The issue, as far as I can tell, that the OP is most concerned with is that one dealer did not feel that it was necessary to assist this KTC Customer with a warrantable repair. At the very least, they did not respond with a transport cost estimate as they promised to do.
Folks, the facts are: Dealers are NOT FACTORY SOTRES, they are independant businesses and run by what is called "Dealer Principals", some have General Managers, many do not. The Factory has few tools and none are terribaly effective, to get any dealer to do any thing unless the dealer WANTS to.
The other facts are, a brand is only as good as it's weakest dealer, it is in NO ONEs best interest to allow poor dealers to remain in business. Poor performance of a single dealer in an area can take the market share for ALL area dealers down. The factory is in the business of SELLING, the dealer's are in the PARTS and SERVICE business. Anyone can sell to a customer once, but the SERVICE the customer gets, or does not, will make or break any future sales opportunities.
When every dealer figures out that putting their customers ahead of another dealers brand customers only hurts the BRAND, KTC might make some progress. Every OEM deals with this problem and it is a HUGE problem for the industry.
When shops are busy, all you can do is BE HONEST about the repair time and whatever you do, NEVER make a promise you cannot keep.
Most franchise agreements REQUIRE every dealer to perform warranty work when presented with it, but none require the dealer to take repairs in the order they arrived. Often dealers who are myopic in nature, place THEIR customers ahead of every other customer regardless of cause or good reason. This hurts the BRAND and no manufacturer wants their brand image damaged by this foolishness.
