Not trying to sound like an ass, but its the cost of doing business. Its keeping a customer happy with the product you offer that you sold to him. You have to stand behind the product you sell.
I understand that the manufacturer won't pay the labor. BUT if the product did fail and can be proven that it failed, the manufacturer should support there vendors and replace the defective part at NO cost. If it was my business, and I had multiple customers with multiple failures, I would be looking for a different supplier or manufacturer.
If this is the first case that this has happened, then it goes back to the cost of doing business, especially in the automotive industry.
Back to my previous post. IF the customer walked in and said here are my parts I want you to install. You charged him labor to install them, and as long as the parts were installed correctly (ie...nothing missaligned, and the clutch cable adjusted properly to keep the fingers off the bearing), then it would be a generous offer that you have laid on the table. It would be the customers responsibility to go back and get the part warrantied, and it would be gracious if you gave him a discount for replacing the item.
Being that in this case he purchased the parts from you, and you installed them. You made money off both things. Parts and Labor. It would be your responsibility to go back to the manufacturer to get it replaced, and take care of the labor.
Once again as long as it is found that the customer did not neglect or abuse the parts.....and indeed the part was defective from the factory. The business should replace at NO CHARGE for the part OR the labor.
Normally a reasonable offer to put on the table would be to take it apart and diagnose like you said. If the shop found it to be abuse that did the damage, the customer should pay for the labor the second time, no doubt!!
But for a defective item, it has to be good practice to count it as a loss. Not every day does a business stay in the green on profit. But if you take care of one bad thing, your reputation will go a LONG way to keep you in the green for allot more years. I for one would continue to recommend you to other fellow svt enthusiast, and LS1 enthusiast. Why because they take complete care of there customers. Simply said.
I can think of many businesses that would do this exact same thing, and I would hope it would not be any different with Speed Inc.
Its not like Orleans04 has been driving on this thing for 6 months, this was just recently installed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your not helping, but IMO its just not enough for this particular case.
SVT SPEED 04 said:
first things first....We have no clue what is wrong with Steve's car since we have not been able to diagnose the issue. The car is coming in tomorrow.
second....how are we not helping out? The manufacturer will not pay labor to an installer for a bad product. We have no reason to eat the labor either. The labor was discounted more then 1/2 to help out "IF" the TOB is the issue.
normally R&R $250
Chi SVT discount -$50
discount due to possible unfortunate parts failure -$100
We will do everything we can to help Steve out with whatever may be the issue. We have always gone out of our way to make a situation good and will always continue to do so.