Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018 - F40

FIXED OPS JOURNAL

Why avoid warranty
work, dealers?
Why do dealers try to avoid warranty work if
it pays the same as nonwarranty retail
service?
My experiences with warranty repairs have
been uniformly, extremely negative, as in
having to call corporate headquarters and ask
for assistance, and sometimes threatening to
invoke arbitration. The way service
departments acted, you'd think I was asking
the dealer to fix the car for free and throw in a
loaner.
There was never any question that the
repairs were necessary and covered under the
manufacturer's warranty. The dealers simply
did not want to do the work. Many times they
asked whether I was a "loyal customer" and
"bought the car there." Two said to my face:
"Why don't you take it back where you bought
it?"
Why should any of that matter if they are in
states where they get reimbursed at 100
percent of the retail rate for parts and labor?

LETTERS

They should be begging customers for
warranty work. Instead, it's the exact
opposite.
Something else is going on. I'd like to know
the true story.
SHERMAN JOHNSON
Middletown, Md.

Fight tech shortage by
keeping the ones we have
Factories are justifiably focused on long
overdue recruitment and training programs
for service technicians ("Two kinds of
service," April). Yet there is not a feverish
discussion about saving the precious techs we
have, or keeping apprentice techs from
washing out in training or on the job.
What will stop the skid of good techs getting
recruited out of our industry, or keep newly
anointed techs from throwing their safety
glasses across the shop when they discover
that they get paid for 30 hours (flat rate) after
spending 40-plus hours at the dealership
week after week?

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PAGE 40

JUNE 2018

Fixed Ops Journal welcomes letters from our readers.
Send your letters intended for publication to foj@autonews.com;
please include your name, address, daytime phone number and
title (if any). Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Continuing to pay techs on the antiquated
flat-rate system is like flooring a highperformance car heading down a cul-de-sac.
This threatens to push the factories and their
dealerships into a recession that not even the
Fed could bail out.
Factories, let your dealers move their
service labor rates up 20 percent to support
more gross.
Dealers, give your A and B techs a
guaranteed weekly income plus production
bonuses so they make the same as engineers
($75,000 to $150,000 a year).
For C techs, guarantee $50,000 with
production bonuses. For D and apprentice
techs, guarantee $35,000 to $40,000, with
career paths to make more.
And while we are at it, let's offer better help
with tool costs.
JOE HENRY
Owner
ACT Auto Staffing
Palm Harbor, Fla.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - June 2018
