Dealership Excuses to Get out of Warranty Repair

MountFranklin on 28/05/2019 - 19:47

Hi all,
I recently took my 2 year old Kia Sportage in to fix my windscreen jet washer. There was a split in the washer hose and Dealership tried to blame it on a rat biting the hose looking for water…

After I raised my eyebrows, he immediately realised how stupid that sounded and said it will be fixed under warranty.

This got me wondering if any other OzBargainer has experienced stupid excuses from dealerships trying avoid repairs under warranty?

I am assuming the companies who offer longer warranties (like Kia's 7year warranty) have more outlandish excuses as the car gets older.

Automotive

Comments

  • pegaxs on 28/05/2019 - 20:00
    +2

    As an ex-dealer mechanic/service advisor/manager, I think my favourite was when I submitted a warranty claim to the head office for {redacted}, and it was knocked back. It was for a body mounts cracking problem with a 4WD and warranty was refused because it had been used… "off road"

    • AdosHouse on 28/05/2019 - 20:43

      So a 4WD problem was knocked back, because the car was used as a 4WD?

      Are we talking a real 4WD here, or a school run 4WD?

      • pegaxs on 28/05/2019 - 22:19

        We are talking about company that prides themselves on their 4WD vehicles. It was before they even made a “soft roader” SUV. This particular 4WD was advertised as a class leading 4WD… (Their catch phrase was… “the best 4 by 4 by far..”)

        And yes, the warranty claim was knocked back because it had been used as a 4WD.

        • AdosHouse on 28/05/2019 - 23:00

          That's friggin slack for such an expensive brand.

        • whooah1979 on 29/05/2019 - 06:05
          +1

          Must have been a Jeep.

          • brad1-8tsi on 29/05/2019 - 08:21
            +2

            @whooah1979: More pukka than a jeep.

            I did a lot of my apprenticeship on series 1,2 & 3 of "the best4x4 by far". Talk about lessons in patience & resilience.

  • Daabido on 28/05/2019 - 20:09
    +14

    Towards the end of your 7 year warranty it will be blamed on the original rat's great grandchildren.

    • AdosHouse on 28/05/2019 - 20:42
      +2

      No, they already have a good excuse, wear and tear.

      • JimmyF on 28/05/2019 - 21:10

        Correct, the 7 year warranty is about 3 years in real life before it then all falls to wear/tear.

  • wordplay on 28/05/2019 - 20:43
    +1

    typical stealership tactic.
    paint protection (don't ask - demo model that apparently had it applied since new) anyway denied warranty claim as paint was sun damaged - paint protection does not cover solar damage. regularly parked car in an area that was classed as extreme sun.

    • josetann on 28/05/2019 - 21:31
      +13

      "regularly parked car in an area that was classed as extreme sun."

      So…Australia?

  • RandomNinja on 28/05/2019 - 21:36

    Yikes… bit of a dodgy dealership. I've also got a KIA and anytime there's been a verified problem, the dealership I go to pretty much just fix it. Hopefully that means it's a good dealership and not that I have a car with a prevalence of known issues!

  • blitz on 28/05/2019 - 22:06

    Dropped my car off at a dealer for a 70K service. Picked up the car and the driver's seatbelt had no tension at all (i.e. it was slack). When I brought this up with the dealer rep, he said it was because of all the dirt on my clothes. When I questioned why it was taut when I dropped it off, he asked if I was calling him a liar.

    • AdosHouse on 28/05/2019 - 22:59
      +12

      And the answer would have been "yes".

    • Cheeper on 29/05/2019 - 00:48

      "A liar" is what stealerships usually imply (politely) you are when they cannot replicate a fault in a new car that has been driving you nuts.

  • [Deactivated] on 28/05/2019 - 22:20
    +2

    My wife had a small car which was making a strange creaking noise pretty much from the day she got it and it just got worse. She took it into dealership and was told that it wasn't covered under warranty because she was "overloading it with her kids and dog". My wife's petite, our twins were skinny 6 year olds, who weigh less than 20kg each and our dog was a Shih Tzu puppy🙄

    • AdosHouse on 29/05/2019 - 01:58
      +1

      That must be one fat Shih Tzu.

    • l005e on 29/05/2019 - 07:51
      +1

      We had a similar issue. After raising it about 3 times with the dealer they decided to address it and found a loose bolt.

      • [Deactivated] on 29/05/2019 - 15:14

        The second time, I went in with her and he said, "oh, sorry! I thought you were a single mum. We'll fix it for you." What difference does it make whether she has a husband or not?!
        There's some seriously dodgy people around.

        It was indeed a loose bolt.

        • AdosHouse on 30/05/2019 - 00:09
          +2

          Because they think (and unfortunately usually can) misinform/bully a single female.

  • Cheeper on 29/05/2019 - 01:00
    +1

    Traditionally stealerships will screw you around getting something fixed but this one surprised me…
    A friend who had bought a car for $14k at an auction took it to a dealership for a service and a check over. The car still had a couple of months to go on the manufacturers warranty. When they returned to get the car the service was done & the check found no faults but they had replaced the audio head unit and ecu under a TSB for that make and model. The cost to the car maker… $3k!

  • bazzato on 29/05/2019 - 05:19

    i had a steering wheel that had started to melt. it was a common problem and lots of others had the wheel replaced under warranty. but my local dealership told me that I must wear a ring and when the ring gets hot it melts the steering wheel. I don't wear any rings btw.

    • Austaurean on 29/05/2019 - 08:25

      we had a similar problem with a Mazda 3, was in the last month of warranty and we had bought it 2nd hand, the wheel looked like the leather was disintegrating along the top 1/3, anyway, was in for its service and I had asked them to look at it, they confirmed they would cover it under warranty, and if I could get it in before the end date of warranty then the Mazda rep would not have to come and check it out, so we booked it in and got it done, not issues at all.
      I was expecting it to be refused per people waring rings or using creams that affect the wheel.

    • zoob on 29/05/2019 - 10:19
      +6

      If the ring was getting that hot I'd think you'd notice the searing pain as your finger burned.

    • Solarlux on 29/05/2019 - 15:00

      So your flesh wouldn't burn at the melting point of a plastic steering wheel???

      • bazzato on 29/05/2019 - 20:48

        Yes I raised that….apparently only the outside of the ring got hot

  • brendanm on 29/05/2019 - 06:55

    The dealer will generally want to do your warranty work, they get payed for it by the brand. It's the manufacturer that may not want to pay. It's easy money for the dealer.

    • pegaxs on 29/05/2019 - 07:35

      The problem with warranty work is that the rate that retail customers pay compared to the rate that warranty work pays. Retail work pays a lot more than what warranty does. The other issue is that the completion time is usually really strict on warranty. A stealership cannot charge warranty work out at the same price as retail work.

      Small items like what OP had would be jumped at for warranty. Low cost, easy to do. Things like diff, gearbox, engine or other big ticket items, dealers will try and palm it onto the customer first because that work is worth thousands. If it is warranty, they may only just break even on that work, if they can get the customer to pay for it, it’s *char ching* time…

      This is also why a lot of dealers will put in warranty consideration bids for customers if the customer will pay part of the warranty cost, and it’s usually the “labour” costs, because the dealer know that the manufacturer will pay them (fropanity) all regarding labour costs and that they can well overcharge a retail customer.

      So, kinda yes and kinda no, I would not say that all warranty work is easy money for the dealer.

      • brendanm on 29/05/2019 - 10:17

        So the set rate doesn't cover bigger jobs? That's a bit silly then.

        • pegaxs on 29/05/2019 - 10:39

          There is a rate for retail customers and a rate for warranty that is set by the manufacturer. The warranty rate is a lot lower than retail and the labour times for almost everything on the car is set out by the manufacturer. And they don’t give a shit if all the bolts are rusted in or caked in mud. Their time is their time and that’s all they will pay.

  • Belmondo on 29/05/2019 - 10:29
    +5

    While not a warranty claim -
    Took our new VW Golf for its second service (30k)back to the dealer. I asked that they rotate the tyres to even the wear.
    When picking it up I saw that they had charged me $45 to rotate the tyres, I then looked at the service book for that particular service and it stated "rotate tyres" as part of the service schedule.
    I spoke to the service manager about the charge and as to why all of the boxes were not ticked as completed for my "capped/fixed price" servicing.
    His reply was that the service schedule was only a "suggestion" of what may be required.
    My reply was that the fixed price service cost was also only a "suggestion" and that I wouldn't pay the full amount.
    A refund was negotiated.

    • AlanJ on 29/05/2019 - 18:24
      +1

      Well, you did better than I did with a similar problem. I took my car to the dealer for a service, and they added a somewhat-exorbitant charge (can't remember exactly)for rotating the tyres. However, I knew my wheels, and the tyres hadn't been rotated. I mentioned this and they got very insistent that, yes, it had been done. When I started to point out to them exactly how I knew that no rotation had been done, he went off to check, and came back to say that, yes, the mechanic had certainly rotated the tyres, but then afterwards, ANOTHER mechanic, not knowing that the first one had done the job, had rotated them AGAIN, and THAT was how they ended up in the original positions! This, of course, is nonsense unless for some strange reason the second person had decided to rotate the tyres in the exact reverse direction to the first mechanic, which is pretty unlikely (and I said so). He assured me that this is what had happened, and when I replied that, in this case, I really didn't get the tyres rotated at all by his own admission, so shouldn't he refund for the rotation, he became quite hostile and said that he had a perfect right to charge me twice because the job had been done twice. I never went back to that dealership again… and, in fact, gave up all dealerships from then on, preferring to deal with my neighbourhood garage, who may not be perfect, but have a higher code of ethics than that!

      • bazzato on 30/05/2019 - 05:20

        i love the idea of doing the same job twice and charging twice even though in effect there no change. imagine if they changed the oil twice by mistake and tried to charge you twice!

        • AlanJ on 31/05/2019 - 10:56
          +1

          I bet that's happened, too. I wouldn't mind so much if the dealers had more expertise than the local mechanic, but I have found that this is not the case, either. They always seem to say things are worse (and more expensive to repair, of course) than a subsequent check finds out to be the case. By bitter experience, I don't like dealerships!

  • Belmondo on 29/05/2019 - 20:02

    Thats just fantastic!!! Best Ive heard.

  • roguescholar on 30/05/2019 - 09:15

    Ford Focus - Don't need to say anymore.

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