Lists, I have discovered a very unfortunate situation with VDO gauges and
wanted to send this heads up for any who might be interested. I bought a
set of VDO vision gauges about a year an a half ago for my V8. At the time
they were just being released and the only source I could find for them was
to special order them from NAPA. Recently I discovered that my tach is
defective. I talked to VDO tech support and they said I had a two year
warrantee and that I should take it back to my point of purchase for a
replacement.
Here's the kicker. VDO does not deal with consumers, distributors only.
They extend a two year warrantee to their distributors and their
distributors may extend as much of that warrantee to their retailers, and
thus consumers as they care too. As you could probably guess I wouldn't
have found any of this out if NAPA gave the whole two years. In reality,
NAPA's distributor Balkamp extends one year; so while my tach should be
under warrantee, it is not.
I have called around and it seems split between offering one and two years
warrantee, however those that offer two years are not able (or is that
willing?) to warrantee a tach that was not purchased from them as the whole
warrantee system is based off of the original invoice number. I have been
told that if VDO will issue a return authorization to someone that offers
the two year warrantee then they will cover the tach, however since VDO does
not deal with consumers directly they will not give a RA.
The official way the process works is that the retailer replaces the tach
under original invoice number, they send it to the distributor who
reimburses the retailer referencing the original invoice. The distributor
then sends the tach to VDO who reimburses the distributor for the tach still
based on the original invoice number. Seems awfully convoluted but I can't
find anyone who is willing to bend on this policy.
Just wanted to send this heads up to everyone. Just because the
manufacturer offers a warrantee doesn't mean you will get it.
James Nazarian
71 MGB Tourer
71 MGBGT V8
85 Dodge Ram
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