goatman-68 said:
I would take a new stove would be easier to put another stove in then do the repair. I might ask the area Rep if he gets back to me, call him again today and waiting on a response.
Harman Warranty Sucks - UPDATE - Now I am MAD!
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I would take a new stove would be easier to put another stove in then do the repair. I might ask the area Rep if he gets back to me, call him again today and waiting on a response.
swalz said:
I think you will have good luck with the area rep. They are usually sympathetic to these kinds of issues, and most are in agreement that manufactures warranty polices are a joke.
kinsman stoves said:
'Not Harman'?????????????? Aren't they the ones that set the warranty rates for the dealers? Aren't they the ones that don't answer the phone or tell you that it's not their problem? Aren't they the ones that wash their hands of the problem and push it on the dealer who gets MINIMUM reimbursement? Aren't they the ones who designed and built the stove? Shouldn't they, therefore, be responsible for ALL reasonable repair charges?
I have Quads but now we are all in the same leaky, listing HHT garbage scow
!!swalz said:
no problem. I will tell anyone who will listen about them. Since I am a pellet burner "and everyone knows" I get ask lots of ?'s.
That does suck. The warranty seems pretty straight forward to me. I am not a big fan of dealers hiding behind the company they are representing. I think if they decide to carry a brand then they are the face of that company and should do all they can to provide the service promised. I would contact everyone I could daily and keep calling till they are sick of hearing it. I'm sure you bought the Harman in good faith based in some part on their "best in the industry" warranty. Time for Harman, and their dealers to pony up.
Please keep us posted on how this plays out. I'm sorry about your problem but I'm also interested because I bought a Harman last year, partly due to their reputation. The dealer's been fine, I burn good pellets and keep the stove clean, and everything's OK so far. But the experience of other people is something I'd like to continue to keep an eye on. And I do hope you solve your problem.
tjnamtiw said:kinsman stoves said:
'Not Harman'?????????????? Aren't they the ones that set the warranty rates for the dealers? Aren't they the ones that don't answer the phone or tell you that it's not their problem? Aren't they the ones that wash their hands of the problem and push it on the dealer who gets MINIMUM reimbursement? Aren't they the ones who designed and built the stove? Shouldn't they, therefore, be responsible for ALL reasonable repair charges?
I have Quads but now we are all in the same leaky, listing HHT garbage scow
actually HHT brought the quad service policy to harmon. This has been standard operating procedure for HHT for years.
MountainStoveGuy said:
That doesn't make me feel any better, that's for sure! Sounds like it is a customer no-service policy. Sell it and forget it. They might as well send their warranty department to Manila, like everyone else.
No, the policy is industry wide. The policy is designed for the selling dealer to take care of his own sales, and not get people from buying from dealer A that is out of dealers B service area, and ask dealer B to do the work on from a sale that dealer A made. Its a fail policy, just for cases like this. If the dealer stays in business that you buy any stove from, you can expect a full warranty. As soon as that dealer goes belly up, its a parts warranty only. This is why its fail, but our industry has yet to come up with anything better.
Rep called and said Harman will be paying $450 for the repair, waiting on dealer to call me and set up schedule.
Thats great news, I have had a decent experience with Harman so far...but we have a really good well established dealer in our area. I do believe that harman does try, but sometimes the dealer network is what gives them a bad rap. Hopefully harman will come up with a better way to serve its customers. Maybe dealer service 1st but harman could have their own area service representatives in areas where dealers have drop the lines or had them taken away.
swalz said:
Rep called and said Harman will be paying $450 for the repair, waiting on dealer to call me and set up schedule.
Great news!
Zap
Well the parts have come in for the stove and it is being picked up tomorrow to be taken back to the shop for repair. Hopefully I will get it back before the weather really gets cold, good thing that it hasn't been that cold yet.
Now I just need to hope that my Boiler survives the winter, when it was cleaned last week I was informed that it is leaking and is going to need to be replaced soon! :gulp:
Now I just need to hope that my Boiler survives the winter, when it was cleaned last week I was informed that it is leaking and is going to need to be replaced soon! :gulp:
Franks said:
Not going to push that since the dealer I bought the stove from no longer sells Harman or services them and this is another Harman dealer. Just happy it is going to be fixed, has been a battle to get it covered. It has been down for at least a month now and my wife keeps bugging me when it is going to be fixed.
right, forgot about that part. Well, good luck on the furnace staying lit. If the furnace dies, get a few electric heaters and go with them temorarily
Franks said:
Well it is my hot water also so I have some sealer coming that I am going to put in to see if it will seal the leak and start getting quotes for replacement. I should be able to hold until the summer.
I agree with Bkins. I don't care what kinda warranty or who from. I stay away from it. I've found that if you buy economical (used, with no warranty) you'll save down the road. Okay, once in while you'll get stuck. but at the end of the year you'll come out ahead. Manufacturers have to cover warranty cost of a new unit with at time of sale. They then try to weasel out of the warranty. That's the busines plan. I had to eat some things that just didn't pan out, but, I still feel I've come out ahead of most of my purchases and haven't had to waste time fighting "warranty issues". bjr23
Gee, I found this website & was happy I finally found someone talking about the Harman PF100....I got one last year with the thought of burning a bag a day & having a nice warm house that I could leave for a weekend if I wanted to. Not so. My house last year wouldn't go above 62 unless it was at least 48 outside. I had the dealer out several times - even had the owner out & all they could tell me was there was no way I could be burning thru 4 bags a day. Ok, so then why was I going to them to buy a ton of pellets almost every other weekend?
I was hoping someone could give me some suggestions on what I can do to correct this issue. Sounds like I need to go back to wood. Now how do I find a sucker to buy mine? I went to pellets after doing what I thought was enough research - wish I would have checked here!! Don't have the cash to install a stainless chimney - still have the hotblast furnace though. I had a fire where a patch behind the wall failed & a spark took out part of the wall & roof. I used insurance money to get the Harman & 4" piping.
What settings are best to get a decent burn time & a little heat? I'll take any & all suggestions!
I was hoping someone could give me some suggestions on what I can do to correct this issue. Sounds like I need to go back to wood. Now how do I find a sucker to buy mine? I went to pellets after doing what I thought was enough research - wish I would have checked here!! Don't have the cash to install a stainless chimney - still have the hotblast furnace though. I had a fire where a patch behind the wall failed & a spark took out part of the wall & roof. I used insurance money to get the Harman & 4" piping.
What settings are best to get a decent burn time & a little heat? I'll take any & all suggestions!
Kat, better to start a new thread or find one more similar to your exact situation...
but, in general,
if you are burning the pellets - 3-4 lbs per hour, then you are getting the heat. What happens with the heat after it comes out of the stove is another story (heat loss, etc.)......
It may be that you have to go back to wood - still, 4 bags a day is 7 lbs per hour, which will provide about 35,000 plus BTU out....should do the job better than you say.
but, in general,
if you are burning the pellets - 3-4 lbs per hour, then you are getting the heat. What happens with the heat after it comes out of the stove is another story (heat loss, etc.)......
It may be that you have to go back to wood - still, 4 bags a day is 7 lbs per hour, which will provide about 35,000 plus BTU out....should do the job better than you say.
MountainStoveGuy said:
First of all, if the dealer sold the stove to a customer 45 minutes away then it's his problem, not the closest dealer. In our area this will be a common scenario since we have several dealerships closest to the metro area but our customers live in areas that are sparsely populated. There may be another dealer technically "closer" but we are still authorized to sell to anyone in our market area. We choose if we want to service folks who are outside of our normal "area". Usually the customer has already tried the dealership closer to them with poor results. We negotiate our service fees ahead of time with these customers so they know what to expect. But we still are on the hook for warranty claims, no matter how far we have to travel.
To be fair, MSG, we really do not know what this "problem" is that BXpellet speaks of. I plainly tell my customers that I will not charge them a service fee if there is a valid warranty claim but that they will be charged if it is not a warranty issue. I also explain to them the limits of their warranty and that it is at our discretion if a fee has to be collected to help cover travel costs not covered by the manufacturer. I give them the option to bring the stove to our shop if they do not want to pay a travel fee.
Finally, the "profit" on the stove sale is not simply to enrich the shop owner. In my business a 30% margin does not even cover expenses. This is one of the problems I am having in my own market is the deeply discounted prices available on similar or even the same product I sell. I cannot stay in business at a 30% margin. When I sell to a customer who knows he could have bought the same unit for 10% or 15% less I had better make sure I take care of that customer. And I do. But the problem is that the number of customers who are willing to pay for that extra level of service are fewer and I am in fear of losing my ability to keep the same level of customer service. Other dealerships (usually hardware stores or rental equipment, or lawn mower shops, etc.) who discount the products to get the sale hurt us all. If they could only learn to charge more and then give good service we would all be a lot better off. But to suggest that charging for service is "poor customer service" is off the mark. The customer should be charged for good service when appropriate and customers should not expect their dealer to give good service for no charge. If I end up selling my products at a 30% margin I will be announcing the end of my "good" service and begin charging hourly rates for "adequate service" as needed. I hope I can avoid that. That type of business has much less appeal to me.
Consumers should not be concerned about the "profit" made off the sale of their stove. They should be concerned if this "profit" is not being used properly. From what I can tell many consumers would pay more if they could be assured of better customer service. What many dealerships are missing is the business sense needed to charge higher prices and provide excellent customer service. Excellent customer service costs a lot of money. Dealerships should not assume that consumers are not willing to pay for it. What consumers object to is paying more for no better service. There a are lot of good dealers all over the country. You don't hear as much about them because fewer people are inclined to write about how wonderful their dealer is. It's much more fun to tell everyone when you have a bad experience. But I do see a lot of room for improvement for dealerships. Perhaps if the manufacturers started rewarding quality over quantity we would get better dealerships all over. An ombudsmen for end consumers would probably help. This situation with Harman is completely unnecessary. If they just talked to their end users it could all be avoided.
Well it is getting cold and still don't have my stove back. >:-(
Talked to the guy doing the repair and he said he just received the parts, the dealer had the parts in since Nov 20th. I also found out that the service guy charges $120 hr way to much in my opinion, he said that since it is in the shop being done that he will most likely do the shop rate. He has not got back to me yet on the price so I am not sure what I am going to owe. I am still never going to recommend a Harman stove to anyone in my area, if they don't have service staff on hand then why pay the premium for the stove.
Talked to the guy doing the repair and he said he just received the parts, the dealer had the parts in since Nov 20th. I also found out that the service guy charges $120 hr way to much in my opinion, he said that since it is in the shop being done that he will most likely do the shop rate. He has not got back to me yet on the price so I am not sure what I am going to owe. I am still never going to recommend a Harman stove to anyone in my area, if they don't have service staff on hand then why pay the premium for the stove.
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