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wrote:

Here it is not a rule - it's a law that came out of a huge class
action lawsuit won by independant servicers who didn't want to make
less on warrantee repairs than retail repairs - and it works.

Seems to me that thy have the option of not doing warranty work if it's less
profitable.

At one time I was involved in engineering contracting for the military, where there
are all kinds of monkey dances about warrantys. Of course, the theory is that you
*have* to keep a warranty even if it drives your company out of business ...and if you
don't have buddies in the right places in gov't, that's exactly their goal.

For many service departments, it's warranty work that pays the bills
and keeps the lights on.

So, that means they have an incentive to sell inferior hardware that has a higher
likelyhood of coming back to visit?

Of course not!

Sounds like whistling in the dark.

In the consumer electronics business, stores sell many brands. Many of
those brands are crap. It doesn't translate into a bad reputation for
the retailer, unless ALL they sell is low end crap. There are also
large and small shops that are service only, and don't sell anything,
just as there are many retailers that sell tons of merchandise and
have NO in house service.

A boat dealer usually only has one or two brands, and their reputation
is tied more closely to the brands they carry. I agree that a boat
dealer might have considerations besides profitability on warranty
work.

Basically agreed, see above comments. Depends heavily on location & target market. It
often appears to me that one could sell horse turds as after dinner mints to a large
percent of the population, if one advertised properly.

My company warrants all our work and our incentive to do things right the first
time comes from a fat profit sharing check at the end of the year.... or lack of
same...

That really doesn't have any bearing. The outboard manufacturer, is
responsible for warranty costs, not the boat dealer.

Right. Sorry, I was looking at it from the viewpoint of the mfr.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King