Tata are skilled at getting tax payers money out of governments by crying wolf time and time again I worked with GM they did the same
“If you don’t give us xxx’xxx’xxx we will close Luton and Ellesmere”
They did this every 7-8 years successfully.
Tata “Give us 500 million and we will keep the steel works open”
Tata “Give us 500 million and we will keep JLR production in U.K.” unless Spain offer more
Tata 2013 “Give us 500 million or we close Halewood”
https://www.theguardian.com/business...ry-plant-in-uk
https://planet.outlookindia.com/news...el-news-415952
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news...r-tata-3458211
They know how to bend over politicians like Hunt and Sunak who can’t be seen as losing jobs or factories shut down on their watch as bad optics Tata know this.
And having spent 35 years with GM and Ford I will always remember this being the manufacturer standpoint.
When everything is going well it’s because of our great product and brilliant brand management and when it’s all going wrong it’s because of shit dealers (the same ones as when it was going well).
Warranty or ‘policy’ costs are a huge problem as they need to be costed into RRP’s and spiraling claims push up RRP affecting competitiveness and bottom line and so to manufacturers, dealers putting claims in are the devil and instead of fixing the root of the problems ‘product quality’ and ‘component manufacturers’ they make it increasingly hard for dealers to claim , prior approval, photos videos, hours hanging on phone, days to respond, inspections which means waiting days or weeks for factory tech to come in just to confirm your diagnosis was correct meanwhile the customer is in a hire car getting more angry by the day.
Just to add many manufacturers have ‘procurement bods’ whose job ot is to source components it’s often apparent their main focus is on cost alone and not longevity or servicability or even the supplier’s credentials this is I think the cause of much of the problem.
Then you submit your monthly claims often substantial amounts tens of thousands and then often wait weeks to get paid or if your unlucky some rejected which means hours battling on the phone or online, piles of old parts choking the parts department for months awaiting return and inspection to make sure you didn’t just make up the defect that the customer raised as a concern.
Thats before you start on peer group charts and audits many of which can result in fines into hundreds of thousands with penalties and interest, for fraud (very rare normally big PLC) and thats fine but sometimes it’s based on technicians poor write ups or clockings or not booking out a 10p washer on a £10’000 engine job debits the whole claim, I sat on the warranty audit appeal board and saw decent grown men utterly broken.
Dealers hate doing warranty work its filled with trepidation, angry customers and manufacturers who are bizarrely suspicious and paranoid of the very people who they chose to represent them as trusted partners who are trying to defend the manufacturers reputation and retain the customers confidence.
Many dealers now actively manage away warranty work to other neighbouring dealers by being too busy not wanting to end up on the naughty step or buried under paper and parts so customers ricochet like a pinball from dealer to dealer until some poor soul says “yeh we can look at that”.
Maybe one day manufacturers will open their own ‘warranty’ repair outlets nationwide that would be a fascinating case study dealers could help set them up with bank style protection screens and gum shields.
FFF we have the same T Shirt.
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Originally Posted by Maysie
