Written Warranties on Lamps: What US Sellers Have to Put in Writing

Sellers describe warranties casually: two years, we look after it, just send it back. In the United States a written warranty is not simply a promise, it is a document with disclosure obligations, and the words chosen in it have defined meanings. For a business selling lamps wholesale — into retail, into hospitality, into project channels — the warranty document is also a commercial instrument: it is what a buyer's legal team reads, what a procurement system records, and what decides who pays when a unit fails. Getting it right is cheaper than most of the alternatives.

When a promise becomes a written warranty

A warranty becomes a written warranty when it is put in writing in connection with a sale. That includes a card in the carton, a paragraph on a product page, a line in a quotation and a term in a supply agreement. There is no requirement to offer one; the rules apply to how it is presented once you do. Which means the informal language that works in a sales conversation becomes a regulated statement the moment it reaches paper.

The practical consequence for a wholesale seller is that warranty language appears in more places than people expect. It is on the carton insert, in the listing, in the quotation to a hotel group, and in the vendor agreement with a retailer. If those four documents say four different things, the seller is exposed to whichever is most generous — and a buyer's procurement team will find it.

Full or limited, and why the label matters

US warranty rules use defined terms. A full warranty has to meet a set of conditions about remedy, who pays, and what the customer has to do; anything that falls short is a limited warranty and has to be designated as one. The designation is not cosmetic — using full warranty language for a remedy that is actually limited is precisely the kind of mismatch that attracts attention from a regulator and from a retail buyer's compliance review.

For most lamp programmes the honest and workable answer is a clearly designated limited warranty with the duration, the remedy and the exclusions stated in plain language. That is easier to administer than a vague generous-sounding promise, and it is far easier to defend. The commercial side — what is actually negotiable with a supplier — is set out in Negotiating Warranty Terms With a Lamp Supplier: What Is Actually on the Table.

What has to be in the document

That third and fifth items cause the most friction. A remedy the seller chooses is easier to administer than one the customer chooses, and exclusions that are stated clearly at the point of sale are far more defensible than exclusions produced after a claim. Transit damage in particular deserves an explicit sentence, because it is genuinely ambiguous who owns it in many supply chains — see Shipping Damage Claims: Who Pays, and How to Prove It.

• Who is covered — the original purchaser only, or subsequent owners, and whether commercial use is included.
• What is covered — the lamp body, the electrical parts, the finish, and whether the shade is included.
• What the remedy is — repair, replacement or refund, and whether the seller chooses which.
• What the customer must do — how a claim is made, and whether proof of purchase is required.
• What is excluded — damage in transit, misuse, normal wear, acts outside the seller's control.
• How long it lasts, stated as a period that starts from a defined event.

The B2B layer: what your customer will ask for

A retailer or a hotel group buying at volume will not simply accept your warranty; they will often require one that meets their own standard, and they may require supporting documentation before they list the product. Expect questions about claims rate expectations, how replacements are handled, whether spares are available for the life of the installation, and who pays freight on a warranty return. Those are commercial terms as much as legal ones, and they belong in the supply agreement.

Two things make this conversation easy. First, a spare parts position: knowing which components are held, for how long, and under which reference. That is the subject of Spare Parts: The Cheapest Loyalty Programme in Lighting. Second, a documented claims process — how long a claim takes, who approves it, and what evidence is needed. A buyer will accept a modest warranty with a crisp process more readily than a generous one with no process.

Warranty is a cost, so model it

A warranty should be priced, not promised. The two inputs are the expected failure rate and the cost of the remedy including freight and handling. Both are knowable after a season or two of real data, and both are usually lower than the fear-based number people use when they are setting policy. The operational discipline — how claims are logged, what gets replaced rather than repaired, and how the data feeds back into the specification — is covered in Running a Lamp Warranty Programme Without Losing Money.

There is also a return-data angle. Warranty claims and returns are not the same population, but they overlap, and the way they are recorded determines whether either can be used to improve the next specification. Reading Your Own Return Data: Turning Lamp Returns Into a Specification makes that case.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to offer a warranty on lamps in the US?

No. The rules do not require you to offer one; they govern how a written warranty must be presented when you do. In practice, most channels you sell into — retailers, hospitality groups, project buyers — will require some form of written warranty as a condition of doing business, so the practical question is what yours says rather than whether you have one.

What is the difference between a full and a limited warranty?

They are defined terms. A full warranty has to meet specific conditions about remedy, cost to the customer and the obligations placed on them. Anything less must be designated as a limited warranty. Most portable lamp programmes use a clearly designated limited warranty, which is both honest and much simpler to administer, provided the duration, remedy and exclusions are stated plainly.

Should the warranty cover the shade?

State it explicitly either way. Shades are the most frequently damaged and most frequently replaced part of a portable lamp, and they are also the most likely to be excluded for cosmetic reasons. A warranty that is silent on shades creates an argument on the first claim; one that names them, covered or excluded, does not.