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Limited Lifetime Warranties May Not Be For A Lifetime

BOSTON (CBS) -- Jimmy Ipp didn't expect his blinds to last forever, but he did think he would be able to get them fixed for as long as he had them.

The window treatments came with a "limited lifetime warranty."

"I thought this was a great deal," Ipp said. "I will buy this blind and I won't have to worry about it for the lifetime of ownership."

Contacting Just Blinds didn't go as planned, however. Ipp learned the warranty was only good for five years because that is how long the company estimated the lifetime of an average blind.

Ipp's blinds were seven years old. "It was kind of deceitful to me," said Ipp.

Edgar Dworsky of Consumer World said "You can't call a warranty lifetime, and then in the fine print, say we define lifetime as five years. That's a five-year warranty, not a lifetime warranty."

Dworsky said the term "limited lifetime warranty" simply means the customer might have to pay for the product to be shipped for service, or that the warranty is limited to the original owner.

If a company does use the term "limited," it must define whose lifetime they mean.

"The Federal Trade Commission has rules about lifetime warranties," Dworsky said. "They basically require retailers to disclose their definition of what lifetime means and that is key for the consumer, so there is no ambiguity."

The product warranty on Just Blinds' website says they cover their blinds if "service is ever needed."

The company also pointed to a second three-year warranty buried several clicks deep in every product description. The company couldn't say whether that second description was in place back when Ipp bought his blinds.

The FTC requires online retailers to post warranty information on or near product descriptions. Dworsky did a survey and found only about 20-percent of products had proper disclosures.

Just Blinds ultimately decided to replace Ipp's blinds.

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