Warranty curiosity - normal or not?

[Simpo Two]

10 days ago I took delivery of a used car from a dealer. It came with a six month warranty. Three days after delivery it developed a fault which the dealer's sales manager admits is a warranty issue. As you'd expect the repairing garage must contact the dealer for approval, and their bill will be paid direct. But the sales manager keeps insisting that the repairing garage must call him personally, not the number in the warranty booklet. He says he will only approve repairs up to a certain amount. When I said that the amount was surely immaterial because it was covered by insurance, he said the warranty doesn't start until 30 days afer sale, and that any faults before 30 days are up to them. I told him that there was no mention of a 30 day period in the handbook, and that the official warranty phone number doesn't appear anywhere on Google. He said it was an internal number and that it comes back to his office, and the 30 day period is not advertised to the public.

Is he operating some kind of wheeze or is this normal practice?

[Magic919]

I never understand how such an early fault can be a warranty matter. Any 'SOGA' work ought to be a problem for the dealer, IMO.

[catman]

Your contract is with the Dealer. If he's being awkward about fixing it, tell him he can keep the car and you'll have a full refund. That may wake him up a bit.

Tim

[Simpo Two]

It's an a/c issue. When I test drove the car a few days before delivery the a/c was dysfunctional, and told them it would have to be repaired before I bought the car. They said they'd found the problem and repaired it (fitted a new condenser). An independent garage today says the condenser looks fine, but found no gas and thinks a spindle in the compressor has failed. One slight snag is that the dealer is a 2.25hr drive away... in which case the warranty says I can go to 'another reputable repairer'.

But it doesn't explain why I mustn't call the number in the warranty booklet...

Rejecting the car - not sure I could enforce this - would leave me with no car.

Edited by Simpo Two on Wednesday 24th August 19:27

[Steviesam]

He probably doesn't bother to register the warranty (or pay for it) with the warranty company, and just gives you the handbook.

[Andyjc86]

It's perfectly normal for the warrant to have a period where it's not actually claimable. I'm not sure it's 30 days but it's certainly the dealers responsibility for a little while.

The fact that it's 2 hours away is unfortunately your problem, not theirs.

A third party warranty doesn't have to be provided, the dealer can cover the repairs themselves if they want, it's just that most buy a warranty for an easier life.

[shake n bake]

That's a standard warranty procedure, otherwise any dealer could sell a car with a major fault and Palm the recon off to a third party.
He's just trying to keep costs under control as his department will foot the bill.
Let the repairing garage and him thrash it out, if it takes a period of time that takes longer than it should then talk to the chap about a gesture for your inconvenience. Be reasonable and you'll get the same back.

[silentbrown]

Simpo Two said:

But it doesn't explain why I mustn't call the number in the warranty booklet...

No third-party warranty will cover pre-existing faults. And most disallow "wear and tear" faults in the first 30 days of cover.

It's highly likely the fault existed before sale, and replacing the condenser and regassing just temporarily masked it.

So, really no point in calling the warranty company. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the cost of warranties to the dealer went up if there were a significant number of early claims, which might explain the dealer's desire for you NOT to contact them.

[steve-5snwi]

What the dealer is saying is true, the warranty provider we use have exactly the same t&c's so we as the supplying dealer have to cover the first 30 days. You can pay extra at inception to cover wear and tear from day one but I'm sure a warranty company would find a way out of it.

Customers usually contact the supplying dealer, if the dealer wants the repairer and specifically him to be the point of contact I would just leave it, chances are he has the authority to settle the claim and the warranty don't do much other than administer the claim process.

[Simpo Two]

Thanks all, that helps to put my mind at rest. He is definitely a 'geezer' so I'm inherently suspicious. I was annoyed when he refused to authorise the claim until I'd signed the financial 'demands and needs' form that they forgot to ask me to sign at the sale. So I've saved his butt from FCA non-compliance, now it's his turn to return the favour. The MOT they 'overlooked' can be added to the bill.

Thanks again, we'll let the waggon roll. And when the a/c is eventually fixed, I can mentally adopt the car and start to enjoy it.