Can ls dealers refuse warranty work on tractor not purchased from them??

[bigcut]

It's a relatively free country. Can a dealer refuse to do warranty work or have their service department prioritize there service list based on whether or not it was purchased on site? Sure, it's their prerogative. Is it good business practice and does it make for good relations with corporate? Probably highly dependent on the each situation.
QUOTE]

I would be willing to bet my 2 cents that the contract signed between LS and the Dealer have points that speak to servicing LS product and the ground rules for doing so in order to maintain LS quality and service standards/levels as a Dealer. Businesses like McDonalds and others have audits performed by Corporate to attempt to maintain the Franchisor's business code. You can't suddenly decide that you're going to sell other types of products. You must abide by the terms stated in the agreement.

Of course the sequence in which you service customers who are on a waiting list is probably only known to the Owner or Service Mgr. of the Dealership. What they probably monitor are customer service times, like how long you had to wait for the 50 hours service as an example.

IMHO, the Dealer who refused to service because the customer bought at another dealership is
" Cutting His Nose Off to Spite His Face". How stupid !! He's turning away business and dashing probably any possibility of that customer ever doing business with them. What happens when that same customer wants to trade in and move up to a larger unit. Any chance of seeing that sales opportunity ? Probably not !! Remember, this is about business, not ego.

TSO's Dealer is smart. He will continue to prevail and win NEW customers as well as maintain his customer base. The stupid, or ego-centric dealers will eventually fail, it may take a while, but it will happen. As TSO said, his Dealer has a great business model. I respect that others may feel differently, but this isn't about feelings, it's about what's in the contract.
John

 

[Panik]

Bigcut - I agree with you hands down. Do I think TSO's dealer is smart? Without a doubt, and I share a similar opinion of my current dealership as they were quite happy to take my business without any of the "you didn't buy from me originally crap".

Do I think that there might be certain markets where it might benefit a dealer to be an ***** about limiting who they do warranty work for and prioritizing customers? Maybe, but in very, very limited situations. As an example I went to a third dealership in my area trying to see about warranty work, and was basically told that I *might* get service but it would be after any in house commercial (i.e. large Ag) work. Probably makes them money to handle all of their commercial work first, but it is still a pretty poor way to treat a potential new customer.

Like I said, it is a relatively free country. I am sure that most, maybe all dealerships, have to sign a corporate terms of service contract that delineates how they handle warranty work. However there is a lot of gray area about how that might actually get implemented in the real world and sometimes dealerships have that behavior catch up to them and they go out of business or lose their contract with a manufactuer and sometimes they can skate.

 

[Williy]

I would not let the idiot touch my tractor! I would
find a different dealer and complain to the rep that
this dealer refused to work on my tractor under
warranty. You just might have the dealer looking for a different line of work or perhaps he will be begging you to bring in your tractor for repair! The
reps don't sit to kindly on dealerships that refuse
to do warranty work! Just make sure you contact
the rep and find a different dealer as I would not
trust someone that refuses to do warranty work
because you didn't purchase the tractor from him.
Must be a crummy dealership!

willy

 

[Diggin It]

I would...

Why are you bumping a 7 1/2 year old thread?

 

[5030]

Why are you bumping a 7 1/2 year old thread?

Because he's 81 and has nothing else to do....

 

[kenlip]

I don't understand why the dealers wouldn't want to do warranty work. The dealer will get paid by the manufacturer, so what difference does it make to the dealer if the factory or the owner pays? Do they get paid less by the manufacturer than they might be able to (over)charge the owner?

 

[RustyA]

In the automotive world factory warranty repair rates are 75% of book time for labor and 75% of the retail labor rate. Parts are reimbursed at around 75% of retail also. That's to discourage dealers from finding something wrong unless the customer complains about it. 38 years in the car business and it's always been that way. If a big recall comes out there is a 90% reduction in the cost of the parts so mfr pays way less markup for repair to dealer.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Because he's 81 and has nothing else to do....

I am surprised that there isn't a link to the Yanmar tractors.... seems that is the only answer...

 

[kenlip]

In the automotive world factory warranty repair rates are 75% of book time for labor and 75% of the retail labor rate. Parts are reimbursed at around 75% of retail also. That's to discourage dealers from finding something wrong unless the customer complains about it. 38 years in the car business and it's always been that way. If a big recall comes out there is a 90% reduction in the cost of the parts so mfr pays way less markup for repair to dealer.

Okay, so the dealer might make a bit less money doing the warranty work. That assumes he is so busy that he doesn't need any extra work, even at a 25% discount off the retail prices. What about the big picture? Generally, there is not much work required under warranty. If the dealer did TSO's warranty work, there is a good chance he could build up a good relationship with him and end up doing all his out of warranty work for many years to come. He could also end up selling him new equipment in the future. One has to 'speculate to accumulate'.
Good business is about *relationships*, not about nickel and diming.

 

[kenlip]

In the automotive world factory warranty repair rates are 75% of book time for labor and 75% of the retail labor rate.

So, for the labour component of warranty work a dealer gets 56.25% of what he would have got had he done the work out of warranty. Does the dealer make a loss, break even, or still make a small profit at this discounted rate?