slmayor
Founding California Northern Chapter Leader
More tales from the Darkside (service industry): Our normal labor rate is $98 hr. We charge $110 for warranty work because of the extra paperwork, phone, and processing. I have never had Heartland question either rate. We charged them $110 in the beginning, but we do so much now, and I have a routine down with them so we just charge them $98 on most of the non-third party items.
For those companies that delay work and say they're waiting on approval, I call BS except on the rare questionable cases of abuse vs defect. My normal claim process is to take photos, itemize repairs and labor times in an email, send it off and 98% of the time I have either the approval or a request for more info within a few hours. In the email I also lay out the parts needed. I am cc'd on the emails to the parts dept and get a confirmation email when the parts are picked. If they have to be special ordered from a third party vendor, I'm notified. Once the parts are shipped it's either 5 -10 days depending if it's truck or UPS. They pay promptly when the invoice is submitted.
I do not give a second thought to doing any warranty work for Heartland. If someone says they're not getting paid, either their rates are way out of line with everyone else in the area, their service writers are incompetent or someone is not telling the truth.
Yes that's harsh, but I'm pretty tired of seeing unhappy new buyers with problems stemming from nothing but bad service. This isn't rocket science. Provide the evidence of a needed repair, ask for the correct part and get the customer back on the road. I'd like to say that nothing ever goes wrong, but I can't. I get an occasional wrong part. But there is not one instance of not knowing, or being able to find out quickly, where my customer's parts are or when we will finish a job. "Your parts should be here no later than Thursday" is an answer. "We're waiting on parts",is not.
Rant over....
For those companies that delay work and say they're waiting on approval, I call BS except on the rare questionable cases of abuse vs defect. My normal claim process is to take photos, itemize repairs and labor times in an email, send it off and 98% of the time I have either the approval or a request for more info within a few hours. In the email I also lay out the parts needed. I am cc'd on the emails to the parts dept and get a confirmation email when the parts are picked. If they have to be special ordered from a third party vendor, I'm notified. Once the parts are shipped it's either 5 -10 days depending if it's truck or UPS. They pay promptly when the invoice is submitted.
I do not give a second thought to doing any warranty work for Heartland. If someone says they're not getting paid, either their rates are way out of line with everyone else in the area, their service writers are incompetent or someone is not telling the truth.
Yes that's harsh, but I'm pretty tired of seeing unhappy new buyers with problems stemming from nothing but bad service. This isn't rocket science. Provide the evidence of a needed repair, ask for the correct part and get the customer back on the road. I'd like to say that nothing ever goes wrong, but I can't. I get an occasional wrong part. But there is not one instance of not knowing, or being able to find out quickly, where my customer's parts are or when we will finish a job. "Your parts should be here no later than Thursday" is an answer. "We're waiting on parts",is not.
Rant over....
