No more good will repairs!
Discussion
birdracer said:
Just had my tuscan 'repaired' at Blackpool and they told me that from today as they are 'under new management' they will not be doing anymore goodwill repairs, all new cars will have a two year warranty and that is all they will honour.
so when your new tuscan engine goes pop after 25 months having done 15,000 miles with a full history they are going to tell you to bugger off?
hmmm, think trading standards might have a thing or two to say about that, there is a little law somewhere that states that goods must be fit for the purpose that they are sold.
birdracer said:
Oh, and another thing, if you take out an extended warranty and your car goes back to Blackpool and they then fix something that is covered by the warranty without informing the warranty company, your warranty for that repair is invalid and you have to pay yourself! Nice one TVR!
I think you'll find that this also applies to extended warranties with all other marques too - fail to get pre-approval for warranty work from the warranty company and the warranty company will not pay up.
Why try to sensationalise something which is industry practice?
If this is 'industry standard' then why is it not 'standard knowledge'? Evidently TVR have this 'industry standard knowledge', but they chose not to tell me. From what I can gather TVR feel little obligation to inform their customers of anything, even repairs which could cost in excess of £5k, no need to explain what has been done, why it happened, could it be prevented....Whoops, sensationalising again!
Much as it disgusts me, this really is standard practice in the motoring industry. If it was in the USA you'd get better treatment but thats about it.
I've had exactly the same treatment at all ends of the scale with just one exception and that (of all companies) was a Ford main dealership and bizarely the car wasn't even under a warranty they provided. They just did the work and when I questioned it they just said "forget about it". They regularly give me discounts on parts and labour rates for other stuff too.
The warranty companies love this sort of stuff because they are essentially just selling insurance and we all know what insurance companies are like.
It is only very recently that the manufacturers warranty has been increased from just 1 year on any new car. All this b
s about 1+1 or 1+2 is just guff - those extra years are there as a sales pitch and are barely worth a penny imho. No doubt someone will now regale me with a tale of how those extra years of after market warranty have saved them lots of money but in my experience it was just an utter waste.
I've had exactly the same treatment at all ends of the scale with just one exception and that (of all companies) was a Ford main dealership and bizarely the car wasn't even under a warranty they provided. They just did the work and when I questioned it they just said "forget about it". They regularly give me discounts on parts and labour rates for other stuff too.
The warranty companies love this sort of stuff because they are essentially just selling insurance and we all know what insurance companies are like.
It is only very recently that the manufacturers warranty has been increased from just 1 year on any new car. All this b
s about 1+1 or 1+2 is just guff - those extra years are there as a sales pitch and are barely worth a penny imho. No doubt someone will now regale me with a tale of how those extra years of after market warranty have saved them lots of money but in my experience it was just an utter waste.birdracer said:
If this is 'industry standard' then why is it not 'standard knowledge'? Evidently TVR have this 'industry standard knowledge', but they chose not to tell me. From what I can gather TVR feel little obligation to inform their customers of anything, even repairs which could cost in excess of £5k, no need to explain what has been done, why it happened, could it be prevented....Whoops, sensationalising again!
When I had a BMW, if I asked for work to be done believing it to be covered by (extended) warranty I always made sure that it would be covered before I gave authorisation to proceed. To avoid the scenario you describe. This arrangement is well known as industry standard for extended warranty. Manufacturers warranties are different - but that is not what you have by the sounds of it.
If TVR have carried out work without your authority AND without getting pre-approval from the warranty company, AND it was work that the warranty company would definitely have covered, OR telling you it wasn't covered - then I am sure you have a very good case for TVR to pay for that work.
This may not be clear cut, since warranty companies are notorious for wriggling out of claims - e.g. by citing wear and tear (even for an engine failure at very low miles).
But you don't give the entire story here. You clearly feel aggrieved, but in the absence of more information I can't help feeling that your posts fall foul of Ted's 'naming and shaming' rules.
You'd be better off putting your case to TVR in a reasoned manner than posting on here anyway.
griff2be said:
If this is 'industry standard' then why is it not 'standard knowledge'? Evidently TVR have this 'industry standard knowledge', but they chose not to tell me. From what I can gather TVR feel little obligation to inform their customers of anything, even repairs which could cost in excess of £5k, no need to explain what has been done, why it happened, could it be prevented....Whoops, sensationalising again!
When I had a BMW, if I asked for work to be done believing it to be covered by (extended) warranty I always made sure that it would be covered before I gave authorisation to proceed. To avoid the scenario you describe. This arrangement is well known as industry standard for extended warranty. Manufacturers warranties are different - but that is not what you have by the sounds of it.
If TVR have carried out work without your authority AND without getting pre-approval from the warranty company, AND it was work that the warranty company would definitely have covered, OR telling you it wasn't covered - then I am sure you have a very good case for TVR to pay for that work.
This may not be clear cut, since warranty companies are notorious for wriggling out of claims - e.g. by citing wear and tear (even for an engine failure at very low miles).
But you don't give the entire story here. You clearly feel aggrieved, but in the absence of more information I can't help feeling that your posts fall foul of Ted's 'naming and shaming' rules.
You'd be better off putting your case to TVR in a reasoned manner than posting on here anyway.
Couldn't have put it better - Warranties and work carried out under them (and indeed non-warranty work)requires the owner to stay informed at every stage BEFORE authorising ANY repair/replacement.
Had a Fiat 2.0 20V Marea Estate (don't ask), gearbox got a bit notchy and one of the instrument dials had failed (the car was just outside of the 1 yr new car warranty).I asked the dealer to take a look at both and phone me before doing anything other than investigating the cause. I gave them a note outlining such in writing as I handed the keys in. Wise move this, cos they carried out loads of work ie £2K on the gearbox and £400 on the intrument panel. When I found out, I refused to pay - they laughed until I showed them the written note attached to the service book that the service manager had read. Moral of this diatribe - I paid £250.00 and Fiat and the Dealer fought over the rest for some time......
birdracer said:
If this is 'industry standard' then why is it not 'standard knowledge'?
Try reading your warranty documentation. That's a contract between you and the warranty company; useful to know what it says.
And even if you don't have a warranty, do you let anyone do work on your car without your authority? If so, I'm stunned. I'd trust my garage with my life, but they still ring me to discuss anything that might need doing before they go ahead.
griff2be said:
I think you'll find that this also applies to extended warranties with all other marques too - fail to get pre-approval for warranty work from the warranty company and the warranty company will not pay up.
Yup, I believe this is the case. When my Chim was poorly last year, I did my homework to check that the likely faults were indeed covered by the warranty. My dealer then contacted the warranty company on my behalf to seek authorisation for the work to be carried out. We still had a battle on our hands in getting the necessary replacement parts approved without them quoting "consequential damage" (and therefore not covered under the warranty terms/conditions) but then that's nothing unusual
They paid up in the end!
birdracer said:
they told me that from today as they are 'under new management' they will not be doing anymore goodwill repairs
Isn't this the most important point in this whole thread?
I bought my Tuscan ,despite the obvious concerns, because the unwritten rule appeared to be that TVR "looked after you" as long as the service history was up to date.
TUS 373 said:
On the other hand, I believe that they do have a legal responsibility about being 'fit for purpose' and that in a legal confrontation, TVR would lose.
Spot on that - under EU law, the consumer is protected by standards of conformity, i.e. if your fridge only lasts two years it may be out of warranty, but you will get compensation because the Court assumes that a consumer can reasonably expect the lifespan of a brand new fridge to be at least five years. So the manufacturer will be held liable for a proportion of the cost of purchase/repair equal to the difference between the actual period of usage by the consumer, and the 'accepted' minimum life expectancy of a part. Any given or implied warranty will be irrelevant to the above, as far as the consumer protection laws are concerned.
Now it's not daft to assume TVR will have a somewhat hard time convincing the court that an engine in a £40,000 motor car is supposed to last little longer than two years...
TUS 373 said:
Thanks for confirming that. So, amazingly, TVR's new policy is a GOOD THING! Why, because if you take them to task, they will have to compensate you or 'make good' without charging the 'good will' fee of £1500 + VAT !!!
Thati s, providing EU law in this case hasn't been rejected by he British government at soem point - personally I'd wager to think consumer rights are pretty much standardized on both sides of the channel...
In addition, consider this. As far as I'm aware, an accepted industry standard for them minimum lifespan of major components (engine, gearbox et al) is five years. Of course the actual life expectancy of said components is a fair bit longer normally, but alas.
Which means that the moment you're out of warranty you've already used up 40% of the 'reasonable' life expectancy of the engine, and are only entitled to be compensated 60% towards the actual repair bill, at best. Now I don't have a benchmark figure for a S6 rebuild - but 40% is likely to be a fair bit more than £1,500...
Yep, that's the other snag. Very few of us have the desire to go through a lengthy ordeal with all the time/cost/negative enery involved... There's a big differencebetween being entitled to something by law and actually getting it.
OTOH it's not one or two individuals that have had their S6 go pop - methinks a 'critical mass' for having things sorted collectively would be easy to achieve...
OTOH it's not one or two individuals that have had their S6 go pop - methinks a 'critical mass' for having things sorted collectively would be easy to achieve...
judas said:
The problem is, the next poor bugger whose engine goes pop at 25 months will have to drag them through the courts to get anywhere. I fail to see how this will benefit anyone, TVR included.
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