Hi guys
ok, as promised i had a word with the big boss tonight ref the question of forum discount for service visiting customers.
It's correct, discount for the servicing we offered has been stopped and i will try to explain so people don't get the wrong idea and think that our serv dept has turned their back on forum members.
It's to do with the way LR report and use warranty figures with their dealers, yes, i here you say, warranty ?
A dealer has it's "patch" which is normally assigned by postcode areas and within that area there is a "car parc" this being all the cars registerd to owners that could use this dealer for work
This then allows LR to calculate a warranty budget which is assigned to the dealership and we are measured on this in performance tracking.
When/if your warranty claims exceeds this performance a set of parameters kick in with a series of traffic lights ending in 3 red which denote continuous excesses in warranty work above what would be expected of a dealers of their size.
With servicing many of the forum's cars there was also a very high element of warranty work expected and done by our serv dept which helped our figures exceed our budget, this was not just because of forum work but it was enough to be noticed and identified as needing to be reduced, so how to solve.
Either, yes, we can service your car and offer discount but sorry we will not do the warranty work, you'll have to visit your local dealer for that, i'm sure you'll agee this is not a correct way to do things.
or
We offer discount for local member owners (ie , owners in our postcode patch) we can offer this service with full warranty commitment.
This is not a decision that was taken likely
As stated previous, parts discount still remains as normal and i offer my full commitment to the site and members, as always, to making your ownership experience a happy one.
Our sales dept are also more than happy to speak to members for pricing of vehicles and as a car purchaser you will automatically become a honorary postcode member..
NickTLO has left the building.......
I no longer work for a Landrover Dealer
My little chilli sauce business http://www.thechillees.co.uk
if you would like to order anything just give me a shout
25th Jan 2010 9:26 pm
DiscoDunc
Member Since: 08 May 2006
Location: Bristol
Posts: 16390
So we cant actually take our LRs to any LR dealer for warranty work because the dealer could refuse to do it based simply on where we live ??
Is that what LR are saying ?Duncan
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25th Jan 2010 9:31 pm
DSL Keeper of the wheelie bin
Member Since: 11 May 2006
Location: Off again! :-)
Posts: 73081
Obvious question Nick before someone else asks it but what about discounts for cars out of warranty, LR alligence discount??
Dunc, I think Nick has explained Yeovil's position. They have bent over backwards to help us and in return LR have nailed them on warranty spend. That had to stop or there would be no more Yeovil Land Rover.I know it's not considered "kind" to say no these days, but no. Just no, ok? And if it's not ok, still no.
I posted this in another thread, but worth repeating here under the circumstances
NoDo$h wrote:
As has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, dealers have authority levels where they can sign-off warranty work and bill it to LR without it being questioned. When, as appears to be the case here, you have a dealership with a reputation for being helpful you will find they see ever increasing numbers of warranty claims as people travel from far and wide for their panacea.
Sadly, this leads to the dealership breaching the approvals limit, so cases then have to be approved by ever more stringent checks and measures at Solihull.
This is why you can walk into Dealer A and get your EPB through on Warranty (because they've not put a lot of warranty through and can lose it in the overall warranty billing for that month) while Dealer B has to decline as they are "red" on the LR warranty costs audit and can't get reimbursed for it. There are other factors, such as whether the dealer feels they can take the cost on the chin against the liklihood of future sales, but with margins and sales this tight, sales departments and service departments have to fight their own battles in most cases.
Sadly, Dealer B is the public face of Land Rover, so Dealer B gets it in the neck. You can't draw parallels with retail warranties for TVs, iPods and fridges as there isn't the unique tie between manufacturer and retailer that you have in the motor industry. If Comet sell you a TV that goes pop they inspect, repair and or swap it and have the discussion with the manufacturer later (unless they've done a buy-out deal on warranty costs) but with LR it's the only product you sell and you are absolutely beholden to the manufacturer's approvals process.
This post is solely to explain why you might get different answers to a request for warranty work depending on how the dealer sits in the warranty audit league table - it's not meant as a defence or castigation of any one dealer.
It might be worth trying to put together a concise summary of how LR warranty approval works and make it a sticky as this comes up a lot (and I'm surprised at some of the responses from people who've been here long enough to have read this or similar answers on a number of warranty quibble cases). And I like Bodsy's idea of a ratings system on a par with Trip Advisor
I know it's not considered "kind" to say no these days, but no. Just no, ok? And if it's not ok, still no.
25th Jan 2010 9:45 pm
DiscoDunc
Member Since: 08 May 2006
Location: Bristol
Posts: 16390
NoDo$h wrote:
Dunc, I think Nick has explained Yeovil's position. They have bent over backwards to help us and in return LR have nailed them on warranty spend. That had to stop or there would be no more Yeovil Land Rover.
Not questioning Yeovil, but it would seem that the view a LR can be serviced and have warranty work done at any LR dealer is not necessarily true due to restrictions placed on dealers by LR themselves.Duncan
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D4 HSE MY13 SOLD
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D4 HSE MY10 SOLD
D3 HSE MY06 - Re-Cycled Worldwide
So we cant actually take our LRs to any LR dealer for warranty work because the dealer could refuse to do it based simply on where we live ??
Is that what LR are saying ?
Umm no, you can take it to anywhere you like
DSL wrote:
Obvious question Nick before someone else asks it but what about discounts for cars out of warranty, LR alligence discount??
good question
but that might be enterpreted as the same as, yes we'll take your money but not the warranty side and excluding certain peopleTLO has left the building.......
I no longer work for a Landrover Dealer
My little chilli sauce business http://www.thechillees.co.uk
if you would like to order anything just give me a shout
25th Jan 2010 9:49 pm
Tawny Owl
Member Since: 22 Oct 2008
Location: Here and there
Posts: 1645
I think it should be locals can recieve discount and warranty work , non locals still recieve discount but aware of not being able to carry out warranty work as per your statment.
Think the way it is now the service department will lose alot of work as so many were prepared to travel so far
Oh , how big is your postcode area ? Does it cover the BS postcode
Personally, with today's service orientated market and budgeting across many trades, not just automotive one, I am not surprised; and quite honestly can, to a degree, understand it from LR's perspect. At the end of the day what LR are trying to do is maintain a balance across the country(ies) which ensures they can keep open their franchises/dealers and maintain coverage.
Lets face it, if we "all" continually go to one dealer, dealers in other areas will loose out and eventually fold. "It's a Free market" I hear you cry, so it is, but what use is it to use when we end up with a very limited number of dealers who then can literally charge what they want, because unless we go to them we don't keep our warranty. At present most still offer a price match policy or something along those lines, so as much as I enjoyed Yeovil's discount in the past, I fully understand their position.
Yeovil LR are like any other business, they're in it to make money, and if that is threaden by market trends, no matter the cause, they need to react and work to negate the affect to stay in business - and that's exactly what they've done.
Yes, it means we'll have to look around and potentially go elsewhere, maybe at higher costs, but we do have an excellent number of independants on the forum and also a good number of other dealers around the country who support Disco3.co.uk - lets give them a chance and maybe we'll find that if our local dealers get the following we gave Yeovil, even if only in part, they will be will in to come some way towards the pricing Yeovil used to offer to us.LRs are a fond memory, apart from the maintenance.
Chaps this isn't a new thing. My local dealership has a pretty good reputation in LR - they, like YLR are a stand alone dealership not owned by a multi franchise network. As such they were sent many problem cars from around the region via LR assist call-outs and even some subtle hints from the call centre.
However this soon had exactly the same effect and they went to three reds Sorry to say my car alone probably sent them way over. New one is sooooo good, they even called me a while ago, to make sure I was still alive
Nick and yeovil still offer a damn fine service and will track down parts while other dealerships are sleeping or shrugging their collective shoulders and mumbling the words "back order - mate"
Keep it up Nick, a few of us can understand, even if the others are choosing not to "To finish first, one first has to finish ...."
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