Can we do warranty work?
Many people ask us, “Can you do warranty work?” In short, no, it is not a feasible option for the manufacturer to pay us if they have a dealer with whom they have an interest and agreement to support.
We all appreciate the provided warranty, but lets not take it for granted.., it is not required by law to the extent you may wish it was. It is a large part of marketing as a way to provide extra value in the purchase & to make sure you come back in the dealership for maintenance work. Of course, after sales protection for the you as the consumer as well.
One of the frustrating comments is “ I have taken it there 5 times and it still isn't fixed”. Problem #1 is, the dealers get very little allowable time to diagnose the problem, situations vary but generally the technician gets 25 to 40 minutes to diagnose and that’s it. If he is paid flat rate, as most of them are, that means he (or the dealership) is working for the manufacturer for free once the time is up. –Not a desirable situation. Sure the manufacturer says they provide the training and equipment necessary to do it within this time, but the training occurred 1-2 years before any problems begin to show up, and the diagnostic steps were written by the engineers (who are never wrong) before any know issues developed. So in the real world it takes longer to be accurate on irregular symptoms, and they only get paid to replace parts after the 40 minutes are up. If you were a technician, what would you do? Sure there are ways to beat it, a lot of problems are commonly recurring, but the options are not always the best for all parties involved.
What’s the solution? Give the technician as much of the information as possible, the more you can give the less headache everyone will have. Offer to pay over & above warranty to have the diagnosis performed the first time. They will rise to the challenge and feel honored & I bet you they will fix it the first time.
Posted By: Brad Wohlgemuth 2010/10/23
