Yet another dealership service rant - but not Ford!

[b2tf]

It seems that shonky dealership warranty repairs aren't just limited to Ford as I found out today. Put the other half's Honda Accord Euro in today to have the CD player and interior light looked at under warranty. The CD player isn't recognising discs and the interior light has blown about 4 times in the past moth so I was concerned it may have a short etc.

The car is under extended warranty until January so I put it in to get these looked at because they would both be potentially costly things to rectify after the warranty is up. So, imagine my surprise when the GF rings me and tells me that they have dropped the car back to her work - with a bill!

The CD player is fine apparently - expected them to say that and will likely replace it with an aftermarket one anyway, so not really a big deal. BUT - and here's the clincher - the bill was to install a new light bulb in the interior light, which is apparently fine too. The bill - $32!!!!!!

$32 to install a damn festoon bulb doesnt seem right to me, so I rang to query it - sorry sir, that work wasn't covered under extended warranty and the bulb is a genuine Honda part. After enquiring whether the bulb was made from gold, silver or platinum to justify the price (and being told 'errr.....no,, i don't get what you mean?'), I asked why we were not called before the work was carried out to be asked if it was ok to do because we would be charged for it. "Oh, I um, don't know. But you were charged because that work wasn't under warranty". On top of that, apparently the interior light bulb HAS to be a genuine Honda one because "normal ones won't work". Obviously this girl does not know that I work in auto parts and that every festoon bulb is the same - and they most certainly do not cost $32.

So by now I am wondering just what this supposed 'warranty' DOES cover and I flat out refuse to pay the bill. Receptionist explains that the bill must be paid etc - I politely refer to the above mentioned points as the reasons why I will most certainly not pay the bill and we leave it at that. Can't believe it!

I'll be following this up tomorrow but I just cannot believe the hide of some dealers - to a) not cover the job when the car is under warranty, and b) go ahead and do a job which incurs a cost WITHOUT getting permission from the vehicle owner, is not right to me. Does anybody else have experience with Honda warranty?

[bangm001]

Wait till it blows again after a week, thats when id be ****sed!! LOL!

[Iggypoppin']

i thought LEGALLY no work could be completed and billed unless the company notifies the person beforehand. that is, anything not covered under warranty or specified by the customer. imagine if it had been something several hundred dollars more...if they went ahead and did that without my approval i'd hit the roof. hope you sort this out B2TF, i know its $32 and not much but its the principal of the matter, they should not be doing that

[4Vman]

I didnt realise wear and tear items like bulbs were covered under warranty?

[05b8050]

a mate of mine has a holden viva not a bad thing apart from it has a bad habbit of dropping in to safe mode in the engine and gear box sepratly the motor one will not let the car rev above 2000rpm and the gear box one will not let it out of 2nd so as to reduce speed took it to holden got like 15 codes a little tweek here and there and told it was fixed this went on 3 times after this took it to a mate with his own work shop got told faulty computer aparently runs both went back to holden and they said not covered if you want it fixed 2750 worth of computer on a 11000 car go figure
was told by the machanic that these are not covered because there are too many outside veribles

[Fireblade]

A friend of mine (Mature lady) a couple of years ago put her EL in to get a service from a very reputable dealer in Adelaide, long story short they called her and said the head gasket was cactus and she told them to hold off until she had done some enquiries elsewhere (Me). She never called them back to give them the go ahead as she was going to use my mechanic rather than the dealer, went to pick the car up the next day and found the head and gasket had already been done and a bill for $2500. She rang me and told me I said well don't pay it because they never got the go ahead for the work, they weren't very happy about it but once told the ACCC will hear about this it was soon swept under the carpet and dealership soaked up the costs. She got a new head and gasket for $160 that the service cost.

[Bucknaked]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

I didnt realise wear and tear items like bulbs were covered under warranty?

Originally Posted by b2tf

the interior light has blown about 4 times in the past moth so I was concerned it may have a short etc.

I would expect that if there was a short and the bulbs keep going, then yes they should replace the bulbs. Would you expect to pay for an item which was damaged due to a fault? Of course not.

[Charliewool]

Originally Posted by b2tf

I'll be following this up tomorrow but I just cannot believe the hide of some dealers - to a) not cover the job when the car is under warranty, and b) go ahead and do a job which incurs a cost WITHOUT getting permission from the vehicle owner, is not right to me. Does anybody else have experience with Honda warranty?

Just make sure your "follow up" is documented....
Painful I know, but put it in writing (politely but firmly) to their service Dept.
Verbal tooing and froing means Jack ... They'll just deny, deny deny.
Good luck!

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

I didnt realise wear and tear items like bulbs were covered under warranty?

No they wouldn't be. However the fault causing a bulb to blow 4 times in a month most certainly is.

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

I would expect that if there was a short and the bulbs keep going, then yes they should replace the bulbs. Would you expect to pay for an item which was damaged due to a fault? Of course not.

Agree, but i would have thought a short or fault would blow the fuse instantly.

[SSD-85]

Originally Posted by F6 FOON

A friend of mine (Mature lady) a couple of years ago put her EL in to get a service from a very reputable dealer in Adelaide, long story short they called her and said the head gasket was cactus and she told them to hold off until she had done some enquiries elsewhere (Me). She never called them back to give them the go ahead as she was going to use my mechanic rather than the dealer, went to pick the car up the next day and found the head and gasket had already been done and a bill for $2500. She rang me and told me I said well don't pay it because they never got the go ahead for the work, they weren't very happy about it but once told the ACCC will hear about this it was soon swept under the carpet and dealership soaked up the costs. She got a new head and gasket for $160 that the service cost.

Here here. Work should not be carried out on a vehicle without the owners consent. Sounds like they tried to pull a swifty, got what they deserved. Had a similiar issue when I purchased one of my cars. Except mine was still under staturory warranty (was an issue covered by a stat.) they tried ever so hard to wiggle out of it and make me pay for it. Not likely :

[duaned]

A short circuit would blow the fuse in the interior light circuit, not the bulb! The bulb is a resistive device, so it will glow whether it receives 1volt or 12volts (at different brightness of course). A short circuit would bypass the bulb to bring a postive to earth fault and blow the fuse. As for the lamp, it just sounds to the use of poor quality globes. Globes are made to varying tolerances, and the ones from supercheap etc. are the lowest grade items. OEM ones ( in most cases) are made with a higher tolerance so it will be interesting to hear how long the genuine one lasts.

[Giant Cranium]

Originally Posted by duaned

A short circuit would blow the fuse in the interior light circuit, not the bulb! The bulb is a resistive device, so it will glow whether it receives 1volt or 12volts (at different brightness of course). A short circuit would bypass the bulb to bring a postive to earth fault and blow the fuse. As for the lamp, it just sounds to the use of poor quality globes. Globes are made to varying tolerances, and the ones from supercheap etc. are the lowest grade items. OEM ones ( in most cases) are made with a higher tolerance so it will be interesting to hear how long the genuine one lasts.

still not worth $32. spose that includes 3 seconds labour

[b2tf]

Originally Posted by duaned

A short circuit would blow the fuse in the interior light circuit, not the bulb! The bulb is a resistive device, so it will glow whether it receives 1volt or 12volts (at different brightness of course). A short circuit would bypass the bulb to bring a postive to earth fault and blow the fuse. As for the lamp, it just sounds to the use of poor quality globes. Globes are made to varying tolerances, and the ones from supercheap etc. are the lowest grade items. OEM ones ( in most cases) are made with a higher tolerance so it will be interesting to hear how long the genuine one lasts.

I put in Narva globes which I got from work after matching them to the one I took out of it. It is IDENTICAL and I have sold literally thousands of them with not one single return. So I don't see how a Honda genuine bulb is going to solve the problem.

4vman, you are correct - a bulb would not normally be covered under warranty. But the fault that is causing it to blow so often (no fuses blown by the way) would be covered under warranty, would it not? I took it in because I was concerned that said fault could end up causing other problems which I feel should be covered under warranty. If they said there was nothing wrong and the bulb was just bad luck well yeah I could understand being charged to put a new bulb in. But I'm in the wrong industry if a 15 second job is worth $32.

I had a bit more time to talk to the GF tonight and she told me that she questioned it too when the service guy delivered the car back to her work. He apparently ended up getting quite rude and said something along the lines of "we worked for 45 minutes on this car and we didn't get paid for it". This really ****es me off - it's not our problem/issue/responsibility. The car is under warranty which means Honda wears the cost of any repairs - not us,and for him to carry on like that is not acceptable in my book. I get the feeling we have been had by some idiot who thinks the GF is a fool who knows nothing about cars and warranties - shame for them she's actually a warranty/service clerk for motorbikes so we are not entirely clueless.

I will be following this up - yeah look it's bugger all moneywise but this is not the point. They have carried out work on the car when they were not authorised to do so, they have billed us for it when it is a warranty issue and should be covered under warranty, and they have fobbed us off claiming a 'genuine part' is the fix. I'm hoping like hell that bulb blows tomorrow but even if it doesn't I'm going to sort this out.

[AUXRVIII]

A poor earth on the bulb circuit will cause the bulb to fail as the bulb will pass current instead of consuming it, the poor earth will be consuming some of the current in the form of heat energy. A simple voltage drop test of the bulb may show if this is occurring.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Bit like the fact that my SX Territory Ghia blew Phillips Blue Vision bulbs one after the other but not geniune motorcraft ones.. Dont discount the fact that it could be the bulbs you are using...

[genebaby]

A lot of those Phillips globes do not last long. I had one of the fancy sets for a short period, one blew way quickly.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by genebaby

A lot of those Phillips globes do not last long. I had one of the fancy sets for a short period, one blew way quickly.

Yep.. In the end the actually became a safety issue for me traving on country roads at night coz i never knew when i was going to blow one or two for that matter... Terrible bulbs...

[jweb]

Wear and tear items are not coverd by warranty(bulb replacement).Yes they should call you to make sure you wish the part to be changed,but something so small,you can imagine the mechanics would be forever on the phone.eg: Ahhh we found a 5 $ seel that needs changing,should we??.

The testing of the faulty part should be covered by warranty,but if there is nothing wrong with the part and it is the bulb then you would be charged.Seems fair to me,am I crazy : ,maybe dont answer that lol,but remember they have children to feed as well,excuse the generalist expression.

I can understand if you where unhappy because they just changed the bulb and did no testing,and yes that is expensive for a bulb,but thats honda,and a lot of other car companies.

[zc347]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

I didnt realise wear and tear items like bulbs were covered under warranty?

Ford factory warranty covers all globes for the full 3 years or 100,000kms on all new cars, most people don't realise it does. But extended warranty you would be lucky to get anything covered.

[RSgerry]

not sure about warranty items, but the bills to fix Hondas when they go wrong will make your eyes water.

[mik]

Originally Posted by zc347

Ford factory warranty covers all globes for the full 3 years or 100,000kms on all new cars, most people don't realise it does. But extended warranty you would be lucky to get anything covered.

is that a recent thing ? i`m pretty sure globes were not covered in times past anyway.

[zc347]

Originally Posted by mik

is that a recent thing ? i`m pretty sure globes were not covered in times past anyway.

The last six years i've been at ford i've been changing globes under warranty on cars still in warranty. I don't know when it started, but it's been that way since i've been there.

[Gaz]

look at their bill for the bulb cost and labour cost, they should be separate

remove the bulb and return it to them with an invoice for your labour cost equalling their bill then suggest you should both just agree not to pay

[LTDterri]

Originally Posted by zc347

Ford factory warranty covers all globes for the full 3 years or 100,000kms on all new cars, most people don't realise it does. But extended warranty you would be lucky to get anything covered.

This sounds right, I know Holden does as my sisters Crapadore has had bulbs changed under warranty. But we are talking about a extended warranty and I dont think they are worth the paper they are written on.

If the Honda bulb is a genuine part, then it may be covered under a 12 month 20,000km warranty so if it blows again over the next 12 months take it back and get them to change it for free.

[b2tf]

I understand the point of view that the bulb is not covered under warranty and that is fine with me. The two issues that annoy me about this are:

1) We didnt know that it was the bulb that was the problem - which is why we put the car in for warranty work, because we did not know what the problem was. If it was something electrical it would have been covered, so how am I supposed to know what it is when the fuses are all fine, and the bulbs keep blowing? It could have been something in the wiring and that is something that is covered under warranty - which is why we put it into the dealers.

2) They went ahead and charged us for what we thought was a warranty job without asking us first. Now yes it is a small charge but that is beside the point - what if it were a $500 part that they had to replace and they went ahead and did it?

This is what annoys me about the whole thing. I'm a tradie, if I need to do something extra or something does not turn out the way I told the client it would, I don't just go ahead and do it and send them a bill - if I did, I would be out of a job. So why can they do it?

[XESP351]

My old BA XR6T had globes replaced under warranty and that was extended warranty by the way and at two different dealers too. So yes Ford does cover globes under warranty.

I'll never drive a Honda again, last time i had one it cost me $1500 to replace a water pump on a car i struggled to sell for $2k!!

[jonk]

I got in touch with Phillips rep' via email. Told him his globes kept blowing every six or so months. He replied he doesn't think there's any warranty period on their globes... dead set, that was the reply. Almost like, once you buy them it's your prob' later.

[xr6turbo2005]

Originally Posted by Gaz

look at their bill for the bulb cost and labour cost, they should be separate

remove the bulb and return it to them with an invoice for your labour cost equalling their bill then suggest you should both just agree not to pay

that sounds like a plan.

to me B2TF has done the right thing, identified a problem that needed to be looked at under warranty. that being bulbs continuely blowing. If they say you should be using genuine parts, so be it but if they knew their product, then the service guys should have know this is an issue upfront.

to charge $32 to change a buld is just highway robbery. they should have been up front and sold you a genunie bulb and said you put it in.

[last fairlane]

Does the "genuine" bulb have Honda written on it or some thing like Narva or Bosch or Nippo or grand bulb co made in China how genuine is a bulb any way
John