Shop Warranty policy

[CAautogroup]

Hi all,

I was wondering where do you typically display your shop warranty policies? Sign posted in office, at the bottom of the invoice, bottom of signed work order, on your website?

 

What do you recommend?

 

Thanks,

 

Nick 

[Joe Marconi]

A great warranty can be used as a marketing tool. It gives the customer peace of mind and shows you stand behind your work. I would post it everywhere; on the customer's invoice (usually on the bottom), on your website and on a company brochure.  

Some shops have a separate document they give to the customer. This is a nice touch and makes the warranty really stand out.  It also communicates that the warranty is a cut above everyone else's.

One thing, to really hit a home run with any warranty, make sure it is mentioned when making a sale and also when the customer picks up the car.  

Great question and again, a great warranty is a great marketing tool. 

[gandgautorepair]

We have our warranty displayed on a large framed poster on the wall, and we have a delivery brochure that we put every final invoice into and give to the customer when they pick up the car. The brochure is hard copy, folded one time, has our branding on the outside, and inside explains our store warranty and our nationwide Certified Auto Care warranty. BTW, we give a Lifetime warranty on both parts and labor, excluding drivetrain, maintenance, and commercial vehicles.

Also, because we do Lifetime, we have a Lifetime Warranty logo that fits our branding that we use in every marketing piece we do and is displayed in the waiting room.

[rpllib]

We recently switched to the attached. The explanation to my staff is also attached. As it says somewhere, this is not a good thing. 

The real eye opener for me was when i looked at the cost of paying a technician to perform warranty work (minimal) compared to the lost gross profit dollars per billable hour`(substantial), while they are tied up on parts failure related warranty labor.

We are not the "economy" parts kind of shop, and most in our little town would tell you that their is nothing economy about the service we provide. We will no longer be fooling ourselves into believing that a part line is acceptable just because it is the best that any of my suppliers stock. I believe is offering my customers choices, but it is time we share the risks as well. 

We will still be taking care of customers like we always have, but sure hope to minimize the number of third warranties in a 24 month period. 

 

 

Service and Parts Warranty July 2018 dist.docx

New warranty terms as of july 1 2018.docx

[Jon]

rpllib, 

You are spot on with this, I can't thank you enough for passing this information on, I have been trying to create and plan just like this and your choice of words could not have been better. I assume you are giving permission for others to use this outline?

[rpllib]

Use and modify as you please. Glad it will help

[RollingsAutomotive]

It's perfect....Great Job! Thank you for sharing.

[ATSAutomotive]

If I may ask, why do you offer an econo line part?  Reading your two documents sounds like you have had your fair share of warranties.  Why not only offer the premium or OE options and skip an Econo line part?

[rpllib]

Your experience has obviously been different then mine. We are not an econo line shop in any way shape or form and it would be a fair statement that we never use the cheapest part available. We also don't tend to use the very most expensive part available. We have used this methodology for many years with success. . It is my contention that far too many parts that you might labeled as "premium" (which are the majority of parts we use) are nothing of the sort and that it is our suppliers that make the determination of what quality of parts we have available. Many premium lines have far too many instances of early failures. If you are a European or import specialists, you may not be seeing the level of issues we see as general repair shops. My whole point is that we (shop owners)need to demand better quality from our suppliers and stop being most concerned with price. I suspect most experienced shop owners would tell you that it costs you gross profit dollars to use cheap parts. That is just the nature of matrix's. In the meantime, while we wait for quality to reverse direction, this new warranty program seemed like a suitable stop gap. 

Thanks for the reply and another opportunity to clarify my intentions

[Guest]

3/36 and we never need it. 

[WMW]

On 11/26/2018 at 2:00 AM, Old and Tired said:

3/36 and we never need it. 

never need it as in never have customers return with warranty issues?  is there a secret to this or is it a simple do it right the first time approach?

[Guest]

Do it right with quality parts but mainly if something is going to go wrong it will happen a lot sooner than 2 or 3 years after the repair but it's good peace of mind for the customer

[TheTrustedMechanic]

As a consumer, the more ways a proprietor puts in place to escape their warranty the less that business builds value or credibility.  If I was at the front counter of a shop that said "We warrant our work and parts for 12 months only unless you actually drive your car," I would not go back and I don't believe that shop would retain a good reputation.  If my shop suffered an excessive number of warranty repairs I would no longer be LYING to my customers by telling them I was using quality parts.  I would not put the liability or responsibility on them for the poor quality of parts that my shop was choosing.  Now I do offer economy parts and I do make the customer aware that they are not of the quality I prefer but as a cost concern option they are available .  I cut my 24 month/24,000 mile warranty for economy grade parts down to 12/12 at most and that is disclosed at the time of offer, not at pick up.  I also don't go to lengths to blame others and pretend it is the customer's fault because they don't want the cost of the original equipment part, which in my area are only covered from the dealer with a 12 month or 12,000 mile warranty.  And they are very strict about not only the time/mileage limitation but also actually warranting the part, because, well you know original equipment parts don't have defects.

 

Bottom line, my warranty is 24 month, 24,000 miles to the original owner family, subject to the part manufacturer's warranty stipulations.  As a NAPA AutoCare Center those conditions are pretty simple, the warranty does not cover accidental or external damage, modifications, installation in applications not listed in the application catalog or incidental or consequential damage, pretty typical warranty conditions.  As for commercial applications, most parts do not have an exclusion or reduction.  In short, the warranty conditions and application seek to be as customer friendly and accommodating as possible.