warranty secrets revealed

JALLEN4 wrote:

down home wrote:
When a Dealer receives a MH he fills out a sheet with problems they have discovered from Mfg etc. They send that to the Mfg and are cut a check or given credit for the necessary repairs or adjustment.
Many Dealers put the money in their pockets and the repairs are done when they sell the unit, if you're lucky. they won't get additional money for those repairs already paid for and it is worked in when they feel like it or not at all. New problems they get money for and they try to get a set labor amount from their schedules etc. The Mfg builds the things and know what is involved. The Dealers haggle for the amount which may be justified or not.
Best idea is to deal with the factory if it is in any way convenient. Of course the Dealers love that idea. All they want to do is repairs paid for by you or insurance as a secondary business. They want to sell MHs and forget about them.
Not all you understand. There are some good ones and some that were terrible are getting better a lot better. Do the walk though and long test drive and don't sign on the dotted line unless everything is fixed to your satisfaction. there are other Dealers who need the business. Bad Experience is a terrible teacher and you don't want to lear that way.

While what you say may well be true somewhere, it has never worked that way for any brands I have ever represented.

When the dealer receives the unit, it is inspected for any missing equipment or damage. When the dealer does the PDI, all mechanical systems are checked for proper operation. Any problems corrected that are outside normal dealer responsibilities are treated as basically a warranty claim. The dealer is paid a labor rate dictated by their sales and service agreement and a parts mark-up also dictated by that agreement. Each repair is not negoseparatelyerately and the hours paid for the repair are generally dictated by the manufacturer.

If in fact the dealer makes a claim for repairs they did not do, they are technically guilty of warranty fraud which is in violation of both their contract and criminal law. More than one dealer or dealership employee has been convicted and sentenced for this crime.

Laws are broken every day in all walks of life and dealerships would not be an exception. But, to assume all dealerships or even a majority do this as a basis of business would be absurd. Most dealerships represent a very large investment and like most business owners, the dealer recognizes customer satisfaction assures success. Return business and service profits drive the return on investment made.

Most of the new Towable (some Motorhomes) makers require EACH complaint be negotiated. We must
1. Submit a detailed parts and labor cost
2. The Complaint/Cause/Correction
3. Then it is submitted ONLINE. Once they receive it they then return the various approvals or denials or cut in part or labor times. This is usually 24 to 48 hours after submission.
4. THEN you have to go back and renegotiate the cut labor times or parts pricing. This takes 24 to 72 hours.
5. ALL BEFORE WE WORK ON THE UNIT
6. Then, some OEM's require we get ALL repair parts from them even tho we might have them in stock. That takes 2 to 7 days depending on the part and how quick they ship.
7. As to the poster (Down Home) that started this part. I have been in the business 40 years and 34 of them on the dealer Tech/service side. We have carried at least 50 different OEMs over the years and NONE have ever had such a practice as he stated. NO OEM will cut any check to the dealer without the repairs having been done. PERIOD. Doug

I forgot------Pictures, LOTS of pictures are now required for a lot of warranty Authorizations.