Warranty Labor

[d raler]

Would like to hear how differeent manufacturers are handling warranty labor charges. From how long from start up? Are they giving allowances only? Is any labor covered if a labor warranty is not purchased? Who is the best to work with? Very curious to hear experiences on this. Thanks!!

[ARPA]

d:

I approve and process warranty labor repairs for North America for a commercial refrigeration manufacturer.
I pay up to 2 hrs travel, and your going street rate for the actual diagnosis/repair.

[jayhawker]

The company I work for replaced two condenser coils on some Trane RTU's at a large office building that were damaged by hail. One of the coils developed a leak in a return tube less than two weeks into service , lost all the R-22 and took a whole day to repair. Turned a invoice over to Trane just to cover the cost to the company for repairs , with no profit margin added in, they refused to pay. They said that they have their own service dept. handle repairs like that but it would take two weeks to get out and make the repairs. No customer is going to wait two weeks to have repairs made to a system that they have already paid for once. This is Tranes way of forcing you to make warranty repairs like this at your expense. This is were a amount figured into every job as warranty reserve will help you cover these costs, some jobs you will use it on some you won't. The company that I work for has had little luck with any Mfg. on labor warrant claims , sometime the local distributor is able to get a claim thru on you behalf.

[drivewizard]

Originally posted by jayhawker
The company I work for replaced two condenser coils on some Trane RTU's at a large office building that were damaged by hail. One of the coils developed a leak in a return tube less than two weeks into service , lost all the R-22 and took a whole day to repair. Turned a invoice over to Trane just to cover the cost to the company for repairs , with no profit margin added in, they refused to pay. They said that they have their own service dept. handle repairs like that but it would take two weeks to get out and make the repairs. No customer is going to wait two weeks to have repairs made to a system that they have already paid for once. This is Tranes way of forcing you to make warranty repairs like this at your expense. This is were a amount figured into every job as warranty reserve will help you cover these costs, some jobs you will use it on some you won't. The company that I work for has had little luck with any Mfg. on labor warrant claims , sometime the local distributor is able to get a claim thru on you behalf.

Think about it from their prospective, How do they know the leak wasn't on a joint that you brazed when changing out the coil? Trust me, there are guys out there that would do that, say it was a factory joint when it was really his screw up all along. Or, how do they know your Co. actually repaired any leak at all, you could have just made up a repair ticket, maybe it was a short month for your Co.
(I am not implying you did) But on Tranes end at Some office in LaCrosse or wherever, they don't know that.
But, it is a lot more fun to rip on Manufacturers. I do it too.

[jayhawker]

I offered to meet them at the job the next day to approve the repairs, it was a hair line crack that was a clear defect in materials. They wouldn't send anybody. Trane has a factory service oulet less than two miles from this job, yet nobody in that office had 20 minutes to come check the situation out and approve the repairs for two weeks. I wouldn't trust any mfg. to cover your back on any warranty situation when it comes to labor. They will give you all the parts you want but not the labor.

[drivewizard]

Originally posted by jayhawker
I offered to meet them at the job the next day to approve the repairs, it was a hair line crack that was a clear defect in materials. They wouldn't send anybody. Trane has a factory service oulet less than two miles from this job, yet nobody in that office had 20 minutes to come check the situation out and approve the repairs for two weeks. I wouldn't trust any mfg. to cover your back on any warranty situation when it comes to labor. They will give you all the parts you want but not the labor.

Sorry to hear that, sounds like you might not have real good relationship with that office. I Do know that can have a very real effect on whether you get service in a timely manner. Have you burned any bridges, Do you sell a lot of Trane equip.? If so, Do you do your own start-ups or let the Factory reps do it? That can all effect your standing, like it or not. Thats life in the big city.

[jayhawker]

A good company stands behind what they sell, just like the company that I work for had to stand behind an make a repair that wasn't our fault. The corporate mentallity is to try a weasle our of any labor claims .

[drivewizard]

So, let me see if I follow your logic of thinking. Lets say that your company buys a new service van from a Ford/Chevy/Dodge dealer and 2 weeks after you have it the Master cylinder goes out. The Dealer can't get to it for a few days. Thats unacceptable to you, no van no revenue, right. Your Service guys are more than capable of replacing a Master cylinder, so you pick up a new one and slap it in. Should, or better yet, do you think you would have a snowballs chance in hell of getting Ford(Mother Ford) or the local dealer to re-emburse you for your labor claim and the Part?
The Auto industry probably was a bad example to use, cuz we all know what a bunch a dirt bags they are, right?

[kwillmech]

I think dw hit it right!

Trane's standard is parts coverage for 18 months from ship-date or 12 months from start-up, whichever is first. Labor is only covered if you purchased a labor warranty start-up package. We do offer start-ups WITHOUT labor and beleive it or not, fools actually pay for that. Sometimes when a good customer has recently out of warranty problems the salesman decides to cover the cost for repairs but that solely depends on that relationship between the salesman and the contractor/customer. I know that some offices have a bunch of 8===D heads working for them but not all are that bad.

[jayhawker]

This was a defective part from the start, they should stand behind it but I know that they don't. Thats why I said that you should bid into every job some amount of warranty reserve to cover expenses caused by the mfg not backing up their product when it comes to labor.

[kwillmech]

Hey Jay, maybe that office just didn't have guys sitting on the bench waiting for work. Also, there is the salesperson who makes the service request and he can set the priority of that work. Best bet is to have a good relationship with them if you plan to do work with them.

I try not to piss off the Dodge service dept just because my truck is on warranty, I have to deal with their schedule.




[Edited by kwillmech on 01-08-2006 at 02:59 PM]

[kwillmech]

Originally posted by drivewizard
Thats life in the big city.

[ac/dc]

We have a great relationship with our Trane office,We sell
alot of Trane. We recently had a flat refrig circuit.Found
leak in cond coil.I asked about labor reimbersment and I got a flat NO. Carrier gives us labor money sometimes but
not to often,I spent 4 hours replacing a bad blower wheel(been a few of them latley)and they paid 1 hr at less than
our street rate. Lennox said they would pay our labor for a flat cicuit found at start up but our rep had to push it through for us,generaly they dont pay labor.
We install tons of equip. from all 3 manufacturers and Im
amazed at how many problems there are at start up. We eat
almost all labor for warranty work.

[Carrene #2]

So, if you bought something for $500, sell it to someone for $1000 and throw in some labour $$. You don't think there's any dollars for a return labour call ( Parts covered by MFG. ).
Oh well.

[jayhawker]

As long as you bid some warranty reserve into the job to cover such an expense. Some jobs you use it some you dont,t the thing is to try and make it so you are not doing the same job twice and the second time for free.