Warranty work refused
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 (...
Forum Discussion
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.
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.
