspects the mounts, wiring, racks, and terminations, and confirms that no one else has changed the installation. Clients on a service plan get the audit at no additional cost. For everyone else, it's billable at standard service rates, and the warranty itself applies either way.
The audit comes around once a year, and the weeks before the holidays make a natural time to schedule it. That's when a house gets its heaviest use, with extra guests in every room. If a mount has loosened or a connection has worn out, a technician can address it well before the holiday rush.
Outside work matters too. Third-party tampering with wiring, racks, mounts, or other structural components voids the warranty, so call SB Comm before an electrician or IT provider touches your system, or before anyone moves equipment.
A Short Pre-Holiday Checklist
A few things worth doing in the weeks before the holidays:
- Book your Annual System Health Audit to catch any installation issues before guests arrive.
- Run your favorite lighting scenes and shade settings once in the morning and once in the evening.
- Test the TV and audio in the rooms where guests will gather, including your home theater if you have one.
- Hold off on any new wiring or equipment moves until you've spoken with SB Comm, as third-party work could void your warranty.
Knowing how your warranty works takes the guesswork out of a busy end-of-year gathering season. If SB Comm installed your system, contact SB Comm to book your Annual System Health Audit today. Tell us what you're noticing, and we'll find the root cause and confirm the right coverage path. That leaves you with one job on the big day: greeting your guests at the door.
