Dealer's unwillingness to do warranty work

[Thymeclock]

Several months ago I posted about a few relatively minor problems I was having that needed to be rectified before the warranty on my '09 ran out. The clock was going haywire, resetting itself to a wrong time every few days. The passenger airbag indicator display would disappear completely and go blank. When the recall was issued about the spark plugs and coil pack I took it to my nearest dealer to correct these problems.

I dropped the car off on a Thursday. On 3:30 PM on Friday I called them and I was told that nothing had been done at all. After calling them several more times (since they returned none of my calls) they told me that work on it was begun at 5 PM. The dealership's service dept. closes at 6 PM. On Saturday morning they told me the spark plugs were changed under the recall, but no other problem had been found. After signing off on the paperwork, I got in the car and found the airbag light was off (again malfunctioning). After calling it to their attention that it is still malfunctioning and they had made no attempt to rectify it they refused to give me a loaner car or attempt to diagnose the problem. It was very obvious that this dealership wanted no part of doing warranty work and was stonewalling me.

It took six more calls to Chevrolet (after both the desk person and the service manager lied to me and the GM rep and tried to dissuade me any way they could) and an entire month of waiting for them to provide me with a loaner car. They finally did provide a loaner car, telling me they made a special exemption for me (yeah, right - like they are doing me a special favor?); they replaced the clock and said they could find nothing wrong with the airbag light - but they did check the wiring and the problem has not reoccurred so far. At least now there is a record of the problem, should it reoccur. If it does, I will be on their case... with relentless persistence.

A word to the wise: "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." When dealing with a Chevy dealership be forewarned and forearmed. In other words, don't take "no" for an answer.

[christian]

That blows. What a crappy dealer. My dealer has to replace the whole heater and a/c control unit, just because the chrome is peeling on the fan speed knob, and they didn't give me trouble. The knob can't be solely replaced. Bad choice on chevy's part. Of course, they guy did recommend that I stop using armor-all and blamed the peeling on it. He said armor-all gets under the chrome and makes it peel. BS! The chrome has spotting all around the inner edges and obviously wasn't manufactured correctly. The chrome ring on my cd player is fine.

[daug1502]

I have also had a great experience with my dealer. They have done a lot of work on my car, even though it has been lightly modded with bolt on parts. They also have been one of the best places to go when I need parts for the car. The prices have been very competitive if not cheaper than many other locations.

[avguy]

That's really the pits there Thymeclock. Most of us have been invited to a few Dealer Dances, and know exactly how you feel
And with the Chevy financial debacle a few years ago, 3 out of 4 of our nearby dealers closed down, leaving just 1 left within a reasonable drive. Having far fewer dealers to choose from cannot help us in any way.
It's been quite while (happily) since I've needed to get any warranty work done, aside from a recall. Back in the "good old days", it always seemed like dealers were quick to do warranty stuff, because they were getting reimbursed by the auto maker (at least that's how I think it worked). So, seeing a number of stories like this one, I'm assuming that's changed, and dealers no longer get a full payback from the auto maker on warranty work. Does anyone have some inside info on how this works with Chevy (and maybe others) these days? It might help us improve our Dealer Dance steps, if we knew how warranty stuff works for the dealers financially.

[Thymeclock]

That's really the pits there Thymeclock. Most of us have been invited to a few Dealer Dances, and know exactly how you feel
And with the Chevy financial debacle a few years ago, 3 out of 4 of our nearby dealers closed down, leaving just 1 left within a reasonable drive. Having far fewer dealers to choose from cannot help us in any way.
It's been quite while (happily) since I've needed to get any warranty work done, aside from a recall. Back in the "good old days", it always seemed like dealers were quick to do warranty stuff, because they were getting reimbursed by the auto maker (at least that's how I think it worked). So, seeing a number of stories like this one, I'm assuming that's changed, and dealers no longer get a full payback from the auto maker on warranty work. Does anyone have some inside info on how this works with Chevy (and maybe others) these days? It might help us improve our Dealer Dance steps, if we knew how warranty stuff works for the dealers financially.

I know for a fact that the reimbursement from GM to dealers for warranty work is less than what the dealer can charge (or should we say gouge out of?) paying customers who bring their cars in for repair and are clueless that they are being overcharged. I know because I happened to see the paperwork including the reimbursement figures for the work done on my car while they were preparing the sign off statement. That's why they don't want to do warranty work - it's simply not as profitable for them. But if you are a car dealer warranty work comes with the territory; and you won't develop customer satisfaction or repeat sales for that brand by giving the consumer a hard time about warranty work that is due him.

[avguy]

I know for a fact that the reimbursement from GM to dealers for warranty work is less than what the dealer can charge (or should we say gouge out of?) paying customers who bring their cars in for repair and are clueless that they are being overcharged. I know because I happened to see the paperwork including the reimbursement figures for the work done on my car while they were preparing the sign off statement. That's why they don't want to do warranty work - it's simply not as profitable for them. But if you are a car dealer warranty work comes with the territory; and you won't develop customer satisfaction or repeat sales for that brand by giving the consumer a hard time about warranty work that is due him.

Do you remember how much the reimbursement was, and also what the customer bill would have been?
JMO that this warranty stuff would work best if GM (or any maker) would reimburse the dealer the "wholesale" cost of the job (parts + labor). Any less gets the dealers pi$$ed-off and trying to duck out of doing these repairs. Any more, and the dealers will want to "find" warranty repairs. If warranty is break-even for the dealer, then it should just become filler work - they can't be 100% busy on non-warranty stuff. But I do agree completely with you that your dealer should have just sucked it up, put on a smiley face, and get the repair done immediately. It's obvious that trying to enhance the Chevy brand and image is not important to them. But, that said I can also have just a bit of sympathy (did I actually say that ), if they're losing money every time a warranty job shows up.

[Thymeclock]

Do you remember how much the reimbursement was, and also what the customer bill would have been?
JMO that this warranty stuff would work best if GM (or any maker) would reimburse the dealer the "wholesale" cost of the job (parts + labor). Any less gets the dealers pi$$ed-off and trying to duck out of doing these repairs. Any more, and the dealers will want to "find" warranty repairs. If warranty is break-even for the dealer, then it should just become filler work - they can't be 100% busy on non-warranty stuff. But I do agree completely with you that your dealer should have just sucked it up, put on a smiley face, and get the repair done immediately. It's obvious that trying to enhance the Chevy brand and image is not important to them. But, that said I can also have just a bit of sympathy (did I actually say that ), if they're losing money every time a warranty job shows up.

I agree completely. From the glance at the back of the service ticket I saw, the amount (around $150 with some calculated add-ons) of a fair wholesale cost is what they were reimbursed. The home office of GM is not stupid - they will reimburse their dealership only what the wholesale cost of the job is worth. But as it took their service crew several days to diagnose and rectify the problem due to lack of competence, (they kept the car for 5 days) you can see where they are not making any profit on it, or are probably actually losing money on any labor involved. I also got the general impression that this dealership might be on the skids. Several years ago, when my car was almost new and it needed warranty work the same dealer gave me a loaner car and corrected the problem relatively promptly. This time they had the gall to tell me that my previous experience of their providing me with a loaner car was "a mistake". Now there is a new service manager and the staff seems more interested in shucking and jiving the customer than providing dedicated service. A high turnover rate of management and staff in any business establishment is a bad sign. There is less than 2 months left on my 3 year warranty. If anything else goes wrong I certainly won't be returning to that dealership.