Kioti dealer service call pricing...unreasonable?

[Hay Dude]

My dealers are all about an hours drive from me. They usually want $400-$500 to pick up or return anything hauled to their shop if I can’t fix it. I can easily just haul it to them-except for the 35,000lb large square baler. That’s either got to be fixed on site or hauled on a detachable.

Repairs get real expensive when they charge ~$1,000 just for pick up and return.

Thats why a trailer to haul my agriculture products and equipment is a no brainer. pay’s for itself in 1-2 years.

 

[Zmann.]

I am sure you looked into the code, I found this Related thread and this issues would not be covered if this was the cause

dtc 4881 F 30

On my Kioti Ck4010 with 417 hrs the CEL came on and a dtc 4881 F 30 is flashing on the hours display. The local Kioti dealer can't get to it at this time, so does anyone know what this error code means? The tractor still runs, but the rpms are limited. Thanks for any leads you can provide.

www.tractorbynet.com

worth looking anyway ,, My 2510 has been a great machine I was always unsure how warranty work would go but I am now not anticipating ever needing it

 

[nybirdman]

My dealer(Kubota) about 70 miles round trip has never charged me for warranty work period,pick up included.At least three times over the years.
The do charge for service calls,but reasonable;I think it was $75.00,

 

[sea2summit]

I think you guys complaining about the cost haven't considered the cost of offering a field service...

-Front desk recieves/processes the request for service lets say $15/hr and this is a half hour job...with overhead of management, office space, etc lets say this is $20.
-Service manager allocates work for the day at $30/hr. Insurance and other compensation the business is probably paying $37/hr. Lets say 10 minutes $3.
-Lets say this tech is making $25/hr. Insurance and other compensation the business is probably paying about $32/hr.
-150 miles round trip, in a tool truck with an moving average speed of 45 mph is 3.3 hrs, so $96 for the tech.
-150 miles in a tool truck at 12mpg diesel $5/gal is $62.50
-Maint on the truck lets say $0.05/mile, so $7.50
-100k truck and tools (I think this is a very low estimate) amortized over five years is $78/ a business day (how many days a week does it actually go on the road? If less than five this number increases dramatically)
-Insurance on the truck is probably $10/day (if it doesn't go on the road every day this number also continues to increase dramatically)
-Now the tech is on site at least an hour (arrive, meet, locate equipment, plug in computer, complete paperwork, write a receipt, say goodbye) another $32.
-It's a four hour job for that tech but it's likely most of his work for the day by the time he comes in, gets the job, gets the keys, gets back, takes care of the truck, gets back to the office so lets just give the job the rest of his day's wage (3.7 hrs) $111

So with my beer math the COST of the trip is: $453



-The business isn't trying to do this for free, lets say they need to make 20% so $93.

So overall right around $545 with my estimated costs...I'm betting most are low. So at the end of the day $700 seems close to "at cost" to me.

 

[jaydee325]

My thought would be whatever the terms of the warranty were at time of purchase. I don't think you can change the existing warranty terms once the deal has been made, wouldn't it just apply to new purchases?
I know I had bought, at one of our local stores, a rechargeable drill with a 3 year warranty. 1-1/2 years after that it burnt out and I took it back and they told me it only had a one year warranty, which it currently did. Luckily I had saved the receipt and a sales flyer with the three year warranty printed and they had to honour it.

Using a rechargeable drill warranty to compare to a tractor warranty is an apples to oranges comparison.

The warranty statement in the owners manual for my John Deere X584 states clearly that if you are within a 100 miles of a dealer, the owner is responsible to transport the tractor to the dealer or pay for a mobile tech to do the repairs or pay the dealer for the haul. If more than 100 miles, Deere will pick up those expenses or may authorize another repair facility that is closer to do the repairs.

As aways, the devil is in the details.

 

[dodge man]

A lot of it is how the warranty is worded. My guess is you are on the hook for those expenses. If the guy comes in a pickup truck, they cost per mikes pretty high. If a well trained mechanic shows up in a fully equipped service truck, which is often a bigger truck, that cost probably isn’t out of line. Still not fair from your point of view with it under warranty.

 

[azbinder]

When I was at the dealer (Kubota/NH), travel time and or equipment hauling was at the customers expense per the manufactures warranty. If we had someone in the area with a trailer at the time, we would try to make some type of accommodations. And at the current times, the quoted numbers probably are not too far off. Most dealership service trucks on built on an F550 style chassis and have a service body, crane, compressor, welder/generator. The truck I had was also set up with a hydraulic hose making system. Trust me, these trucks are not cheap to build or to operate.

 

[mrmikey]

Using a rechargeable drill warranty to compare to a tractor warranty is an apples to oranges comparison.

The warranty statement in the owners manual for my John Deere X584 states clearly that if you are within a 100 miles of a dealer, the owner is responsible to transport the tractor to the dealer or pay for a mobile tech to do the repairs or pay the dealer for the haul. If more than 100 miles, Deere will pick up those expenses or may authorize another repair facility that is closer to do the repairs.

Respectfully disagree.
My purpose was not to compare a $100 drill to a K$ tractor. My point was that the warranty for your machine should be what it was at the time you bought it not what it was changed to months after the fact.
You pretty much said what I was eluding to. The terms written in the owners manual are are what the warranty was at the time of purchase. In your example if the terms were changed a couple of months after you bought your machine to 50 miles I'm assuming your 100 miles would still be correct for you. Not being a lawyer I could be full of it .

 

[WinterDeere]

My dealer (Kubota) about 70 miles round trip has never charged me for warranty work period,pick up included. At least three times over the years.

Same with my Deere. They've come and picked up my newest machine twice, and returned it, without even any discussion of charges. Once was an actual repair, the other was to add an accessory that was not available at time of delivery. Not sure if dealer just ate the cost on transport, or if Deere re-imbursed them for it, but no one asked me for any money.

The dealership should be re-imbursed for travel, but if it's an in-warranty repair due to a manufacturing defect (aka "screw up"), why should the consumer pay for it?

Having said that, I'm sure it's clearly spelled out in the warranty statement, that the consumer is responsible for transport, yadda, yadda... doesn't make it right.

 

[jaydee325]

Respectfully disagree.
My purpose was not to compare a $100 drill to a K$ tractor. My point was that the warranty for your machine should be what it was at the time you bought it not what it was changed to months after the fact.
You pretty much said what I was eluding to. The terms written in the owners manual are are what the warranty was at the time of purchase. In your example if the terms were changed a couple of months after you bought your machine to 50 miles I'm assuming your 100 miles would still be correct for you. Not being a lawyer I could be full of it .

I respectfully Agree (LOL!) The terms of a warranty that was signed onto at the point of sale cannot be changed. But, in some cases of problems, the manufacturer may improve the terms and add some extensions or improvements.

We're on the same page.