Dealership not interested in warranty work

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Bandito440
Thanks for the replies.

To summarize:

Employees get paid less per hour for warranty work, so there's less motivation for them.

The job market must be good if someone's turning up their nose to warranty work because it doesn't pay as much. I'd just be happy to have the business, but my perspective is different. Maybe I just need to find a dealer with a shop that's slower and looking for business.

To the dealership guys; what is an average hourly employee paid for regular shop work?


This is how it was explained to me by a good friend who works in a busy dealership. Coincidentally I got the same response years ago when I worked in dealership and complained to the service writer because a few of my customers complained to me about the shop hassling them about warranty work. The numbers are rounded out to keep it simple. He said: Why work a 40 hour week for $700 when you can work the same 40 hours for a $1,000? Then he asked if I'd do it in my business. OP you'll have to search high and low for a dealership that has a slow shop, and hope for the best. Good luck.

 

[Vikas]

Quote:
Personally i would not want those monkeys in my new engine.
Exactly! I have yet to come across any repair done under warranty where the vehicle was put together again perfectly. Warranty work is like getting a "free root canal". You should only do it if there is no other alternative.

Just find the shop manual and go through the steps involved in that 16 hours of work and see how many ways the job could be screwed up and may not be immediately evident. Heck, even if it were immediately evident that the guy made a mistake at hour three, imagine the pushback you will get to have to redo it on their own dime.

Just say NO.

 

[JetStar]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Quote:
Personally i would not want those monkeys in my new engine.
Exactly! I have yet to come across any repair done under warranty where the vehicle was put together again perfectly. Warranty work is like getting a "free root canal". You should only do it if there is no other alternative.

Just find the shop manual and go through the steps involved in that 16 hours of work and see how many ways the job could be screwed up and may not be immediately evident. Heck, even if it were immediately evident that the guy made a mistake at hour three, imagine the pushback you will get to have to redo it on their own dime.

Just say NO.


Good way to put it, a free root canal. I don't like others working on my cars or bikes, especially if they are in a hurry, trying to beat rate. Luckily I have not had to do this very often lately.

 

[hatt]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Quote:
Personally i would not want those monkeys in my new engine.
Exactly! I have yet to come across any repair done under warranty where the vehicle was put together again perfectly. Warranty work is like getting a "free root canal". You should only do it if there is no other alternative.

Just find the shop manual and go through the steps involved in that 16 hours of work and see how many ways the job could be screwed up and may not be immediately evident. Heck, even if it were immediately evident that the guy made a mistake at hour three, imagine the pushback you will get to have to redo it on their own dime.

Just say NO.
Are the Helm manuals good? I need to pick up something for my truck.

 

[andyd]

I just had the '14 Ford work van into the local DLR and they upsold the dickens out of the lease company. I needed a battery I'm guessing and a few tires but rear brakes and a CV joint up front? Looking back, they may have confused the grease on the RF hub to be slung. It wasnt. I had to use a 4X4 post and a 6 lb sledge to get the rusted on wheel off. Before I put the spare on, I greased the hub face. Just like I do on my own cars.

It is all good, I appreciate having the van prepared for winter. Meantime I had a '15 Corolla for a rental.

 

[Jetronic]

Originally Posted By: Bandito440


So, my question is this: Why would a dealership want to deny warranty work? Aren't they reimbursed by the factory? It seems like they'd be turning down business and income. I haven't worked in a retail operation for some time, but I can't imagine going out of the way to turn down business and push away a customer.


Parts are paid back only at net cost, and the hours allowed for the repairs are never enough if you want to do a thorough job. Don't do it thorough, and any repeat repairs come straight out of the workshops budget. Don't cross every t or dot every i on the warranty forms and payment gets denied. All the time spent on the paperwork is not reimbursed. The dealership loses money on all warranty work.

We charge $70for everyone, except warranty work or insurance repairs, which are closer to $50.

You can imagine nobody is waiting on a warranty repair on a vehicle getting serviced elsewhere as the servicing is where we make money, and repairs after the warranty period (5 years bumper to bumper, unlimited mileage)

 

[CKN]

With their massive increase in sales, Subaru right now is "fat and happy". I have a paint problem on my 2012 Legacy. They had no interest at all (two different dealers-plus the factory guy on the phone) in making me happy.


AS much as I don't want to buy a Subaru next time around because of this-where I live I don't know if I have an option for an affordable all-wheel drive vehicle other than Subaru.

 

[mehullica]

Subaru is not "fat & happy" at all. They are trying to avoid a class action lawsuit on the oil consumption & input shaft/manual transmission issues. They are in financial trouble similar to Infinity/Nissan/Mazda. Buying up EPA credits early in the game is coming back to hurt them with CAFE numbers going up

 

[bdcardinal]

Yes, the technicians get paid less hours to do warranty work. On a lot of jobs now, the warranty times are less than half the CP times. We are $140/hr at my work, and I think warranty pays us around $110. Most techs flat rate is $25-32/hr regardless of warranty or CP.

On the parts end we get to bill out cost +40% on most parts. Powertrain parts we get cost + an handling allowance that ranges from $330-990. Obviously we get more for an diesel engine versus a transmission. One thing we have to do with warranty work is hold onto all the old parts until Ford or Mazda say we can dispose of them. They also will call parts back for inspection or to just make sure they were actually changed.

We have no issues doing warranty work for people. If anything we get paid faster by Ford and Mazda and you don't have to go any additional discounting to get it approved. When it comes to powertrain we have to go a cost cap analysis where I build estimates for repairing an assembly versus replacing. Also Ford has no issues with paying for shop supplies required to do the repair which some customers make a stink about. I have seen customers come unglued when we replace an engine and new torque converter nuts, R134a, or a new thermostat are billed. The issues come when there is warranty coverage or not. Ford makes it easy, we go into our OASIS program, put in the VIN, mileage, and basic part number and it spits back if it is covered or not. Some parts require digital imaging to be submitted, such as when the back black panel on my Mustang was peeling.

It makes sense to have maintenance performed at the dealer under warranty in case there is an issue. We can go into your service history and pull all the records automatically without having to pester the customer for receipts. Yes we have denied coverage of failed components for improper fluids or extended change intervals. We have even had people provide fraudulent receipts, which resulted in Ford cancelling the warranty on vehicles and refunding extended warranty purchases to customers.

 

[super20dan]

its like the head gaskets all over again.

 

[Andrew1972]

Contact Subaru of America and ask them for appropriate action. Part of deal of selling this car by dealer is performing warranty work. Subaru typically is customer concentric in my findings owning 2 different cars front them.

 

[Vikas]

Quote:
On a lot of jobs now, the warranty times are less than half the CP times. CP $140/hr warranty $110
...
We have no issues doing warranty work for people.


I am sorry but I am calling out on it. Unless the dealer is doing charity work, why would he NOT have problem doing the warranty work? Not only the hours are half but the hourly rate is low. Either the dealer is so hungry for business or he is really pressured by the manufacturer to do some percentage of the warranty work. In a free market, the dealer will logically do his best to avoid the warranty work if he can get equivalent CP instead.

One of the technique used would be to tell customer that "they all do that" during the warranty period but as soon the car is off warranty make that very serious problem and needs to be fixed yesterday.

Mind you, I have been impressed by your replies in this forum. So, I am NOT all questioning your integrity or veracity. I consider you to be one of the most respected and highly valued member here. But we are at odds on the principle and rationality here and I would like to keep the on going discussion civil rather than getting in to name calling.

 

[JetStar]

[/quote] Are the Helm manuals good? I need to pick up something for my truck. [/quote]

Yes they are. Helm is the OEM publisher of many factory service manuals. Granted, you'll pay $$, but you get a lot. For example the FSM for my wife's S10 blazer is three volumes of around 500 pages each. Pretty much covers everything. They often discount manuals for older model years.
I've dealt with these guys for about a decade. They do sell used FSM's at a decent price. Located in Michigan.
http://www.auto-repair-manuals.com/

 

[DuckRyder]

I am surprised Subaru does not seal the oil cap and dipstick in some way on an oil consumption test.

Back when I worked in the dealer, it was pretty easy to beat the warranty time on a job if you'd done it a few times. You can stand around and whine about drawing the ticket, or you can get on it and make an hour FRT. Techs are prima donas some times your day cannot be nothing but gravy, you gotta have some Lima beans too...

 

[ledslinger]

I managed a fleet of diesel 4wd crew cab long bed F350'S. We paid for a fleet service management program that monitored pricing and got us warranty pricing on our service. I noticed the local Ford dealer often had additional charges for broken bolts on some bills. I asked the service manager about it and he admitted they were not genuine and were to make up for the warranty labor rate we were charged. I was stunned he was forthcoming about this but not as stunned at what he told me next. He said they were borderline on wanting to do service on our trucks and without what I call "phantom charges" they didn't want our business. They were so reluctant to do service on our trucks they didn't even respond previously when I told the service manager to have a salesman call me since we bought 5 trucks a year.

We wanted to do business with the closest local dealer but we were done when he told me about the "phantom" billing. We were not a pain and our money was good. The only way were a pain was that we were knowledgeable and scrutinized the bills. BTW, the Ford trucks were junk and the Powerstroke engines were done at 200K miles, and we gave them away cheap when they needed new engines and weren't worth it.

On the OP's Subaru, another factor could be the process of verifying true consumption. They aren't going to drop a new engine in every time a customer reports use a teaspoon over the limit.

 

[hattaresguy]

It seems to be largely manufacture dependent.

I have found Ford to be so so, GM the same, Ram just says its normal, and Toyota isn't terrible.


No experience with Subaru.

Mercedes dealers seem to love warranty work, they are always looking to fix stuff and bill MB for it.

 

[GiveMeAVowel]

Originally Posted By: Vikas


I am sorry but I am calling out on it. Unless the dealer is doing charity work, why would he NOT have problem doing the warranty work? Not only the hours are half but the hourly rate is low..
.


But you see the ONLY reason the $tealership has his business as it is is because the manufacturer GRANTED them the franchise and with that franchise comes obligations they must adhere to under contract from the car maker, if that store refuses to do warranty work as agreed to in their contract the stealership can be FIRED by the manufacturer. It isn't just about potential profit.

If I was a manufacturer and saw that a store was turning away legitimate customers warranty work, I work revoke the stores' franchise, and they can just become an independent service or used car sales point. They'll be just fine of course.

 

[Vikas]

I gives me great pain that I am agreeing with you

You are saying that the dealer is doing it because he is being forced to do it and if there is a way to substitute the CP work for the warranty work, he will do it in a NY minute.

And this is what I have been implying.

 

[GiveMeAVowel]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
I gives me great pain that I am agreeing with you

You are saying that the dealer is doing it because he is being forced to do it and if there is a way to substitute the CP work for the warranty work, he will do it in a NY minute.

And this is what I have been implying.


I bet it does.

But as always you seem to miss the actual crux of the issue.

The $tealership owner signed a contract with the
car manufacturer, and KNEW exactly what he was agreeing to (these folks have legal advisers besides having lots of cash to buy their store) and trying to make an end run around the contractual agreement VOIDS it.

If I was the manufacturer I would FIRE that store owner, ASAP.

 

[Andrew1972]

You take a lot of heart into a service advisor. Have you spoken to service manager who actually makes the decisions there? Service advisors at our local dealership simply exist to work as a go between of mechanics and public. Knowledge of mechanical things is not important as much as people skills.