“Sorry… It’s Out of Warranty”
Up Your Business by Thom Tschetter U
p Your Business is an exclu- sive GEARS Magazine fea- ture. In upcoming issues I’ll
share details about real cases that I’ve arbitrated over the past 18 years. Due to confidentiality constraints, the names of the parties won’t be mentioned, and some of the stories may be slightly modified. I’ll present the evidence and testi-
mony given by the parties in the hear- ing and incorporate comments from members of the What’s Working forum who participated in a discussion of the case. And finally, I’ll tell you what the final ruling was and why. Thanks to each of you who shared
your perspective, provided your input, and offered your feedback through your comments on the What’s Working forum.
Details like the make and model of
the vehicle and the amounts of money involved in the dispute have been omit- ted. Generally speaking, those facts aren’t important because it’s more about how the situation occurred and what the shop did or failed to do to avoid the dispute.
The Details Here are the details for this month’s
case: 1. The customer drove his vehicle — a light duty, two wheel drive pickup — into the shop with no reverse and no high range.
2. The truck had about 120,000 30
miles on it and the transmission was original.
3. The shop’s diagnosis confirmed the problem to be internal, requir- ing an overhaul.
4. The service adviser quoted a price range for a basic rebuild on the low end and an exchange remanufactured unit at the high end. He advised the customer that he would be able to give more
accurate pricing and warranty options after performing an inter- nal inspection.
5. The teardown inspection revealed no hard parts damage, and the shop recommended a soft parts overhaul with torque converter to correct the problem. The ser- vice adviser also recommended replacing the u-joints because they were original, and install-
GEARS August 2012
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