Another Brake Story

[roger1938]

Another brake thread. 2004 Monaco Safari Trek. W20 Chassis. MFG 10/01/2003.

Earlier this year, on a trip from TX to NY, about 30 miles from our destination my right front wheel heated up enough to make it seem like the RV was going up very steep hills. After stopping and letting it cool down we drove to our destination.

Yesterday we took the RV to a WH service center and told them about the problem. They pulled the wheels, contacted WH and WH agreed to pay for the two rear wheels. WH and the service cntr agreed that nothing was wrong with the front wheel that was the cause of us bringing the vehicle in for a check. The Service Cntr charged us $100 for the inspection of the right front wheel. When I asked why the front wheel heated up we were told it was because the rear brakes were not working and that caused the front brakes to work harder.

My thinking is that because the rear brakes were faulty, that caused the front brake to fail and since WH agrees that they are responsible for the rear brake problem they should also be responsible for paying for the inspection. I called WH about this issue and of course they don’t agree with me and will not pay for the inspection.

Anyone have any thoughts on this issue?

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by roger1938 Anyone have any thoughts on this issue?

Roger, I expect that you are going to get a lot of support from the members in regard to this issue. Please allow me to offer that when an owner has a inspection accomplished and there isn't anything broken, the owner is liable for the inspection fee. If something were broke on the R/F wheel end WCC would have paid for everything. Good or bad, that's what the situation is at the moment. If it's broke they will fix it, if it isn't there's nothing to fix. This is not unlike the terms you would get with an insurance company, they are only going to fix what's broke.

Now that you have 2 new rear calipers, I expect that you may get a secondary failure on the front axle but I would hope that you don't have to go through this entire routine again.

1 other thing that you did not speak about was flushing the hydraulic system. Do you know if they did that? I do not expect that they will do that as a normal series of events but I would look into it.

[Spoonman]

They were well paid for repairing the rear wheels, at the very least they should have inspected the fronts as a customer courtesy gesture.

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spoonman They were well paid for repairing the rear wheels ....

Spoonman, You are assuming that. What if they were only paid book on the 2 calipers and they allocated all that time. I don't see where they were "well paid" since the reimbursement for that is likely to be less that you think. For example GM would give the Chevy dealer is no where near the same rate as the Chevy dealer would directly change the customer. The fact remains that the dealer still has to pay the mechanic and if that mechanic is an hourly employee that money has to come from somewhere or he doesn't get a paycheck at the end of the week. If there's nothing to fix then there's nothing to bill for. I'm not trying to be a PITA just looking at the other side of the coin.

[Spoonman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DriVer Spoonman, You are assuming that. What if they were only paid book on the 2 calipers and they allocated all that time. I don't see where they were "well paid" since the reimbursement for that is likely to be less that you think. For example GM would give the Chevy dealer is no where near the same rate as the Chevy dealer would directly change the customer. The fact remains that the dealer still has to pay the mechanic and if that mechanic is an hourly employee that money has to come from somewhere or he doesn't get a paycheck at the end of the week. If there's nothing to fix then there's nothing to bill for. I'm not trying to be a PITA just looking at the other side of the coin.

If they wern`t being well paid they wouldn`t be doing wh service, with the initial complaint being about front axel and the resulting repairs to the rear the service center or wh should have eaten the inspection.It isn`t like they inspected it for no reason. It`s about customer good will, I know wh may have to look that up in someone elses customer service manual but it is actually good business practice.