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Abe
12-05-2006, 10:03 AM
How do self employed engineers handle warranty situations

Say you fit a replacement fan motor for instance.

Do you offer a full 12 month warranty , so in case of failure the cost of labour , etc is included. ie: the replacement fitted for free of charge.

Im not sure the legal requirement on this. Accepted the part comes with a warranty from manufacturer, but what about the labour?

How can that be warranteed???

Peter_1
12-05-2006, 03:53 PM
For me it works as follows: new installations have 1 year full warranty (labour and parts)
After that everything has to be paid.

New spare parts are labour included.

There's somewhere a law which states that the one who caused damage has to repair the damage but also all the consequence (colateral?) damage.
So if you replace a faulty TEv with a new one and teh new one fails, then your supplier has to pay you a new TEV and legally also your hours.
If they will do this is of course another question.

If we have a problem during warranty with a Mitsubishi Electric, then they provide us a new piece and they pay also the labour hours to replace the part.

It all depends on the client, if it's ag odo client wich you often see, then I don't charge the labour costs.
If it's client you see once a year, allways nagging, complaining, then he pays everything.

I once had a customer who refused to pay and whiel I was putting everything in my van, I accidentaly ;) touched the service valve with my key and all the gas escaped after some days.
He called me back and I thanked him for his confidence/trust.

Another time, we programmed in the Mitsubishi PLC (+/- 200 I/O)a fault which came back every 5 to 6 days for 10 to 15 minutes, twice a day and it was programmed that the frequency increased when we didn't short-circuit regulary 2 pins.
There was nothing wrong with the PLC but they finally replaced it with a new Siemens.
I missed +/- 1000 euro's but they paid a new PLC of +/- 10000 euro's.

Andy T
12-05-2006, 04:09 PM
I not so sure the enviroment had to pay because your customer would not :(

US Iceman
12-05-2006, 04:50 PM
Hi Abe,

When I used to do service work I covered the cost of labor for the replacement, unless some outside factor was involved (vandalism, accidental, or other determined at my discretion).

If it was a fan motor or some other small and relatively cheap part I would just go ahead and change the part at no cost to the customer. Of course, you also have to have the cost built into the component.

It was normal practice to charge 200% or more on pieces less than $100 USD. This way if the part broke, it was replaced for free.

Not every piece will break and it was up to me to find the best product to use and to ensure it was installed correctly.

Replacements were very few, so I thought it all worked out in the big scheme of things.

If it happened to be a large item (compressor) the manufacturer would pay labor and replacement costs.

But, you had to have very good documentation and be right. They would not pay for a misdiagnosed problem. Imagine that.:rolleyes:

djbe
12-05-2006, 10:03 PM
Hi Abe,

If you read into most service companies terms and conditions the warranty covers replacement of the part only and not labour.

Indeed this is exactly what our terms an conditions say.

However, I would agree with Peter, if it is a good customer (i.e pays bills on time and listens to you) then I cover the labour.

Poor payers and difficult customers get warranty terms to the letter.

Fortunately parts are generally reliable and we generally install them reliably so the warranty issue rarely rears it's head.

djbe.

S_Line
14-12-2009, 06:04 PM
If you install a replacement fan motor, it fails in 8 months, the customer would not expect to pay for a replacement fan motor or any labour.

If it was 14 months and it failed, then the question or - Whay has it failed within such a short time would be asked.

Know your customer and treat them well, they will pass the word.
On the whole scale of things, in a year, replacing a £10 fan motor for free after 18 months, even though its out of its 12 month warranty would provide Kudos for you.

I take this approach with a few customers. We are still turning work down as we are too busy.

Abe
15-12-2009, 08:41 AM
S Line

You must have had a quick forty winks

The last post was nearly 4 years ago


:D

D.D.KORANNE
15-12-2009, 09:59 AM
on components it will be back to back