As far as the warranty claims are concerned, I agree with Steve Burgess… although I might suggest one addition. Have the client sign (especially if they’re not an old customer) a document (legally acceptable, of course) that states that they will be responsible for diagnosis charges (including teardown) if an AP is not found with the ESP. The customer could, of course, pay the difference, or go elsewhere if they chose, at their expense. (I realize there may be legalities with this, but it’s a thought)

I have had generally good relations with ESP’s in my dealings with them, but this practice would make me think twice about accepting business from them, which, in the end, hurts RV’ers, and the industry as a whole. Of course, if the ESP is insistant, one could always direct them to send the required parts, and make the customer wait for the parts to be delivered… I’m sure there’ll be fireworks for the ESP’s then!!!

Oh, for the first respondent, I agree that in some cases putting $2500 in an interest bearing account would be nice, but for motorhome owners especially, that would be woefully insufficient for a major failure, i.e. transmission, engine, etc. The diesel pusher parts are extremely expensive as is the labor to work on them. As a rule, for RV’s, I recommend ESP’s, as long as they’re reliable, especially for motorhomes.

Chris

Regardless of the type of repair order system used; electronic, hybrid or paper, the dealer must be able to produce the originals or true copies of the original documents for all records necessary to support the services claimed and submitted.

The policies suggested below provide the dealer with guidelines for accurate warranty claim preparation and submission. The following procedures are to be followed by all members of the service department.

The Repair Order #1:

The repair order information obtained from the customer and vehicle must be accurate and complete. The date, odometer, delivery or in-service date, owner/operator, and contact information must be included on the repair order. There may only be one VIN per claim, except in the instance of corporate parts return claims.

The Concern #2:

The service consultant’s description of each of the customer’s concerns is to be clear and concise. Install special order part (SOP) and repair leak are not acceptable descriptions. The statement should provide answers to what, when, where and how, i.e. check front-end vibration at highway speeds when applying the brake. Concerns that are vague or written in the form of a work instruction are not acceptable, i.e. repair leaking oil pan. The customer is not to incur any diagnostic time expenses associated with a warranty repair.

The Charges #3:

At the time of repair order write-up, there must be a clear understanding of responsibility of charges. Service management must authorize any changes to the responsibility of charges. Not only is it policy, but also a courtesy to the customer, that they be made aware of any additional charges on the repair order prior to picking their vehicle up.

The Signature #4:

It must be on each customer pay and warranty repair order. Their signature authorizes the dealership to perform the requested service. A signed early bird form or electronic signatures are considered valid signature documents. The customer is to be provided with a copy of the initial repair order invoice.

Repairs performed on in-stock vehicles must be authorized and signed for by service management prior to beginning repairs.

RO Separation #5:

The technician is to only receive the shop or work copy of the repair order.

The Cause and Correction #6:

The technician is responsible for clearly and accurately documenting the cause of failure and correction for each of the customer’s concerns. The cause statement must be descriptive and contain all diagnostic codes, test results, specifications, adjustments, readings, and indicators to support the repair performed. Oil leakage is not an acceptable cause statement; rather the tech should document oil pan gasket leaking. The correction statement must be equally as descriptive.

The technician’s cause and correction statements should be transferred to all copies of the repair invoice.

Straight Time #7:

Straight time must be separately time punched and pre-approved by service management on the repair order. Technician inefficiency or lack of training does not justify straight time.

Added Operation #8:

Repair work added to the repair order after the initial write-up is considered an added operation that service management must approve. The repair order must reflect the “added operation” documentation to be valid. Technicians may not perform additional repairs without authorization, i.e. approval must be obtained to repair the noisy blower motor noticed while test-driving the vehicle for the documented brake pulsation.

The Parts #9:

The repair order must document all parts used in the repair of the vehicle. The EGR valve used to repair the service engine soon light concern should be charged out on the appropriate condition line, not with the instrument cluster replacement.

The technician should return all defective warranty parts to the parts department to be tagged, and retained. The defective area on the part should be clearly noted. Parts requested by the Warranty Parts Center that do not display a factory defect, may result in a debit to the dealer; a replaced blower motor with a mouse nest in it, for example.

The Supplies #10:

Shop supplies, materials and waste disposal fees are considered part of the dealerships fixed operation expense and may not be claimed on a warranty repair order. Brake clean is not reimbursable on a warranty repair.

Sublet #11:

The sublet repair invoice must contain the same detailed customer and vehicle header information, as does a repair order. The amount billed by the sublet facility may not exceed the amount ACC would have reimbursed the dealership to perform the same repair. The sublet invoice must reflect any discounts or allowances made available to the dealership in performing non-warranty repairs.

The repair order must reflect the repair as being performed by a sublet facility, not by the dealership.

Labor Operation Assignment #12:

Service management is responsible for ensuring the appropriate labor operation number and labor times are assigned to each warranty condition. The technician should not hold that responsibility.

Shop comebacks are the responsibility of the dealership; ACC does not reimburse for repairs performed again as a result of improper inspection, diagnosis or workmanship.

The Final Repair Order #13:

The final copy of the repair order must reflect the comments noted on the repair order by the technician. Alterations to the documentation may only be made by the repairing technician. The customer is to be provided with a copy of the final invoice that displays all of the repairs performed to the vehicle.

Approval and Authorization #14:

The service manager or director is ultimately responsible for all necessary claim authorizations and approvals. Empowerment is not to be given to any non-managerial level personnel, i.e. warranty administrator or service consultant without careful consideration. The service consultant and/or technician must obtain authorization from the service manager prior to beginning repairs that require prior approval, dealer inventory vehicles, and customer concern not duplicated repairs, for example.

Service management should be familiar with the dealerships level of empowerment.

Courtesy Transportation #15:

If the vehicle warranty provides coverage for courtesy transportation in the event the customer’s vehicle is unsafe/unable to drive, repairs will take more than one day to perform, or if repairs may not be completed due to part unavailability. The program may also be used in goodwill situations where appropriate with advance ACC approval.

The dealership may also offer shuttle, fuel or public transportation options for the customer’s convenience.

The VIN of the rental vehicle must be included on the warranty claim for reimbursement.

Parts Expediting #16:

Every effort should be made by the dealer to locally obtain a part if it is not in stock. ACC approves parts expediting to be used in the event the part is not locally available. Communication within the parts and service departments is critical in relaying the level of urgency associated with a part order, especially in vehicle down situations.

Concern Not Duplicated #17:

When the technician cannot duplicate a customers concern and no corrective action is performed, the dealer may submit a claim using labor operation numbers 9991. Whenever those labor operation numbers are used on a warranty claim, service management must grant approval.

Record Retention #18:

Supporting documentation may play a critical role in a repair procedure, especially in the case of a customer returning to the dealership to have a previously diagnosed part installed. The previous repair order should be readily accessible to support the second claim for the repair, as the diagnosis was performed on the first repair order. Service history VIN files should be retained in sequence by model year and the last six positions of the VIN or accessible by VIN if records are electronically scanned.

The documentation contained within the VIN file is a comprehensive history of all the vehicles service events, not just warranty.
Compliance begins with awareness and understanding. Familiarize yourself with each of the points and educate service department personnel to ensure that the guidelines are being followed in their entirety.

This is all available under the “warranty consulting” tab on our site as well where you may print any info you find useful.

Steve.

There are more than 10 choices for extended warranty products in our industry. Most dealers simply sign up and sell for the warranty company that is the biggest or the one who pays the highest commissions without much regard to the quality of the claims processing. Everyone’s warranty coverage is almost the same these days — it is the claims processing that sets us apart.

Almost all warranty claims offices are open 8-5 Eastern Time. We all know that RVs break at Night, Weekend, and Holidays more than 8-5 Eastern. The ones that allow after office-hours repairs only re-imburse the customer and usually at @ 50% of the claim cost.

Our claims line is staffed 24/7 including all Holidays and we pay the claims over the phone, at the time of repair by credit card 7 days a week. We also pay for mobile service providers and road service providers. If they do not accept credit cards, we will Fed-Ex a company check. We may not always get them repaired during the weekend but continuous contact with, and talking to a real person during the whole ordeal of a breakdown diffuses 90% of irate service customers.

I would not normally make a commercial post in a forum but there seems to be a real need here. If you would like to try doing business with an RV company for your warranty products - instead of a pure insurance company that is trying to be in the RV industry, then you should check us out!

Anyone with questions can contact me directly by phone or E-mail.

Thanks,

Steve Burgess

Mentioning the warranty company has nothing to do with that particular dealer getting paid.

I suspect there are several extended warranty companies engaging in the practice of using prices found on the Internet, rather than in catalogs, to set prices paid to dealers. If someone e-mails me or calls me with the names of those extended warranty companies, I’ll verify whether they are doing so and why.

Most people are aware of who the cyberstores are. The real issues are A) which extended warranty companies are reimbursing dealers at cyberstore prices; B) which wholesale distributors are supplying the cyberstores.

If you’d like to debate the merits of a particular company, please use our forum section for that debate. If you’d like to e-mail me the names of a specific company, you can reach me at editor@rvtradedigest.com.

I didn’t mean to suggest that is who Greg was writing about. I just think we should discuss specifics if we are going to get anywhere in combating value erosion in the industry.

DAVE WATT
PARTS MANAGER
WILKINS RV INC.

Greg, can I get someone to hold accountable? If we talk in generalities then we will never get anywhere.

For example, http://www.RVWholesalers.com would not sell the Hensley Arrow at the retail price and wanted to compete on price. It is NOT a price product. It is a value product. We can’t educate the prospect on the value, and add value to the market with that education, and then compete with a web site selling at slightly over the dealer pricing.

So, who is this?