Warranty work refused

[dubob]

Life’s little experiences can bring sadness or joy. I had one yesterday that ended on a happy note – at least I hope it did and will be in the future. It’s regarding the warranty service on my new (yes new) 2011 Lance 992.

I bought the unit from Bozeman Ford & RV in Montana. I was going to buy a 2 or 3 year old used unit, but when I found this unit at not much more than a used one, I bought it instead. I knew Lance had a dealer in Salt Lake City, UT about 40 miles from home, so I wasn’t worried about having a resource for the warranty service. Little did I know.

The first issue under warranty was the Jensen radio/CD player doesn’t want to work when it’s cold. I called the SLC dealership to see about getting a replacement. I explained where I bought the unit and why. Their service department told me I would have to take the issue back to Bozeman, MT because I didn’t buy it from them and they had no interest or desire to do warranty work on a unit that wasn’t purchased from them.

I called Bozeman RV and talked to the manager and explained the situation to him and how driving 700 miles (round trip) wasn’t going to happen. He had his Lance regional sales rep call me and he relayed my complaint directly to Lance. Lance called me yesterday and I explained the situation. The Lance rep was very accommodating. He is shipping me a new replacement radio which I will install. And if I need warranty service in the future, I’m to call Lance direct and they will intercede with the dealer for me to get the needed service.

The sad thing for this SLC dealership is the fact that I will not ever choose them for any kind of service or parts in the future (except warranty work) and they have lost a potential customer. I will also not recommend there business to anybody who asks me for advice about service work. I would think that the SLC dealership would want to establish a good relationship with any and all Lance product owners. But apparently that is not the case.

If your travels will take you through Utah with a new Lance product and you find yourself in need of some warranty work, I sincerely hope you will be treated better than I was.

[JumboJet]

I am glad I live in Arkansas.

My local RV dealer that does not even sell truck campers offered to perform warranty work for my refrigerator on my Lance.

The Lance dealer in Joplin, Missouri offered to perform the same warranty work (70 miles away).

Would I buy products from either of these two, you bet - and I have.

Money talks and BS walks!

I bought my Lance in Phoenix, AZ. When I searched the Internet, I found 3 Lance 1050S for sale. 1 in Texas - wasn't going that direction. 1 in Washington state, too far away. 1 in Phoenix and I just happened to be needing to go to Phoenix to pick up things my sister had left me after her passing.

[jimh406]

dubob, curiously, we seem to agree in spite of you pushing back against all of my comments. It might be time to take a deep breath.

[fla-gypsy]

No dealer of RV's is required to perform warranty service. The warranty is with the manufacturer and they alone are obligated to the terms of the warranty. RV dealers perform warranty service to attract and keep customers to make a profit from sales. You neither purchased from them or were likely too based on your own comments. Service work is performed by dealers/service centers to make a profit as well. You were viewed as never being a profit center for them in any way. It was a business decision, not personal.

[soren]

Lots of strange replies here, but unfortunately nobody can really understand the relationship between a specific manufacturer and the dealer, unless they are involved with the situation, as it stands at the moment.

To give an example, I know a dealer who was going on three decades of a relationship with one of the big trailer builders. He was heavily involved with a new unit that was nearly totalled, since it had a supply water leak buried deep inside the bathroom floor. He literally had to replace the entire lower structure of the back third of the unit. He was in continual contact with the factory, they were verbally authorizing the work and shipping parts on a regular basis. At the end of the repair, the manufacturer denied the claim entirely, since he did not get a signed repair authorization from the manufacturer prior to starting any work. They had told him to not worry about it, start the work immediately, and they shipped thousands in new repair parts during the process, but felt that it was OK to attempt to screw a loyal dealer who had been doing business with them since the early 1980s. That is one of many reasons that dealers refuse the opportunity to lose money on warranty. It's also pretty common to see a dealer at a show, or a salesman, and ask what happened to the "wonderful" product line you had last year? Often the response is, "we got real tired of being screwed out of warranty money"

The other issue may be the remoteness of SLC. I have spoken to quite a few ranchers and contractors in rural South Dakota that will have a new vehicle shipped in from a thousand miles away, and save $5K doing so. The bottom line is that the mentality of dealers in remote cities can be, "we don't discount, because we don't need to". It's quite possible that the Lance dealer is attempting to get that point across to anybody who isn't a loyal buyer. Heck I have done business in a densely packed area of the Northeast and heard the same story. "If you buy from an internet wholesaler, don't bother walking back into my dealership". Finally, it has been discussed many times before on this forum, but it doesn't seem to sink in. An rv dealer has ZERO obligation to do any warranty repair work to any unit that they did not sell. It's not a car, it doesn't matter how puffed up and full of indignation you get, they are not obligated to do it, and some will refuse.

Not only did the OP handle the situation well, he has done a great job of attempting to explain how and why he did what he did.

[Lantley]

Mote wrote:

troll3193 wrote:
call me crazy, but they seemed to have " lost a potential customer."

when you traveled 700 miles away to another dealer to buy something you could have bough locally..

Not justifying their decision,but understand it...

Bryan

I have to respectfully disagree. They get paid from Lance to do warranty work on "Lance" campers not just campers they sell. Most dealers are more than happy to do warranty work for this reason and if you are there hanging out while your work is being done you're bound to wonder around their store and buy more stuff.

They do not get paid full rate or even at all if repair is not approved by Lance. All warranty claims are not approved . Approval is not automatic and subject to Lance's discretion.
Furthermore there are parts to be returned paperwork to fill out and up to a 60 day payment window.
Dealers are willing to endure this for units they sold however for units they did not sell, that have local owners many dealers do not feel obliged to play the warranty game. It is a loosing proposition for them

[Mote]

troll3193 wrote:
call me crazy, but they seemed to have " lost a potential customer."

when you traveled 700 miles away to another dealer to buy something you could have bough locally..

Not justifying their decision,but understand it...

Bryan

I have to respectfully disagree. They get paid from Lance to do warranty work on "Lance" campers not just campers they sell. Most dealers are more than happy to do warranty work for this reason and if you are there hanging out while your work is being done you're bound to wonder around their store and buy more stuff.

[mangymarmot]

Sounds like you got the rub from your local dealer. He would definitely lose my future business too.

[mark1228]

dubob wrote:

mark1228 wrote:
The other thing I really laugh about on these types of subjects is that the local dealer now has "lost your business". Really? Seems to me they lost it when you went out of town to make your purchase and since you did it once a logical conclusion is that you will do it again next time.

Which parts of my previous statements about the local dealer NOT HAVING either a 2-3 year old used unit (which is what I wanted and started out looking for) or a 2011 new unit (which I bought at a highly discounted price) available for sale on their lot for the time period of Oct 2012 through Apr 2013 do you not understand. The local dealer had nothing in stock that I was interested in buying. That being said, the local dealer lost absolutely nothing in the way of a sale. Why is that so hard for a couple of you folks to grasp?

I have worked in dealerhsip service departments for 23 years. Judging by your responses here I know exactly why the dealer was not interested in your business, uh I mean "warranty" work.

[dubob]

OkieGene,

I really appreciate your comments and your point of view. However, this was clearly not the case in my situation. The local dealership didn’t have what I was looking for within my budget. For that matter, there were no used models available within 500 miles of my home. So when a brand new 2011 popped up in Bozeman, it was kind of a no brainer to buy it. It had nothing to do with the local dealerships policies or pricing structure. I wasn’t looking to save a few bucks by driving hundreds of miles. I saved about $9,000 off the original MSRP of the 2011 model and more like $13,000 to $14,000 off the MSRP of a 2013/14 model. I have absolutely nothing against the local dealership other than their attitude towards me in this one specific incidence.

I’m also absolutely certain that had I been willing and able to purchase a new 2013/14 unit that I would have purchased it from the SLC dealership ; after, or course, some hard bargaining to get them to sell it to me at the last RV Show price and probably saving around $4,000 to $5,000.

:B

[dubob]

jimh425 wrote:
Cutting my quote so that it loses its context is lame. Are you saying you'd have the same response if they said exactly what I put in quotes that you cut? If yes, I think you are just an unreasonable person, and you are an all or nothing kind of guy.

Okay jimh425, just for you I’ve included your whole post with comments on the whole thing.

jimh425 wrote:
There are lots of reasons why a dealer doesn't do warranty work including being punitive.

Yep, punitive pretty much covers it.

jimh425 wrote:
Sales guys don't make any money off of it compared to what they make in sales.

And this is relevant to my needing warranty work how?

jimh425 wrote:
In addition, as others have noted are they providing a service or a profit center.

Well, they aren’t offering any service to me, so that MUST mean they are a profit center.

jimh425 wrote:
Many small dealers don't really do service.

I have no idea about this particular dealership because I have never been into their business for anything except to look at a 992 about 4 years ago.

jimh425 wrote:
The ones that specialize in service will work on anything, warranty or not.

No comment.

jimh425 wrote:
Besides, the dealer in question should have clearly stated why they wouldn't work on it.

I already covered this.

jimh425 wrote:
Then, they would be given the proper consideration of being worthy of future business. That's all on that business.

This makes no sense to me at all. Does anybody else get it? If so, please explain it to me.

jimh425 wrote:
They could have said, "Lance has shown that they don't pay for warranty work, so we don't do work on vehicles that we didn't sell. We will help you find someone who will and call Lance for you".

But they didn’t. They said: “I would have to take the issue back to Bozeman, MT because I didn’t buy it from them and they had no interest or desire to do warranty work on a unit that wasn’t purchased from them.”

It does not change the validity of my earlier comment on the one sentence I saw fit to address. I was trying to educate you on what the dealership actually told me with regards to why they would not honor my request for warranty service. Now you’re asking me if I’m saying I'd have the same response if they said exactly what I put in quotes that you cut. Well of course not. If they said that, I would not have made my post at all. But they DIDN’T say that did they? I’ve told you a couple of times exactly what they did say and I stand by my original post as written and my earlier response to you as written. I'm going to refrain from responding to your comments about my character.

[TOOBOLD]

I still think it is bad business. Rv warranties typically last a year and then we are all paying customers. Most of us keep our trailers longer than a year.

[jimh406]

dubob wrote:

jimh425 wrote:
Besides, the dealer in question should have clearly stated why they wouldn't work on it.

As has already been stated in my original post, they did so state: “Their service department told me I would have to take the issue back to Bozeman, MT because I didn’t buy it from them and they had no interest or desire to do warranty work on a unit that wasn’t purchased from them.”

Cutting my quote so that it loses its context is lame. Are you saying you'd have the same response if they said exactly what I put in quotes that you cut? If yes, I think you are just an unreasonable person, and you are an all or nothing kind of guy.

[OkieGene]

Let me give you another viewpoint. I'm not trying to argue or be a butthead, but please bear with me.

Years ago I worked in service department management in the automotive field.
Warranty work is a different situation than customer pay work.

I can understand, on one hand, a dealer refusing to do warranty work if you bought it somewhere else. If you live in the same town as your, well let's just call him your "hometown dealer" and you decide drive hundreds and hundreds of miles to save a few bucks, then you come home and expect your hometown dealer to do warranty work, you're going to have issues.

We had people, like I said, drive hundreds and hundreds of miles to save a few dollars. Then they'd come back to hometown and bring in a laundry list with a lot of complaints, and want to wait on it or get it in and out that same day. Their essence was "screw every body else, I want mine fixed at no charge, and I want it now!"

What about the people who bought from home town local dealer? They go in for warranty work and there is Joe Blow wanting his in now! And Joe Blow is worried so much that he brings in a laundry list of every possible potential problem, "just in case" it goes bad later. This takes a lot of time, and therefore money, to pay the technician, which the manufacturer will probably not pay for. Nothing found to fix, no reimbursement.

And as far as the argument about "Snowbirds or other travelers just traveling though and needing a repair"? Well, most likely they will get fixed under warranty, because people do understand they don't live there, they're traveling and not near home and their hometown selling dealer.

I will tell you for the gospel truth I've personally seen and witnessed people driving in and bragging to everyone how they saved XXX$$$ buying their car out of state. Mr Hometown dealer made no money, and his employees realize that they need to stay in business and take care of their bread and butter. If the person was nice we would eventually work it in, but forget about putting you to the front of the line ahead of everyone else.

I could go on and on but I think I've made my point. There are always two sides to every story.

[JumboJet]

I bought a new 2011 in Phoenix, AZ and needed warranty work. Nearest Lance dealer was in Joplin, MO 70 miles away. I explained the problem, they said bring it in, we will make the repairs under warranty. They did ask why I did not buy from them. They did not have a 1050S in stock and only placed orders when they needed an entire truck load to save on shipping costs.

I have been back to them and purchased additional parts and accessories.

They also handled the recall on the battery separator.

Lance dealers must be like a box of chocolates, you never know what you may get.

[James_]

Hey dubob,
Nice unit.