Negotiable warranties
Been years since I worked in the industry where part of my job was doing responses to bid requests from various level government agencies, notably state universities.
Frequently the specifications included warranties of different length than the company's standard two years parts/labor. Occasionally several times longer. The instructions I was given said to take exception and substitute the standard warranty except on certain products where profit margins were high and established reliability was extremely good. Very low risk in extending such a warranty. Under those circumstances we did not OFFER a longer warranty; simply accepted the proposed terms and conditions, effectively extending the warranty.
It is not impossible that a small company offered a big enough order might go along with something normally unreasonable to get a piece of critical business. It is also not impossible that somebody within the company acted irresponsibly and now can only hope the warranty never needs to be exercised.
Of course a company that knew it would be out of business in a few months (anybody remember any recent history?) would have no trouble at all offering a hundred year warranty. Gee, remember the people who bought GM cars from "the old" GM and what happened to their warranties when GM was nationalized and become Government Motors?
