Need Help with Dealer.

[ChrisM]

Can somebody explain to me why dealers are so hesitant to do warranty work? Correct me if I am wrong, but it's not coming out of their pockets right? If it's cleared through the manufacturer, then the manufacturer pays for it yes? You'd think they would welcome warranty work for guaranteed income... Then again, maybe the mark up isn't as high so they're losing money for the time they could be gouging other customers? I just don't get it.



For my business, warranty work is typically paid by manufactures at a flat rate. I own an appliance service company, I do not perform authorized warranty service as it only pays a flat rate from the manufactures, and at different negotiated prices depending on the manufacture, which is well below my street rates. So if I perform a warranty repair on a brand of appliance, usually my parts are ordered on parts account, (my expense), my labor is already pre negotiated, I'm usually guaranteed 2 trips total between diagnostic, then return with parts. If it's a newly designed product, and I'm not as familiar with all the steps needed to make the repair, than all that additional labor time is on me. Once the job is completed, my parts account charges and labor time are reimbursed on a NET 30 following my submitted invoice. Any issues or delays submitting my invoices for payment, and I'm still required to pay all outstanding parts charges within their NET 30 terms. In short warranty work is not worth it for me.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

That's similar to auto mechanics, they get paid for the time that the manufacturer says it should take them to do a specific repair.
@veedubtek You have any input on warranty repairs?

 

[veedubtek]

I'll tell you from my experiences, it definitely varies by location. I actually left the dealer after 15 years, and it's even way different for me now at an independent shop.

Biggest thing at the dealer (speaking strictly from a car viewpoint) is labor times. Tech's pretty much run the service department, and service advisors are lazy. So, when an advisor has to write an estimate on a job, instead of digging through the book to find suggested labor time, he'll just ask the tech how much labor it should be. So, take a water pump job. On this certain model car, warranty time is 3.0 hours. That usually means customer pay time (CP), probably books for something like 3.8 hours. Now, the advisor asks the tech, and he ballparks it at 5.0 hours. So, the tech and advisor (who is paid on commision) are now making considerably more money if you are paying for the job, versus the manufacturer. Parts prices are kinda getting the same way. Alot of dealers now, particularly the bigger chains, are "matrixing" prices. So, say that water pump costs $100. Warranty is gonna pay xx% over cost. Then you have your retail, or MSRP. And most dealers nowadays charge MORE than retail. So, again, more commision, more money. So, next time you get an estimate for a repair for your car, I encourage you to ask for a copy of the estimate in writing, with a breakdown of parts and labor, and do a little research. The shop I run now, we do all labor by book time, and all parts are xx% over cost (almost always under list price).

Another point - if the manufacturer views the claim later and for some reason isn't happy, they can just kick it back and not pay. Granted, this would only happen if someone at the dealer didn't document something correctly or do something right, but there is a slight risk. If you pay, there is virtually no chance of that. With automotive warranty work, proper procedures and documentation is half the battle. Red tape. Again, easier to not have to do all that.

I have NO clue if marine dealers operate in the same fashion, but I'd be willing to bet they do. And it's dumb. Any tech worth their ass can make money doing warranty work. I loved it.

 

[Danielmailin]

I do work for a car manufacturer on the corporate side, and yes a service department would like to do more customer paid Jobs over warranty, due to all the paperwork, proof of repair, diagnostics sheets and return of failure part back to manufacturer. If any of the above is missing, is an automatic charge back.
On a customer paid job, most of these is not required, and get paid on the spot, and usually charge more labor than what warranty would had paid for the same repair.
If the service department (Service Manager and technicians) is competent, then they would make money on both warranty and customer paid jobs, but that is not always the case.

 

[Elio195HOI]

Finally getting the boat back tomorrow, lets see how it goes......

 

[DJMattyT]

I found the Number to scarab and gave the warranty dept a call. Apparently they have not received any warranty Tickets nor have they denied any with my boats serial #. Scarab stated all the items in question are covered under warranty and Advised to call Marine Max and have them call him directly. Did that, now their whole attitude changed and they are working to see what they can do. These dealers are so full of BS, I wonder how many people accept the sorry not covered under warranty crap and move on. Hope this info can help someone else out.

Marinemax has to lay out all the cost for the repairs and then they put in a claim to Scarab hopefully trying to get reimbursed. I always called Scarab first though to see if my problems fell under warranty first, then I called marinemax to get the stuff fixed. I wasn't totally happy with Marinemax at times this past season because they had so much going on (what seemed to be more important than my little 19 footer) but all said and done I think they handled everything pretty well. They took care of all the little issues I had including the big problem/mistake that they made by painting over the coolant plate.