GUJRAT: The small and medium scale electric fan manufacturers have voiced their serious concerns over lifetime guarantee regime, prompting Pakistan Electric Fan Manufacturers Association (PEFMA) to constitute a six-members committee to start consultation for its revision.

The regime was initially introduced by some major fan makers.

The small-scale manufacturers say that specific period guarantee known as ‘warranty’ could replace the lifetime guarantee. They accuse dealers and vendors of exploiting the lifetime guarantee regime, by returning their products and causing them heavy losses.

PEFMA body to consult stakeholders on the issue

For the first time, PEFMA realised the seriousness of the issue by constituting a special committee to suggest steps in consultation with the stakeholders, a local medium-scaled manufacturer told Dawn on Sunday.

A PEFMA meeting presided over by its senior vice president Ghiasuddin Paul held at the Fan Development Institute here discussed different proposals to save the industry from “consistent exploitation” by the traders and vendors.

The lifetime guarantee, introduced some two decades ago, is relevant to domestic consumers only as such a regime has never been offered for the export market.

According to sources privy to the PEFMA meeting, there was a consensus among the participants that the regime should be replaced with warranty. But, the task to bring all the fan makers, especially the big ones, on the same page seemed daunting as no representative of major manufacturers attended the meeting.

However, the six-members committee tasked with holding consultations on the matter is quite hopeful of uniting all manufacturers for evolving a new strategy.

Another fan maker said that due to the rising trend of using uninterrupted power supply systems (UPSs) during the electricity loadshedding for the last six to seven years, the number of fans being returned to the manufacturers by the dealers and customers had increased manifold. So in the prevailing energy crisis, the guarantee regime was required to be revisited, he added.

Some large-scale manufacturers believe that instead of raising hue and cry, the smaller fan makers should focus on raising standards of their products.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2014