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Texas law regarding warranty work


PAylor

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"Therefore, why would you expect an RV dealer to do warranty work for a brand that they do not sell? New Horizion trailer, and that is the factory in Kansas."

 

I don't know about New Horizons. Is Kansas the only place to buy one. I will use Tiffin just as an example. They are sold at dealers around the country. Therefore the dealers around the country should be able to do warranty work on Tiffin products without the buyer returning to Red Bay, Alabama. I think the premise of the thread was in some cases dealers(not manufacturers) were refusing to do warranty work. In some cases it seemed that it was just on certain models of the same brand and particularly for someone other than a customer that is not from there area.

 

Again I think that within the limitation of brand, most good dealers will not refuse warranty work but as in any business there are some that are short sighted. I think it is somewhat common for dealers to shift brands at times which can complicate the issue.

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The issue is not what a dealer WILL DO but what they MUST DO. Any dealer MAY accept the trailer for warranty work but can the trailer owner demand they perform the warranty work at the manufacturers expense?

 

I suspect that, even if the dealer sells the product, this is purely a contractual issue between the dealer and manufacturer. ie. the contract probably spells out the requirement for the dealer to accept warranty work and the rates they are to be paid. Your beef has to be with the manufacturer if a dealer of your product refuses to perform warranty work and only the manufacturer can bring pressure to bear on the dealer to accept your product for repair.

 

Kirk provided a bunch of consumer protection phone numbers but never said what the position of the State was. Is it the position of State agencies that, if you sell a manufacturers product that you MUST accept or only SHOULD accept a product from anyone for warranty repairs?

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I personally would not want anyone to work on my stuff that was forced to but I do have personal ideas about what is right.

 

that's a rather idealistic position and impossible to implement. How would you know what the dealers motivation is in accepting your warranty work? Is he grudgingly accepting it because he is contractually required to, forced to by State regulations or because he is a nice guy? Only the dealer knows for sure. I would much prefer the dealer say no. Then I know where he stands and I can go elsewhere.

 

Forcing low ball rates on the dealer gets you commensurate quality work - especially if he will never see you again.

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Of course the only way that would be a factor was the big IF I knew. I would guess in most cases I would not know. So idealistically I stand by my preference assuming I knew. So if he said no then I'm outta there but I may not have anything good to say about his dealership. If he was helpful then I would definitly make a point of saying so. Thats life.

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I think the issue being discussed here is that someone buys a new coach from a particular dealer. That dealer is one of many nation-wide for that brand of coach. At some point the customer is traveling, the coach is still under warranty, and there is a warranty problem. Should the customer be able to go to any dealer for that brand and expect that the warranty work will be done promptly and correctly? I think most of us would say "Of course." We're used to that model from our experience with automobiles. Is that the standard in the RV world? Not necessarily. As the OP mentioned, some dealers will say almost anything to avoid their responsibility to take care of warranty work if they didn't sell the coach in the first place.

 

Perhaps we can take this thread in a more positive direction. What dealers and manufacturers willingly take care of warranty issues for travelers? After all, the whole point of an RV is to travel. I understand that some manufacturers don't have a dealer network, but most brands have at least some dealer network. Who is great at customer care?

David Lininger, kb0zke
1993 Foretravel U300 40' (sold)
2022 Grand Design Reflection 315RLTS

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Perhaps we can take this thread in a more positive direction. What dealers and manufacturers willingly take care of warranty issues for travelers? After all, the whole point of an RV is to travel. I understand that some manufacturers don't have a dealer network, but most brands have at least some dealer network. Who is great at customer care?

The original issue was the legal issue. Even though the law may give the dealer a right to refuse warranty service, it has been my experience that very few do so. Most dealers are willing to do warranty work for a traveling owner, but some are reluctant to do warranty work for local residents who went elsewhere to buy an RV which they sell. Since they typically don't make as much on that work it is easy to understand why that might happen. When on the road I have never had any warranty work declined by any dealer. Even when warranty work is accepted, there is still a big difference in how good that support is. Does the shop do the very minimum to get the problem solved, or does he go extra distance to be sure that the customer is happy and all problems are solved. And what do the techs do to keep the RV clean and in at least as good condition as when it arrived?

 

I have had excellent care from our current dealer, Athens RV, near Athens, TX. I also had a very good experience with United RV in Ft. Worth, TX but that has been close to 5 years ago now. The same is true for Vogt RV, also in Ft, Worth. If we are addressing the quality of repair work that is not under warranty, then I must say that I consider Camping World to be unpredictable because they do sometimes have excellent techs and others very poor. The problem there is that they hire mostly from their own training programs and so most techs are pretty inexperienced and because they don't usually pay as well as the larger dealers in a given area, once their techs get really experienced most move on to one of the big dealerships where pay and benefits are better. Any other experience that I could rate by has been too long ago to be of much value since I do the majority of my own repairs.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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