The HercuGlass Guarantee

??? Do you guarantee HercuGlass against breakage?

The short answer is YES, but read on for details.

That's an excellent question because glassware manufacturers generally do not guarantee against breakage. Some will replace a "chipped" rim or base but if you read the fine print it says "Guarantee does not cover breakage". An example from a well known manufacturer states: "The 25 year limited guarantee "does not cover broken glassware or any glassware that is damaged as a result of improper care or handling". Another well known retailer says: "You Break It, We Replace It. FREE". - - - However the finer print indicates that the break must be due to a "manufacturing defect", and that subjecting the glass to high temperatures, pressure or impact voids the claim. And it also turns out that a fairly steep shipping and handling charge is added to "free". The reasons for all the caveats is that glass does break - even the most highly strengthened glass - - and normal glass breaks fairly easily. Companies manufacturing normal glass would quickly go out of business with full guarantees.

So why the long preamble to our answer? We want you to compare our honest but "limited" guarantee against any competing retailer or manufacturer.

Anyway, the short answer is yes, we do provide two types of guarantees.  One for the general public who use the glass at home, and a second for the Food Service industry.  (Go to bottom of page for the Food Service Guarantee)

A.  Guarantee against thermal shock fracture:

     1.  We guarantee our HercuGlass strengthened products against thermal fracture from pouring hot, or cold, drinks into our glassware.   This is most important for glassware that will be used for coffee, hot chocolate, etc.   This guarantee is good for 9 month after you receive the glassware. The products that fall under this guarantee include the following:  

1.  All  Mugs - 

2.  The County Fair and Redneck Drinking Jars  - even the ones that say they are not designed for hot drinks.  Our strengthened versions can withstand the temperature changes. - - - - But as always, be cautious when pouring a hot drink into glassware, even ours.  Do not hold the glass in your hand or on your lap.    Ouch.

How to report thermal fracture and receive new glassware:   If one of our "warm beverage" products such as a coffee mug breaks from pouring a hot liquid, we will replace the item.   The broken product must be shipped to us, at the customer's expense, so that we can identify the origin of failure and hopefully prevent future fractures.  We will send a new, strengthened glass free and postage paid.

Guarantee Against Impact Fracture:

These are newly developed products and we do not yet have sufficient statistics to let us predict how often a particular glass design will break under the expected wide variety of use conditions. We do know the glasses are the strongest available, and that they perform much better than normal glass under laboratory tests.  We have had less than 2 % product returns from fracture, and our restaurant customers are experiencing up to 90% reductions in breakage.  

We want to be fair to our customers, but cautious.  We guarantee our "warm beverage" glassware against thermal shock failure - with free replacements.  We also guarantee our products against breakage under normal handling and we will replace any any broken item at a reduced price that is a good deal for you, but which covers some of our costs, but not free.  We count on the customer to be reasonable, and not return glassware that has been severely mishandled or that was part of a Jewish wedding and did not survive the stomping of a foot. (Or for that matter, a Russian wedding in which the glass was thrown into the fireplace.)    Later, when we have more data, we hope to be able to provide an even better guarantee.

We have two different guarantees, depending on customer needs and uses. The first is for individuals and families who generally buy less than 12 glasses of a particular type and who do not use the glasses as often as a food service establishment. The 2nd is for industrial customers buying a larger number of a product, using it more often and where handling conditions vary widely.

If a HercuGlass product breaks from normal handling during the first 9 months we will replace the item for a $2.50 service charge per item.   All you you need do is send us the broken glass with an explanation of how it broke.  We use the broken glass to determine why it broke so that we can improve our products in the future. (To see how we do this visit the following web sites on "Fractography" of glass - It's kind of like "CSI HercuGlass".)
http://www.astm.org/Standards/C1678.htm
http://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/tlplib/fracture/fracture.php
http://www.glass-ceramics.uni-erlangen.de/Research/Selected2005/GlassDateien/Project_g1.htm

Food Service Industry:

For our restaurant and other food service customers:
At the sale we ask you to provide us with an estimate of what % breakage you generally observe in a 6 month period and the major cause of breakage. We will then guarantee that our glassware will save you money!!  If breakage is not reduced enough to cover the cost difference between our glasses and those you have been using, we will cover the difference via a refund, or new glassware.

??? How much money can I save with HercuGlass?
ANS: Tough question! The answer really depends on the number of glasses you buy - use.

Savings due to increased employee safety, loss of downtime and glass breakage can be significant. Based on our testing and knowledge of glass fracture, we expect that our glassware will experience about between 60 - 90% less breakage than normal glassware - depending on the use and style.

Please contact us for pricing for the Food Service Industry and for additional details and sample calculations regarding potential savings.