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

[kenlip]

Definition of flat rate in automotive shops both franchise and independent is technician gets paid 2.8 hours to do a job whether it takes 2.2 because of his skill level or tool investment, or 3.5 due to lack of experience or proper tools. Factory time for that repair might be 2.2 so you never beat factory book time. Over the course of a month it averages out a skilled tech with good tools can beat book time by 20-25% and get 5 weeks pay for 160 hours of clock time. But if that skilled tech with $20,000 in tools in a $5,000 tool box get assigned warranty jobs he or she will be lucky to get paid 140 hours for his 160 hours he spent working.

Thanks!

So, there is a difference in the way the terminology is applied, hence my confusion.
However, there still seems to be a bias, in that it deemed acceptable for the technician to get overpaid, and very handsomely overpaid, for the bulk of the work he does, but it is a 'tragedy' if he has to take a bit of a knock when he undertakes the occasional bit of warranty work. It seems to a philosophy all all take and no give.

I only have owned one tractor and it has about 40 hours on it and is now out of warranty, so I have no experience with the tractor warranty world. In the car world, I have owned numerous cars over the last 45 years. I think there may have been two hours of warranty work done in all those years plus a few hours of factory recall work. There would have been hundreds of regular work hours done on the cars, for which I overpaid significantly. All things considered, the people working on my cars have been more than sufficiently remunerated.

 

[RickB]

Thanks!

So, there is a difference in the way the terminology is applied, hence my confusion.
However, there still seems to be a bias, in that it deemed acceptable for the technician to get overpaid, and very handsomely overpaid, for the bulk of the work he does, but it is a 'tragedy' if he has to take a bit of a knock when he undertakes the occasional bit of warranty work. It seems to a philosophy all all take and no give.

I only have owned one tractor and it has about 40 hours on it and is now out of warranty, so I have no experience with the tractor warranty world. In the car world, I have owned numerous cars over the last 45 years. I think there may have been two hours of warranty work done in all those years plus a few hours of factory recall work. There would have been hundreds of regular work hours done on the cars, for which I overpaid significantly. All things considered, the people working on my cars have been more than sufficiently remunerated.

Thanks for coming back and helping to prove my point.

 

[5030]

Been reading along and it's my opinion that of any dealer, being an independent businessman wants to refuse you service, warranty or otherwise, if you didn't make the initial purchase there, it's his prerogative. Why I always buy local (dealership) anyway. I don't 'shop' around for a low ball price. Not how I roll.

Keep in mind that any dealer can refuse you or put your repair (be it warranty or otherwise) dead last behind is loyal customers who actually bought their units from him and that all revolves around how busy a dealer is with repairs at a particular time.

 

[fried1765]

Been reading along and it's my opinion that of any dealer, being an independent businessman wants to refuse you service, warranty or otherwise, if you didn't make the initial purchase there, it's his prerogative. Why I always buy local (dealership) anyway. I don't 'shop' around for a low ball price. Not how I roll.

Keep in mind that any dealer can refuse you or put your repair (be it warranty or otherwise) dead last behind is loyal customers who actually bought their units from him and that all revolves around how busy a dealer is with repairs at a particular time.

We are VERY different!
I do not spend 15 seconds considering a vehicle warranty.
A manufacturer is required to support their warranty.
I shop for the best value/priced vehicle, and if out of warranty repair work should be necessary, I then use an independent shop.

 

[5030]

We are VERY different!
I do not spend 15 seconds considering a vehicle warranty.
A manufacturer is required to support their warranty.
I shop for the best value/priced vehicle, and if out of warranty repair work should be necessary, I then use an independent shop.

Motor vehicles and tractors are 2 entirely different animals so I'm purposely not comparing apples to oranges.

A manufacturer IS supposed to support their warranty but, an Independent dealer can choose whether they provide warranty repairs or not at their discretion. Key word here is independent and additionally, as I stated, the independent dealer can choose if they do provide a warranty repair, the timeframe involved. Just because you have a warranty issue don't mean you go to the head of the line to get fixed. Entirely up to that dealer. Again, INDEPENDENT in the key word.

When I buy a new unit, the last thing I look at is the warranty because I don't even anticipate using a warranty to repair a substandard component. In reality, in over 12 Kubota's I've only had one warranty claim and it was a poorly installed hydraulic cylinder packing that leaked and was promptly replaced with a new one I installed myself (entire cylinder replaced). Had it in 2 days expressed shipped to the farm.

Certainly a manufacturer 'authorizes' a dealer to be say a Kubota dealer, but that dealer is still an independent businessman and as such, can elect if they will do the work or not, as well as the timeframe involved.

 

[jeff9366]

I think you need to call LS. I am sure they have a rep over your area that sales tractors to the dealer. I am sure if the dealer wants to continue doing business with LS he may want to work on the product.

Dealers are independent contractors.

INDEPENDENT contractors.

While LS may wish to dictate to dealers they cannot under federal laws.
State FRANCHISE LAWS further protect independent retailers from potentially overbearing suppliers.

I think the dealer was upfront with the consumer. I would buy local or accept having warranty work done where the tractor was purchased.

Warranty repair reimbursements are made at minimally profitable levels to dealers by manufactures. Most want the profit of a sale as a cushion before commencing minimally profitable warranty repairs.

 

[Tinhack]

So, there is a difference in the way the terminology is applied, hence my confusion.
However, there still seems to be a bias, in that it deemed acceptable for the technician to get overpaid, and very handsomely overpaid, for the bulk of the work he does, but it is a 'tragedy' if he has to take a bit of a knock when he undertakes the occasional bit of warranty work.

Oh brother. No mechanic I ever knew, including myself, was ever "overpaid".

 

[kenlip]

Oh brother. No mechanic I ever knew, including myself, was ever "overpaid".

It's not the mechanic's fault - it's the fault of the system.
Many years ago our family had three cars of the same brand. We would take one in for service and drop the next one in when we picked up the previous one. On my car, the mudflaps kept coming loose. I would tighten them, and they would come loose again. I should have pop-rivetted them on instead of using the crappy bolt system, but that's a different story.
When I took my car in, I told them the mudflap was in the trunk and asked them to, seeing as they were going to have the car on the hoist with all the wheels off as part of the service, reattach it.
When I went to pick up the car, I saw they had charged $45 for attaching the mudflap. I questioned how they got to $45 for about 2, maybe 3, minutes' work, putting the flap in position and tightening two bolts with a 10mm spanner. Their answer was. "It's a unit of work and each unit cost $45." I am sure that today a 'unit of work' costs a lot more than $45.
I questioned this further, and he told me that if they had also changed a wiper blade, which also take 3 or 4 minutes, it's another unit of work even though both tasks would have been completed in the time allocated for a single unit of work.
I told the dealership that I was not paying $45 to reattach the flap. They argued. I sat down at the guy's desk and told him I wouldn't be leaving until the bill was sorted out. He relented and took the $45 off the bill. Of course, I still overpaid for all the other 'units of work' that were on the bill, but I would never be able to identify them.
Needless to say, none of my three cars ever went back to the dealership and I found a great independent guy who looked after my cars until he, sadly, died of cancer. I now have another independent guy who takes great care of my cars.

The $45 unit of work concept was not the mechanic's fault, but he still would have benefitted from it. He did 3 minutes work and got paid for more.

If your accountant or bookkeeper, who you pay for time worked, did six hours work on your affairs but billed you for 10 hours work, how would you define that? In the real world, that would be considered fraud, but in the vehicle service and repair world it is considered an honest way to do business.

The mudflap that the mechanic attached came loose a few weeks later.

 

[Williy]

I respond when it says today or yesterday
It might be old but I see that you responded!

willy

 

[Torvy]

This might be apples and oranges, but an "Independent" contractor who is a franchisee for a brand cannot legally refuse service unless he or she is willing to lose said franchise. While true, is their business and they can refuse service, the terms of their franchise contract will allow the manufacture to do many things up to an including pulling their franchise.

My dad and two of my uncles owned IH dealerships (pre-Case) back in the day (one of them later went on to work directly for IH corporate). Some dealers are simply trying to take advantage of people who are nearby and overpricing using the threat of no warranty service to bully customers. Sounds like a great question for a dealer before a purchase. Any dealer who would say that would not get my business for a Kleenex. What if you move into the area from out of state with your equipment? This is a ludicrous position for any legitimate dealership to take. It is also really bad business because if you refuse people warranty service, the are not going to use your business for out of warranty service either.

Another point mentioned earlier, though, was about price matching. It is not always as simple as it sounds. If I go to a top national dealership, they are getting big incentives from the manufacturer because of their history. They literally can price lower and make more money. Essentially, the high volume dealers get a break on cost of goods, or rebates on inventory, or better terms from corporate finance (both in terms of customer finance and floorplan finance), etc. That is not to say you should pay $7000 more on a $40K piece of equipment. Any price difference over 10% would be exorbitant. I would get another brand before working with a dealership that was that far out of the market.