How Quickly Will Your Warranty Orders Ship From Cutting Edge?
Updated November 27, 2024
Discover Cutting Edge’s warranty order lead times, averaging 6.7 working days, and learn about factors that may affect shipping schedules.
As a cabinet maker or contractor, encountering a defective or damaged piece in an order can be a frustrating disruption to your workflow. Instead of focusing on your next job, you’re stuck figuring out how to resolve the issue, often by reordering the piece and waiting for it to arrive. You need a solution that minimizes delays and keeps your schedule on track.
The reality is that warranty orders can take time, and the uncertainty of waiting can leave you and your customers feeling stressed. Rescheduling installations, dealing with incomplete projects, and managing customer expectations all add to the pressure. The question is: How soon can you realistically expect your replacement piece to arrive?
At Cutting Edge Doors & Woodworking, we understand the challenges that warranty orders bring to your business. That’s why we prioritize making the warranty process as smooth and efficient as possible. Over the past two years, our average lead time for warranty orders, including custom pieces, is just 6.7 working days, with most standard warranty orders shipping within five days.
In this article, you’ll learn the expected lead time for warranty orders, what factors might cause delays, and what information you need to provide to ensure a seamless process. With this knowledge, you’ll feel confident in managing warranty claims and keeping your projects on schedule.
How Soon Will Your Warranty Order Ship?
Most warranty orders fall under Cutting Edge’s ‘rush’ lead time: three to five business days. Our team always aims to ship warranty orders sooner if possible.
What Does Lead Time Mean in Custom Woodworking?
You may be thinking, ‘What do you mean by lead time?’
Lead time is the amount of time any given order spends in our shop. Only business days count in lead time. A three- to five-day lead time means that from the day you submit the order, three to five business days will pass before the warranty order ships.
The lead time does not include transit time. Depending on where your business is, transit time may range from one to five working days.
For example – if you submit a warranty order on Monday, you can expect it to ship between Thursday the same week and Monday the following week.
What Might Delay Your Warranty Order?
Some order details or specifications may affect the lead time of your warranty order. While you can trust that we do our best to minimize delays, you need to know what might delay your warranty order. This information will help you accurately revise your and your team’s schedule.
From custom details to the finish type to the door style, and even human error, we will look at how much of a delay each might cause and why.
Custom Details
Any custom details, like a decorative panel, can extend the lead time of your warranty order. Custom details increase the complexity of your warranty order, which affects the lead time accordingly.
Your warranty order will take one to three additional business days if it has custom details.
Custom details mean your order has to go through additional steps of our production line. In addition, extra components are needed for most custom pieces.
Simpler custom pieces, with only one custom detail or extra part, will only add one working day. More complex custom details, with multiple custom details or extra parts, will add three working days.
For example, a standard frame has four pieces, two stiles and two rails. Making a replacement standard frame would only take three to five business days.
If you were to request one of these four pieces to be 6” or wider, our team would need to make that piece separately. This would add one business day to the lead time of your warranty order. While this is considered a custom piece, it is still fairly simple.
In comparison, a mullion frame needs the same four pieces as a standard frame to start with. However, a mullion frame also needs the mullion bars cut and machined. Then, the mullion bars have to be glued into the frame. This is a complex custom piece, and would take an additional three business days.
Finish Type
If your warranty order is for raw doors, your order will fall within the usual lead time. However, if your original order was painted or stained by our team, the warranty order will also need to be finished by our team.
Your warranty order could take 1 to 15 additional business days if it needs to be finished by our team.
This is a wide date range because our team has to ensure we have enough of the finishing material (like paint) in stock to complete your warranty order. This is rarely an issue for small warranty orders, as our team aims to have some finishing material left in stock from each order. However, it is a problem for larger warranty orders. Warranty orders for 15 pieces or more almost always require additional material.
Most small warranty orders (up to 5 pieces) can be shipped within 1 or 2 extra business days. Larger warranty orders (15 pieces or more) take longer because additional finishing material has to be ordered.
Working with Natural Materials
Wood is a natural product, and can behave unexpectedly. As we work with wood, it can warp, crack, and even split apart.
Defects can also become visible as we machine the wood.
Delays caused by defects in the wood can range from one to three working days.
While it might seem like more can go wrong than right, it is rare to have wood defects delay a warranty order. Approximately 1 out of 50 warranty orders are delayed due to wood defects.
Lack of Information
If our team requires more information about your warranty order, we will contact you to confirm that information. If this is the case, the lead time will be three to five working days from when you provide the information.
While the first four reasons for extending the lead time of your warranty order are out of your control, the last one isn’t. You might be thinking, ‘But I don’t know what information your team needs. What do you need, and where do I find it?’
Lucky for you, the answer to those questions is right here!
What Information Do You Need to Provide For a Warranty Order?
When you submit a remake (or warranty) order, there is some information you (and we) need to know. Without these details, submitting a remake order is tricky and our team may need to contact you for more information.
Most of this information is on your invoice. You will need to provide the rest of the information as it refers to the defective piece you received.
You will need to know:
The Original Order Number or Job Name
This information helps ensure the replacement piece matches the rest of the order.
The ID Number of the Original Piece
This information isn’t vital, but it will make submitting the remake order easier. The ID number is to the left of the door size.
The Size
You need to make sure we remake the correct piece at the correct size.
If the door you received originally was the wrong size, make sure you provide the correct size as well as the size of the door you received.
The Reason for Replacing the Piece
What was wrong with the piece? Was it damaged in shipping? Warped? The wrong door style?
Any Additional Information You Want Us to Have
If you have pictures of the defect, then send them in. If you need the replacement door by a specific date, pass that information on to our team.
Do you need the warranty order to ship to a different address? Provide that information as well.
Our team may request pictures of any defects to clarify the warranty request. If you can provide pictures of the defect in advance, it will help prevent delays.
If you are missing any of the information above, our team can’t put your warranty order in production. We will put your warranty order on hold while our team confirms the missing details with you.
Any delay in providing this information translates directly into a delay on your warranty order. This means your incomplete job will continue sitting in your shop, and you will have to continue adjusting your schedule.
However, if you provide all the information above right away, your warranty order will be put into production without delay.
Your Warranty Order Will Ship as Soon as Possible
When you began this article, you were understandably concerned about the potential delays in receiving your warranty orders. Adjusting your schedule multiple times while waiting for replacement pieces can disrupt your workflow and strain customer relationships.
Now, you have clarity. You know that most warranty orders ship within three to five business days, though certain factors, like incomplete information, can cause delays. You’ve also learned what steps you can take to ensure your warranty orders are processed quickly and accurately. With this information in hand, you can better manage your schedule and customer expectations.
At Cutting Edge Doors & Woodworking, we prioritize your warranty orders because we understand how critical they are to your success. Our goal is to get your replacement pieces to you as quickly as possible, minimizing disruptions to your work. What’s next? Learn how to submit your warranty orders online to streamline the process and save even more time.
