Is it usual that you have equipment to rent while servicing a clients existing instrument? Does it matter if the equipment being serviced is under warranty? Or if your company sold it?
just my thought.
if you purchased your equipment from the dealer,and he is doing the service work,then he should loan you the same equipment.
If the equipment is under warranty I would expect to pay a reduced rental fee, but not expect a free loaner. If they unit is out of warranty, then I would expect to pay full price. I would be happy to pay either of these if the dealer is providing great service and support.
I would not pay for a "loaner" while under warranty. If that is their policy then I'd take my business someplace else.
It depends, is the gear back in because of a manufacturing issue or a user issue?
I have seen 50% off on rental during warranty period. If you rent, remember that in places, you are responsible for the insurance.
I worked for three dealers and one major manufacturer over a 23.5 year period. It isn't always possible for the dealer to provide the exact same piece of equipment; they simply don't have the resources. As a general rule it has been my experience that dealers will provide a comparable piece of equipment at no charge if the repair is a valid warranty issue - as opposed to abuse, accident, neglect, or any other damage incurred through use, transport, etc. As a general rule they'll also provide a rental at half price if the equipment was purchased from them and is brought to them for repair.
Of course it all depends on the circumstances; there are too many scenarios to even begin to get into specifics. Trimble would frequently replace a unit under a DOA policy if it failed within a certain amount of time, especially a product new to the market - they want to get the failed unit back so they can find the problem and fix it.
A couple things to keep in mind about dealers:
- They are often constrained by the policies of the manufacturer
- They don't get anything for free - for them to have demo gear, rentals, etc., they have to purchase it
- If they loan out a brand new piece of gear it is no longer brand new when they get it back
Those are just some of the reasons why the reputable dealers on this forum always recommend buying from the dealer in your area who can provide the best service and support.
That's a good point as well - most dealers probably have it spelled out clearly in their rental agreements (a loaner would use the same one), if they don't they're crazy - once you take that rental or loaner out their door, you're responsible for it. You need to see if your insurance covers it or if you need to obtain a rider specifically covering that gear.
How much choice do you have with dealers?
If you are committed to a particular brand (Topcon, Leica, Trimble), how much choice do you have with your dealers? I have heard that some dealers are territorial (i.e. they cant sell outside of their service area).
How much choice do you have with dealers?
That's true, it depends on what you want to buy. If you're locked in to a certain brand, especially on their high end products, you may not have options.
EDIT - although looking at your posted location, you probably do have some options.
It really depends on the dealer. Like some of the other guys said, there are dealers that are smaller and don't have a rental instrument available. There are some with rental instruments available but perhaps no the same as the one you are using. Then there are the other dealers that have exactly what you need.
At our company, for every ten of the same instrument we sell, we purchase one for our loaner/rental fleet. We have 9-TPS1200/TS12's, 2-TS15s, 2-Focus 30's and so on. We feel that having the same instruments that our customers have makes their headache a little easier...and our support role much a little easier since we don't have to fully re-train a customer on a new model instrument.
All that being said...even with as much as we have, it sometimes just isn't enough. You get in the middle of summer when everyone is renting or needing a loaner and it gets hard. So...our opinion is...you support us, we support you. We make sure that if the person needing the loaner is someone that purchased their instrument from us they have first priority. If one is not available, they are first in line. Warranty issue loaners are always free of charge. No question. If the instrument, etc is abused, we rent at half price. After the warranty period, we continue to charge half price if the instrument in for service was purchased from us.
We service five states and eight different countries. Most of the time, even for a calibration, if we know we're running behind a bit, we will loan the customer a gun so we have plenty of time to do the job right.
So, as for warranty, I feel this is the way it should be. Other than that, it's hard to say because it is a HUGE expense to the dealers.
Now...for those talking about being stuck with a dealer. That's your own dang fault. I love Toyota trucks. But, if my dealer mistreats me, or can't service me, or doesn't have access to do the things I think they should be doing to take care of me...I'll buy something else in a heartbeat. EQUIPMENT IS ONLY AS GOOD AS THE DEALER SELLING IT, THE SERVICE CENTER SERVICING IT AND THE TRAINER, TRAINING ON IT. The best equipment with the worst dealer service...is no longer the best equipment.
Further, if you dealer is one of these protected, high end dealers, especially of the big three brands...I would expect them to have loaners/rentals. There aren't many smaller dealers that can gain access to selling these brands.
Is there any point to shopping around,,,
If you are looking to purchase one of the higher end instruments, is there really any point in trying to shop around for same the brand? I recently tried to do that to see what my options were as far as dealer support and found out some of them were not allowed to sell to me based on my location (although they could sell me an off brand version). Can you really only shop around between brands in your local area and if you are committed to a brand are you also committed to your local dealer?
Is there any point to shopping around,,,
A year ago i was in the market to start up, with the express intent and funds to buy an rtk/base rig and a robot. There are dealer options here, but I stuck with the dealers for each brand that I either had longstanding personal relationships with, or in the case of the big T dealer, have the market share and reputation (network/support) to warrant it. Bottom line- I wanted a leica quote, a trimble quote, and a topcon quote. In the end, the prices ended up being a relative wash. I went with leica 1. because of the aforementioned personal relationship, 2. familiarity with leica (not as big of a deal, I've run trimble plenty too), and 3. The real kicker: I got a quote back from the leica dealer within 24 hours of meeting. 3 weeks later I got the trimble quote back- by which time I'd been up and running for a week and a half. Despite the relative scale comparison of the two dealers, in terms of support personnel and resources, and a slightly less extensive local network, I have zero regrets. Have never not been able to get immediate support and have had nary an issue with the equipment or network. Dropped the dc once, it jimmied the radio cap, had a replacement the second I walked in while mine was sent off for repairs.
(btw- my leica dealer just happens to be an old high school buddy of kent's)
Is there any point to shopping around,,,
I concur...he's a good man, for a vegan 😉
