Warranties on vehicles, equipement etc

Just finished a phone call with my motorbike dealer due to a serious/dangerous fault last week and heard the good news that the repair will be covered even though I am way out of normal warranty.

The amount is not insignificant (4 figures), so I'm really pleased along with good customer service (ie they kept ME informed all the way thru the investigation and response from maker)

Got me thinking about our equipment. Who has experienced warranty issues with mowers, hand tools, hard landscaping equipment ?

How was it handled, was it resolved, would you use them/dealer again ?

For me, Etesia where good last year and replaced a faulty carb on a Pro46 thru dealer.

A certain landscaping hand tool equipment maker was totally indifferent to a fault, but dealer stepped in and resolved (not really how it should be done...?)

I think that some Makers need to up their Customer Service game if they want repeat business in these tough times..

Not sure if this should be a name and shame exercise, so whatever you mention needs to be factual and accurate..

Speaking as a dealer, approx 90% of manufacturers are a nightmare as far as warranty is concerned so its always good to hear a success story like yours once in a while Gary.

Its often more cost effective for us to do one of our customers warranty repairs FOC rather than jump through hoops to get a claim passed. Even if it does get passed, its paid at a severely reduced rate which barely covers the time its taken to process the claim alone never mind fix the problem!

It all boils down to the dealer you've purchased your products from and in most cases and it often pays to be more selective over "Who You Purchase From" rather than "Who is The Cheapest". After sales service counts for much more to me than an initial saving of £20 or £30

Replies

Trevor @ Lawnmower World February 25, 2011 at 2:45pm

Speaking as a dealer, approx 90% of manufacturers are a nightmare as far as warranty is concerned so its always good to hear a success story like yours once in a while Gary.

Its often more cost effective for us to do one of our customers warranty repairs FOC rather than jump through hoops to get a claim passed. Even if it does get passed, its paid at a severely reduced rate which barely covers the time its taken to process the claim alone never mind fix the problem!

It all boils down to the dealer you've purchased your products from and in most cases and it often pays to be more selective over "Who You Purchase From" rather than "Who is The Cheapest". After sales service counts for much more to me than an initial saving of £20 or £30
PRO

Gary RK February 25, 2011 at 4:39pm

You raise an excellent point, mentioned before, in that buying the cheapest online in some cases can be a false economy.

I've built a good relationship with several key dealers who really work for us when we have a fault - either warranty or failure. They know us, we trust them, they get our business - win win.

However, some machine makers seem to display a just don't care attitude as we are the largest and best - well watch out guys bigger companies than yours have failed before

Just wondering if Stihl have the gonads to come here and discuss their dealer support and customer facing service.

At this moment their MD has been too busy away on company business to consider my invitation to join LJN (and believe me it took several attempts to even get that answer....)