Kioti Warranty Issues and Payments

[JimR]

As most people know I already posted about my Tier IV problems and how I had to pay the dealer upfront for my repair work which I considered should be covered by Kioti under their emissions warranty. As this is clearly stated in Kioti's warranty policy for emissions all labor, parts and diagnostics are covered for 5 years. The repair dealer is going to be sending in the three bills that I paid for upfront which totals over $2K for 3 repairs all related to a failed regeneration process. So far my tractor is still running with 9 hours on it since I got it back for the 3rd time. The DPF was plugged solid and a fuel injector was spewing 1.5 times the required amount of fuel. That injector was replaced and it passed a shut down test but not a run up test. Kioti has said that it doesn't mean that there is a problem with the tractor if it fails the run up test. Now you all know the facts. What I want to know is if anyone here has had to pay for upfront repair costs while your tractor was under warranty and had to wait for Kioti to reimburse you? Be honest now about this. NO BS and no avoiding the issue or making comments that are worthless and just taking up space. I don't want to know if Kioti cancelled your warranty for some reason or not. I just want hard facts and what repairs that you needed and how much you had to pay the dealer upfront to get your tractor back. Having been a mechanic for 10 years many years ago I never heard of any such thing.

 

[RickB]

I have dealership service Dept experience going back over 20 years at three dealerships with the following manufacturers at one time or another; New Holland, Kubota, Kioti, Mahindra, Gehl and several dozen short line manufacturers. I have absolutely never heard of such a thing. Matter of fact, your dealer should have sought preapproval for that warranty repair from Kioti. Had that happened there would be little or no question about their reimbursement.

 

[cholland]

I had a hydraulic seal fail at 9 hrs. No charge for labor, parts or topping of my hydro fluid. I did have to pay 1 hr of shop time for the service call. Seemed fair to me. Dealer told me up front that would be the case. Simple inexpensive repair so dealer probably willing to wait for reimbursement.
Doesn't sound right in your situation. That's not how a warranty would be honored if it were a car or truck.

 

[JimR]

I have dealership service Dept experience going back over 20 years at three dealerships with the following manufacturers at one time or another; New Holland, Kubota, Kioti, Mahindra, Gehl and several dozen short line manufacturers. I have absolutely never heard of such a thing. Matter of fact, your dealer should have sought preapproval for that warranty repair from Kioti. Had that happened there would be little or no question about their reimbursement.

The problem was that the dealer and Kioti did not know what was wrong with my tractor. For warranty work a dealer has to rely on Kioti support to figure it out and what the fix is.

 

[RandyT]

I have dealership service Dept experience going back over 20 years at three dealerships with the following manufacturers at one time or another; New Holland, Kubota, Kioti, Mahindra, Gehl and several dozen short line manufacturers. I have absolutely never heard of such a thing. Matter of fact, your dealer should have sought preapproval for that warranty repair from Kioti. Had that happened there would be little or no question about their reimbursement.

Actually even having preapproval doesn't guarantee payment by the company in some cases. You can have authorization for a warranty and still have the company deny the final warranty claim. Unfortunately many dealers have become gun shy doing warranty in recent years.

 

[jgedmond]

I hope Kioti monitors this thread and realizes the bad PR out there on their (or their dealers?) warranty practices. These types of experiences are not going to help their aggressive pricing / marketing strategies in North America. What good is it to save $5k on the purchase and not be able to use your tractor for months? IMO, nobody should have to go through what JimR did to get their brand new tractor working as it was designed to do.

As a new (1 1/2 months) Kioti owner, I am very concerned about the value of my warranty. While I hope that I never need it, you never know. However, I do know that it was built into the price that I paid for the tractor.

 

[BrkMstr]

The only time I have personally seen it come into play is when there is a question as to warranty coverage - from what you have explained maybe, since no one could pinpoint a cause, the old we'll fix it but you'll pay up front scenario came about, if it's warranty Kioti will reimburse, if it's non-warranty it's paid for, doing it that way allows the dealer to release the vehicle prior to a review of the report / parts etc being submitted to the factory for review / decision, and the dealer does not have to worry about getting paid. I do Know it's a lot easier to get immediate warranty response for known multiple documented issue rather than, "never had that happen" issues - on the never happens side they seem to always look at the owner for doing something they should not have - but I can tell you one thing, I think I'd be less pleasant then you, you seem to be pretty reasonable, which probably is a good thing - just have a good attorney picked out, just in case.....

 

[jgedmond]

The only time I have personally seen it come into play is when there is a question as to warranty coverage - from what you have explained maybe, since no one could pinpoint a cause, the old we'll fix it but you'll pay up front scenario came about, if it's warranty Kioti will reimburse, if it's non-warranty it's paid for, doing it that way allows the dealer to release the vehicle prior to a review of the report / parts etc being submitted to the factory for review / decision, and the dealer does not have to worry about getting paid. I do Know it's a lot easier to get immediate warranty response for known multiple documented issue rather than, "never had that happen" issues - on the never happens side they seem to always look at the owner for doing something they should not have - but I can tell you one thing, I think I'd be less pleasant then you, you seem to be pretty reasonable, which probably is a good thing - just have a good attorney picked out, just in case.....

That's all well and good, but I do not recall any hint that JimR did anything "wrong". If Kioti and the dealer do not understand what went wrong with no hint of owner mistreatment, then they need to make it right and sort it out corporately later. I do not see where the owner has anything to do with that. It is likely a design issue where the engineers missed some unintended consequence or a component failure with inadequate diagnostics. In my mind, the onus is on the manufacturer in this case and Kioti f**cked this up royally.

I do agree that JimR exhibited much more forbearance than 99% of people would have, I hope that they make it right for him.

 

[coobie]

I hope Kioti monitors this thread and realizes the bad PR out there on their (or their dealers?) warranty practices. These types of experiences are not going to help their aggressive pricing / marketing strategies in North America. What good is it to save $5k on the purchase and not be able to use your tractor for months? IMO, nobody should have to go through what JimR did to get their brand new tractor working as it was designed to do.

As a new (1 1/2 months) Kioti owner, I am very concerned about the value of my warranty. While I hope that I never need it, you never know. However, I do know that it was built into the price that I paid for the tractor.

+1 one on this comment.

 

[RickB]

Actually even having preapproval doesn't guarantee payment by the company in some cases. You can have authorization for a warranty and still have the company deny the final warranty claim. Unfortunately many dealers have become gun shy doing warranty in recent years.

I disagree. Preapproval includes full documentation of the failure and an agreement on the solution and reimbursement. That is why it is called preapproval. Been down the road too many times to believe anything else.