brulaz wrote:
JALLEN4 wrote:
brulaz wrote:
Lessmore wrote:
brulaz wrote:
Transengineer over at cumminsforum has a great rant about why dealer service departments are problematic:
Transengineer Rant
He is referring specifically to warrantied repairs paid for by RAM.
In summary: transengineer wrote:
Yes, this is one reason why new vehicles are so expensive. And why dealerships are such profitable businesses. The more they screw up, the more money they make.
Are other manufacturers this bad? Maybe the Tesla model of manufacturer provided warranty repairs is better.
That's quite a jump implying Tesla would somehow be better.
...
I made no such implication. "Maybe" is the term I used. The "somehow" is that with Tesla, the manufacturer, is directly responsible for warranty repairs of their cars. Thus they have more control over how they are done.
With the franchise or dealership model, RAM apparently has little control, and "the more they screw up, the more money they make."
It has nothing to do with Tesla per se :R , but is all about how best to handle warranty repairs.
Whether the other manufacturers have such loose control over their dealers is another question. And maybe RAM could step up and improve how their dealers handle this.
What bugs me is that such sloppy repair work under warranty will prolly translate to sloppy repair work out of warranty. And if your local RAM dealer is all that's available to you, you are screwed.
I am afraid your assumption about Ram not having any control over the dealership's repair process is very wrong. Any and all warranty repairs must be approved for payment by the manufacturer after being submitted to them. Every major manufacturer has an incredibly sophisticated system controlling their warranty process and approval process. Their warranty algorithm will immediately flag a suspicious repair that falls outside the parameters of repair set by their engineers and the engineers of the suppliers. They have the option to reject the repair payment, call for the involved parts for inspection, or to send in a team for an audit and chargebacks when there is too much discrepancy.
The internet is full of mechanical warriors who know far more than the dealer or the manufacturer about the product and how to repair it...or so they claim. The people who designed the product, built the product, pay the warranty costs, and process millions of warranty claims yearly would most likely have a better chance to have this knowledge. Every warranty repair order claimed is computerized and analyzed. Every repair is compared to thousands of other similar repairs, repair policy and procedure, and the guidelines established by the supplier of the components. I will guarantee you the dealer cannot just claim additional parts for the repair for higher profits and the manufacturer just casually pays them.
Pretty much everything you say is the opposite of what transengineer said. Not sure if you even read transengineer's rant.
He is generally believed to be a RAM engineer specializing in transmissions (esp. the 68RFE) and is a well-respected member of that forum. I'll take his opinion over yours anytime, anyday.
And there-in lies the problem! He is "widely believed to be". This is exactly how this nonsense gets started. While the guy on the forum is "widely believed" he is in fact anonymous without resume and the dealer is somebody who has millions invested and is not a moving target. You can go find him and look at what is real 24/7.
If in fact he is right and the part replaced was not needed, the dealer did not get paid for the part and ate the part cost and the labor to install it. This is how the system works and exactly what the manufacturer employs all these engineers to do. If in fact the "believed to be" knows what he is talking about, he has already told the manufacturer and would be the reason the dealer did not get paid. He would not be trying to sell the idea that the dealer was trying to pad his bill because he would know better.
I spent 40+ years in the business. I was the Service Director of one of the largest Chevrolet dealers in the country doing hundreds of thousands of dollars of warranty work. I operated and owned multiple new car dealerships including a Dodge store. I will guarantee you I know more about the warranty claims business than any engineer because millions of my dollars were at stake. Believe what you wish, but there are at least two ex-dealers telling you how the system really works!
