Joe’s Business Tips For Shop Owners
Tips from Joe Marconi, co-founder of AutoShopOwner. His tips are shared to help you in your day to day shop operations, sales, customer service, marketing, advertising, and more!
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By Transmission Repair · Posted
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By Joe Marconi · Posted
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By TheTrustedMechanic · Posted
I don't get too many requests for extended warranty work but I agree with Bell Road Automotive. Further than that, when I call the customer with the warranty company's determination I encourage them to call the warranty company if the authorization doesn't seem right or fair. As for a horror story, my last experience with an extended warranty company was on a transmission and it was with American Auto Shield (just one of many names the company goes by) and I will NOT deal with them or CARS again. First they wanted to send an adjuster, no problem. Then the adjusted called to establish a time frame in which he could come look at the car, no problem. I am a one man shop and close for lunch between 1:00 and 2:00. The adjuster left a message saying he would be here no later than 1:00, possible problem. I left the shop at 1:16 and he had not arrived. When I called the warranty company to find out what had happened they told me that the adjuster's notes said he was here at 1:06 and the shop was closed after confirming that lunch was between 12:00-1:00. BIG PROBLEM!!!!! Remember, I have the voicemail message saying he'd be here BEFORE 1:00. The warranty company allowed me to submit the proof they were seeking but then couldn't accept/open/convert an iPhony video (really?). Anyway, we went through the whole ordeal and then they told me they would only approve what THEY could buy the transmission for. We all know how that goes, the cheapest garbage they can find regardless of miles. I refused and that's pretty much where the ordeal ended. The customer did not have the money to pay any additional over the cut rate that the warranty company approved but she needed it fixed so she could trade it in. Warranty companies have their agenda and it is NOT to pay out more than they take in. Can you as a shop owner blame them? They aren't fair often to the customer or to the shop demanding we use inferior quality parts, but they don't care. They expect us to provide the warranty after that so they are done with the liability or expect the extended warranty to expire before the USED UP part fails again. Again, how is this wrong for a company that is simply playing the numbers? Don't we do the same thing with our warranties and how we factor them into our hourly rates? Extended warranty companies appear to be evil and they certainly do work in evil, unscrupulous and unethical ways. But they offer a contract and the customer accepts that contract, Like Kind & Quality and all. I think the problem comes in by the repair shop not adequately informing their customers IN ADVANCE that the warranty company will NOT cover everything and likely will NOT perform in a way that the customer is expecting. We do not need to accept the risk and danger to our reputations, but these are often our existing customers who trust us, who like us, who want to do business with us. Education is the key, educate them up front that you will do everything you can to get as much covered as possible, but that there will most likely be things that the warranty company won't pay that they should pay. For example, my state of Michigan used to charge sales tax on core values but I had one extended warranty company tell me that they would not. And it was not an insignificant core amount either. I explained that to the customer, the customer called and complained and the warranty company finally relented and covered the sales tax because the customer induced them to investigate the law. Thankfully now we don't have to charge sales tax on the cores unless there is no core returned.
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