Warranty Rules

Grey_Critic

I was a Warranty Manager with 7 dealerships and a bodyshop under my supervision plus a Truck dealership

If there was an intermittent fault that could not be tied down (during warranty) then there was documentation raised to say that. If the fault was later diagnosed/repaired then I would authorise a repair out of warranty and claim back from the manufacturer. Providing there was a proper audit trail then there was no problem.

Should an item fail outside of warranty then depending what it was and the service history I could authorise a repair as a goodwill gesture.

An interesting point to consider where a repair is done as a goodwill gesture with a partial payment by you then legally the repair has a full warranty whereas if the manufacturer pays 100% goodwill then there is no warranty. You cannot have warranty on warranty.

Warranty repairs (labour and Materials) can only be carried out by an authorised dealer.

Should an item fail under warranty but be replaced by a non-dealer then on production of documentation proving replacement of a part and the failed part then a claim can be submitted.

It is not the dealer being difficult they have to abide by the rules laid down by the manufacturer who actually audits the dealership on a regular basis. Typically they will check 1 in 10 claims. If they reject a claim when auditing a claim previously paid then they will multiply that by 10 -and charge back, they assume there are another 9 claims that have been paid that should not have been.- We refurbished axles (crown wheel & pinion) on 63 buses. The manufactuurer actually sent someone from the training school to show our technicians how to do them The book said they could be done in-situ but the trainer said that the axle should be removed and the repair done on the bench. On audit all 63 repairs were adjudged with excess labour of 4 hours each @£35.94 per hour total £2,264.22 plus interest This was 20 years ago.

We appealed saying we had been instructed by their engineer and there then ensued a big argument between the manufactiurers auditors and trainers  - that went on for months, meanwhile we were tasked (by the manufacturer) with refurbing several hundred more axles - got very expansive for all concerned

I hope the above information is of help when someone has a problem