I have a Handyman Service in our area. It is a one man operation that fills a void in our small community. I do RV repairs when called among all the other stuff I do. There is no RV dealer of any kind in our area, the closest is over an hour away, if you know the roads. We are on the west side of Table Rock Lake, a vacation destination for RVs as well as weekenders. I was called upon by a weekender that has his Forrest River product setting on a site here. They had a skylight leaking. It was cracked, the unit was 2 months out of warranty. The selling dealer is out of business, they had no one to turn to. I suggested they call the manufacture, and see if they could help or at least let us know how to get a new skylight. Forrest River stepped up and said they would not only send us the parts at no cost they would pay the labor for them. We all thought that was fantastic. I got all the info to send them the bill. I promptly sent Forrest River an invoice for the labor by email, and received a confirmation. 4 weeks had gone by, no check. I sent a reminder, Forrest River replied "Our payment terms for checks are NET 60 from the date of receipt of invoice which would put you at about 1/14/14. Or by ACH we pay NET 30, if you would like the payment sooner via ACH I’ve attached the necessary form. The work was completed on 10/31/13, I could send them all my bank account information if I wanted to get it sooner. I will be damned if I am going to send any one my bank account information. It is no wonder no one wants to work on anything the factories have to pay for. If I had to by parts and provide labor to them interest free for 60 days, I don't want to do the work either!!

You now see one of the problems with doing warranty work. Wait till you see the labor rate they pay is almost always less than it took to fix the problem. They all have there own pay scale for repair time and per hour labor amount!

even dealers who sell their product have this problem. it is not just FR but they all are slow payers.

wait till they tell you that you are not certified through them therfore they wont pay.

eHoefler wrote:I have a Handyman Service in our area. It is a one man operation that fills a void in our small community. I do RV repairs when called among all the other stuff I do. Sheesh- talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth! Not only does this mfr. agree to cover the parts for this OUT OF WARRANTY work, they agree to pay for your labor as well- this despite the fact that you don't even exist as a brick-and-mortar operation. And you post on here to complain about their long-established payment protocols?Welcome to the Real World of over-the-counter business practices!

In the middle east for twenty years, it was very evident that the two biggest problems a contractor faced was getting the contract,, and then getting paid for the contract. Labor, materials, permits housing all the rest was easy in comparisom. With call centers and electronic transfer, its all engineered to hold value in the bank of bigger business as long as possible. pops

Dealers not wanting to do warranty work. | Good Sam Community

doxiemom11
Explorer II
Dec 11, 2013
Many many large businesses and corporations pay on a 60-90 days basis. This is nothing different than a lot of companies - it is not just rv related.
Lantley
Nomad
Dec 11, 2013
60 days net maybe the new world order but it's not always lucrative if you are due to be paid.
How many of are paid 60 days net by their employer? For a small operator 60 days is a long time.
In the end it is easy to see why many shy away from warrantee work.
Straight payment is just easier and more profitable. Why jump through hoops if you don't have to?
Let someone else (like the selling dealer) play the warranty game.
down_home
Explorer II
Dec 11, 2013
I have had warranty repairs denied as they said some of these people are fly by night and so on and on..
Last repair to fridge The Technician came to storage and got it okd by company and did the repairs no fuss no muss and probaably cheaper than a Dealer that might get to it some time and who knows how long the Youn Fella might have been doing repair work and how much time he would be given to do it in.
It makes a lot more sense to hire someone that does these kind of things day in and day out and won't be gone tommorrow and will go to the Customer's site. Everybody is more pleased. They do have to make sure they are credible and a true Repairean.
PawPaw_n_Gram
Explorer
Dec 11, 2013
Most of use grew up in a Net 15 or a Net 30 payment world.

Unfortunately, many to most big businesses are moving to a Net 60 payment world.

My wife used to work in accounts payable for a company about to go public. One change that they did before getting ready to file the IPO was to go from Net 45 to Net 60.

"Everybody does it" was what the company was told by their going public experts.

While big companies can work that way - it is the small shops which really get hurt.
wbwood
Explorer
Dec 11, 2013
bigdogger wrote:
What's the problem with giving them the ACH information? It is the same information on the front of every check you have ever written. The routing number for the bank, which is public knowledge and your account number, which is plainly printed on each and every check you have ever written or received.

For real. What do you think happens with your check when you write one somewhere? You give it to someone you don't know from squat and it passes through numerous hands before it's over with. Your check is in the possession of couriers who are not us citizens, that don't make a whole heck of a lot of money, getting the check to a processing center from the bank who's taking the deposit. Luckily now with the take a picture of the check thing, perhaps some of those hands are taken out of the equation. Anyone can get your checking account information. There's no security in it. And as mentioned, routing number is easy to come by.
westend
Explorer
Dec 11, 2013
I do similar type of work. Some of my work is a handshake and paid in cash after completion. I also have some commercial accounts. One of my customers, an international conglomerate, has this policy: All invoices are paid after 45 days except in the months of Dec, Mar., June, Sept., when NO invoices are paid. I started a project (painting inside walls in a plant) in Oct., completed it in Nov. and was not paid until Jan. 10.
My choice is to accept their New World Order and expect payments to be delayed or to part company. They do enough things right so that I still do work for them.
Executive45
Explorer III
Dec 10, 2013
I'll flip the coin over...I think it's atypical.

We had a tornado come through the campground a few months ago. It removed all four of my slide toppers. Called the insurance company and they sent out an adjuster. Since we are full timers, it's not convenient for us to wait for a dealer to replace the toppers, so we decided to wait until we were going to be somewhere for a month or so. As it turns out, we were in Harlington, Texas and some mexican fellas were installing a patio room on a fiver. I asked them about my toppers and they gave me an estimate. Called the insurance company and explained the situation. Got it approved and next day I had my new toppers installed! Insurance company sent the check within three days....$1200.00.

Point is, not everyone is out to rip someone off. There are procedures that must be followed. It's been my experience that if the procedures are followed, the transaction goes smoothly. Sounds like the OP doesn't want to follow those procedures so he gets what he gets. While he may not like FRs procedures or as jwmll above indicates, if you expect to get paid follow the simple rules. I've had excellent response from my warranty company, from Monaco and from my insurance company. But, as I said, I asked and followed their procedures......YMMV.....Dennis
midnightsadie
Explorer II
Dec 10, 2013
I worked for a major hospital in ohio 25years back it took two months to get a bill paid. think of the tens of thousands of dollars they.,ve made in interest on your money. thats how it all got started some ACC figured it out.
jwmII
Explorer
Dec 10, 2013
Your story is soooo typical. The manufacturers jerk you around typically because they can. Notice when you do business with them and are ordering from them how they get their money upfront.
Another nest of theives are these extended warranty outfits. I'm surprised you have not had a customer want you to work on their stuff under their extended warranty. Of course you call them and outline the work and parts needed and give them an estimate. They approve payment and you go to work and get the customers stuff up and running.
You then are told to fax the warranty outfit a copy of the bill and they will then give you a credit card number to charge everything to. Oh!! But wait a minute, we don't pay that much for what you just did and the parts are to high too. We only pay this much for parts and labor.Which by the way can be as much 50% less than the original agreed upon price. Here you sit with a credit card to charge to knowing full well that your full amount on the bill will not be allowed for payment.
This is one reason among others that shops,and independent repairmen like yourself won't do work that use those extended warranties.
While I was in the business I would let the customer know that they would need to pay me and then they could fight it out with their insurance/warranty shysters to get reimbursed. A small shop or one man cannot subsidize these factories and insurance/warranty companies nor should they.
bigdogger
Explorer II
Dec 10, 2013
What's the problem with giving them the ACH information? It is the same information on the front of every check you have ever written. The routing number for the bank, which is public knowledge and your account number, which is plainly printed on each and every check you have ever written or received.