The warranty issue
Many people when considering having a new vehicle serviced think that they have no choice but to go to the franchised dealer for vehicle servicing. With the introduction of extended warranties we are now talking about the first three years of the vehicle’s life. In fact the position is quite clear: A vehicle manufacturer cannot require that servicing work is carried out by franchised dealers only.
At VTS we have, over a period of almost 30 years, carried out service work on a vast number of vehicle covered by new vehicle warranty. We know of no case were this had lead to a refusal to honour the manufacturers warranty. Unfortunately there have been numerous occasions were people have been told that servicing must be carried out by the dealers, usually by ill informed sales people. We have had instances of this involving our own customers and our answer is always the same- just ask them to put that condition in writing. Strangely, the answer is always something along the lines of “ well you must have misunderstood- we only recommend that the dealer services your vehicle”.
In early 2004 the Office of Fair Trading published a document concerning this very issue. Briefly they expressed concerns that vehicle manufacturers were flouting the law by trying to restrict the customer’s right to have the vehicle serviced at a garage of their own choice.
To Quote from the OFT website: “Where you get your car serviced is an important consideration. Following action by the OFT in 2004, all major makes of new car in the UK are sold without servicing ties as part of their warranties.”
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At VTS we service all new vehicles strictly in accordance with the manufactures schedules thereby safeguarding your warranty. We also do little things that the manufactures have cut from the schedules - checking the brakes on every service for instance. Servicing as it should be done and at affordable prices.
