Dealer or Agent Burstner

[Hans]

A Dealer may make not promises in case of warrantee. Only Their Agents can. Please what is the difference? have anyone seen a contract.

[rayc]

As I see it the dealer is the person who raises the warranty claim whilst the agent is the person who authorises the claim at Burstner's expense i.e. the dealer can not commit Burstner to any course of action or expense whilst an agent is authorised to do so.

[Hans]

Perfectly said. And very important you deal whit. in case off. warranty. And change of burstner documents follow the same Route. But where are the agents?. Burstner will tell you. You can make your complaints directly to germany and they advise what to do.

[Derek Uzzell]

A GOOGLE-search on “burstner agency” retrieves this cached statement from the Burstner website

 

Please note that Approved Retailers are not the agents of Bürstner. Accordingly they have no authority to bind Bürstner or to make any representation or...

 

There may be potential for semantic misunderstanding here. For example in this 2018 forum discussion relating to Burstner warranty work

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Warranty-work-on-new-Burstner-motorhomes/48682/

 

in my posting of 9 February 2018 9:08 AM I said

 

"The Burstner website’s find-a-dealer feature shows 3 AGENCIES within 65 miles or Bristol...”

 

It’s commonplace for UK motorhome dealerships to sell more than one marque of new motorhome - for instance Southdowns Motorhome Centre (SMC) currently sells new motorhomes made by Burstner, Carthago, Hymer, Concorde and Malibu.

 

A definition of an agency is "a business or organization providing a particular service on behalf of another business, person, or group” and an agent as "a person who acts on behalf of another person or group”. So SMC could be described as having five different motorhome agencies, or being agents for 5 different motorhome marques.

 

However, that certainly does not mean that SMC can authorise warranty work for any of those 5 makes of motorhome - that authorisation needs to be given by the manufacturer of the motorhome that the warranty relates to.

 

It might be useful to know what has caused Hans to raise this matter.

 

[Brian Kirby]

But, this should not cause warranty claim problems as, in practice, the buyer will take the van back to whoever sold it (which is where the consumer rights liabilities lie), and the seller (in the case of manufacturer's warranty issues) will almost invariably be an accredited dealership (which may, or may not, also hold agency status) for the brand.

 

The dealer can then be expected to deal with simple problems themselves, but to refer more onerous issues back to the manufacturer for authorisation to repair under warranty, for which the dealer is supplied any replacement parts FoC, and paid for their labour by the manufacturer (though not always at an hourly rate the dealer likes!).

 

My understanding is that the dealer is initially expected to verify that the buyer's claim is reasonable and within the terms of the warranty. From the manufacturer's point of view, this is a reasonable filter against time-wasting "frivolous" claims.

 

If the buyer then thinks the dealer is being unreasonable, there is usually a route for a dissatisfied buyer to appeal directly to the manufacturer that the dealer is being unreasonable, or is not properly representing the buyer's case.

 

Burstner have always seemed to me to enjoy an excellent reputation for their customer service responses. As Derek, I'm intrigued as to what has prompted Hans' post.

[Hans]

Burstner warranty and documents are excecuted via computer software. It goes only via who is on the list. Never understand why and what status they have.