<p>A buyer of a new car is often offered a various selection of warranties. A warranty can e.g. exist in the form of an extended new car warranty. However, some manufacturers demand that the car has to be serviced by an authorised repairer for the validity of an extended warranty. In the thesis I analyse whether such a contractual term is incompatible with today’s legislation and I argue for when such a term is to be seen as unfair. Contractual terms can, according to Swedish legislation, be forbidden if they are unfair to consumers or to the competitors of the one who states the terms. The term stipulating that a car has to be serviced by an authorised repairer for the continued validity of an extended warranty must also be investigated bearing in mind the block exemption for the car sector, regulation nr 1400/2002. Further, some comparison with Swedish and foreign practise within the subject is made. Briefly, my conclusion is that terms stipulating that a car has to be serviced by an authorised repairer for the continued validity of an extended warranty should be forbidden. The term has a negative effect on the competition within the after-sales market since independent repairers are not given the same possibilities to enter into competition. Furthermore, the term is unfair to the consumers since an independent repairer by means of regulation nr 1400/2002 has the same possibilities and rights to acquire with an authorised repairer equivalent knowledge of how to service a car. Owing to this, the service must be regarded as being of the same quality if performed by an independent repairer.</p>

A buyer of a new car is often offered a various selection of warranties. A warranty can e.g. exist in the form of an extended new car warranty. However, some manufacturers demand that the car has to be serviced by an authorised repairer for the validity of an extended warranty. In the thesis I analyse whether such a contractual term is incompatible with today’s legislation and I argue for when such a term is to be seen as unfair. Contractual terms can, according to Swedish legislation, be forbidden if they are unfair to consumers or to the competitors of the one who states the terms. The term stipulating that a car has to be serviced by an authorised repairer for the continued validity of an extended warranty must also be investigated bearing in mind the block exemption for the car sector, regulation nr 1400/2002. Further, some comparison with Swedish and foreign practise within the subject is made. Briefly, my conclusion is that terms stipulating that a car has to be serviced by an authorised repairer for the continued validity of an extended warranty should be forbidden. The term has a negative effect on the competition within the after-sales market since independent repairers are not given the same possibilities to enter into competition. Furthermore, the term is unfair to the consumers since an independent repairer by means of regulation nr 1400/2002 has the same possibilities and rights to acquire with an authorised repairer equivalent knowledge of how to service a car. Owing to this, the service must be regarded as being of the same quality if performed by an independent repairer.

Univ., Diss.--Köln, 2005. / Literaturverz. S. XXV - LIV.

As barreiras geográficas já não são impeditivo para a competitividade, e as organizações enfrentam uma competição cada vez mais desafiadora. As propostas de soluções tradicionais, como as iniciativas de melhoria contínua de qualidade de seus produtos e de melhoria de processos, já não são suficientes para enfrentar os novos desafios. A pesquisa de satisfação de clientes tem se apresentado como uma ferramenta importante na área de marketing, visando dar subsídios para que as organizações possam reavaliar continuamente seus produtos, suas estratégias e sua atuação de mercado, não deixando de monitorar a reação dos concorrentes. Este trabalho busca uma reflexão sobre o impacto direto no índice de satisfação dos clientes no âmbito nacional, quando estes têm seu automóvel, recém-adquirido, envolvido com problemas de defeito de fabricação, sendo necessário o uso das garantias oferecidas pelo fabricante ou, em casos mais extremos, a realização de recall ou campanhas de oficina, para sanar tais defeitos. Adotou-se a metodologia de pesquisa documental como instrumento para o desenvolvimento desta pesquisa, utilizando-se os documentos existentes na empresa analisada. Após estudo detalhado das verbalizações (relato das informações feitas pelos clientes pesquisados), reclamações, relatórios, material de apoio e resultados, conclui-se que existe relação direta entre os indicadores no período verificado, sendo que o resultado de um indicador afeta diretamente o outro. Tendo em vista o aumento da concorrência e a não alteração na metodologia ao longo dos últimos anos, foi proposto nova sistemática para para cálculo do indicador de satisfação. / The geographic barriers are not impeditive for competitiveness anymore, and the companies face competitions more and more challenging. The proposals of traditional solutions, as the initiatives of continuous quality improvement on products besides procedure improvement are not enough to face the new challenges anymore. The customer satisfaction survey is presented as a very important tool in marketing, providing subsidies in order to permit a continuous reevaluation of the products, the strategies and the performance of a company in the market, also monitoring the competitors reaction. This article aims a reflection about the direct impact on the indexes of customers satisfaction, in national scope, when they have their just-acquired automobile involved in manufacturing defects issues, being necessary the use of the guarantees offered by the manufacturer and, in extreme cases, recall or factory campaigns to eliminate such defects. The methodology of documental research was adopted as an instrument for the development of this research, using the existent documents of the analyzed company. After a detailed study of the verbalizations (information given by researched customers), such as claims, reports, support material and results, it has been concluded that there is a direct relation in the indexes of the verified period since the result of one indicator affects the other directly. Thus, in sight of the competition increase and the non-modification in the methodology along last years, it was proposed a new systematic to calculate the satisfaction indicator.

Univ., Diss.--Köln, 2006. / Literaturverz. S. XIX - XLII.

There is a major trend that manufacturers sell their services to customers instead of selling their products. These services can be provided through leasing, warranty, or maintenance outsourcing. In this dissertation, we have studied leasing and maintenance outsourcing services from different aspects of reliability-based maintenance, game-theoretic decision making, and inventory and supply chain management. We have studied how different interactions and relationships between the manufacturer and customer in service contracting affect the decisions they make and the profits they gain. The methods used to tackle the related decision-making processes are stochastic modeling, non-convex optimization, game-theoretical framework, and simulation. For equipment leasing, two non-cooperative game-theoretic models and a cooperative model have been developed to describe the relationships between the manufacturer (lessor) and customer (lessee). Through the lease contracts, the lessor decides on the maintenance policy of the leased equipment, and the lessee decides on the lease period and usage rate. In the non-cooperative simultaneous move scenario, the lessee and the lessor act simultaneously and independently to make their decisions. In the leader-follower non- cooperative contract, the lessor is the leader who specifies the maintenance policy first, and the lessee, as the follower, decides on the lease period and usage rate accordingly. We have next determined the total maximum profit and shown that the Nash and Stackelberg equilibria are different from the total maximum solution. As a result, the players can increase their total profit by cooperation. We have implemented the cooperative solution as an equilibrium through a nonlinear transfer-payment contract. Our results illustrate that cooperation can be regarded as a value-added strategy in establishing such lease contracts. Besides, our numerical results show that although cooperation always increases the total profit of the players, the magnitude of increase is case specific. When the lease price is low or the revenue is high, the profits in the non-cooperative contracts will be close to the cooperative alternative, while the cooperation may increase the total profit significantly in other cases. For maintenance outsourcing, we have studied different bargaining scenarios in determining the contract terms. First, we have considered the Nash bargaining solution to compute the bargaining profit of players. Next, we have considered the case where players pose threat against each other in order to increase their own bargaining position. We have determined the optimal threat strategy for each player. Our result shows that although such threatening decreases the efficiency of the contract, it can dramatically increase the profit of the player with a higher bargaining position. We have finally provided a solution to the problem of how the service agent and customer can cooperate and negotiate on the price. We have determined the discounted price as a result of negotiation. Indeed, the discounted price induces the customer to choose the total maximum maintenance policy. Our numerical examples illustrate the feasibility of using such a price-discount contract in maintenance service outsourcing. Moreover, one can see that both the customer and agent can benefit from this price-discount contract.

Lengvųjų automobilių negendamumo užtikrinimas garantiniu laikotarpiu viena iš priemonių didinančių konkurencingumą. Nepaisant sukuriamų naujų gamybos technologijų, garantiniu laikotarpiu atsiranda lengvųjų automobilių gedimų. Siekiant įgyvendinti visavertį vartotojų aptarnavimą būtina užtikrinti, kad garantiniu laikotarpiu gedimai būtų šalinami kaip įmanoma greičiau. Tam pasiekti būtina, kad pardavėjai savo sandėliuose turėtų optimalų kiekį atsarginių detalių bei žinodami gedimų tikimybės priklausomybę nuo ridos galėtų atlikti prevencinius darbus gedimams išvengti. Tikimąsi, kad nustačius lengvųjų automobilių gendamumą garantiniu laikotarpiu būtų lengviau optimizuoti garantinio aptarnavimo procesą. Eksperimentinių tyrimų tikslas yra nustatyti lengvųjų automobilių gendamumą garantiniu laikotarpiu. UAB „Sostena“ atliktų tyrimų duomenimis „Renault“ markės lengvųjų automobilių gedimų įvyksta per visą garantinį laikotarpį. Nepatikimiausia garantiniu laikotarpiu yra automobilių važiuoklė. Didžiausia tikimybė, kad automobilio važiuoklės sistemoje bus pastebėta gedimų, yra automobiliui nuvažiavus 40–50 tūkst. kilometrų. Automobilį eksploatuojant iki 10 tūkst. kilometrų tikimybė, kad atsiras gedimų, yra mažiausia. Tyrimais nustatyta, kad beveik penkis kartus rečiau nei važiuoklė yra pažeidžiami automobilių varikliai, elektros bei aušinimo sistemos. / Assurance of reliability in passenger cars during the warranty period is one of the means increasing competitiveness. Although novel manufacturing technologies have been designed recently, there are some possible flaws in passenger cars that can be encountered during the warranty period. Seeking to implement a complete customer attendance it has to be made sure that during the warranty period all the faults should be mended as soon as possible. To attain this objective, first of all, it is necessary that all dealers have an optimum stock of spare parts in their warehouses and secondly, actions designed to prevent faults and failures have to be implemented based on the statistical likelihood for the most common failures to occur. It is hoped that it would be easier to optimize a process of after-sales service if a failure of passenger cars during the warranty period is established. The purpose of the experimental study is to determine a fault/flaw of passenger cars during the warranty period. The findings of research done by Ltd. “Sostena” suggest that failures of “Renault“ passenger cars occur during the whole period of warranty. Chassis was found to be the most unreliable part during the warranty period. The research evidence also indicates that the highest likelihood for the flaws to be noticed in a chassis is after a car has done from 40 to 50 thousand kilometres. The least probability for the flaws to manifest themselves was determined before a passenger car had done 10... [to full text]

Tse Yee Kit. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-58). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction / Chapter 1.1 --- Geometric Process and Maintenance Problem --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Warranty Problem --- p.5 / Chapter 1.3 --- An Outline of the Thesis --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Multistate Deteriorative System / Chapter 2.1 --- The Multistate Model --- p.10 / Chapter 2.2 --- Long-run Average Cost Per Unit Time --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Optimal Policy N* --- p.18 / Chapter 2.4 --- The Monotonicity of the Optimal Policy --- p.21 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Extended Warranty Model / Chapter 3.1 --- The Extended Warranty Model --- p.30 / Chapter 3.2 --- "The Expected Discounted Cost Over the Lifetime Cycle [0,T]" --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Consumer's Discounted Cost --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Manufacturer's Discounted Cost --- p.37 / Chapter 3.3 --- The Exponential Distribution Case --- p.40 / Chapter 3.4 --- Numerical Examples --- p.51 / Bibliography --- p.55

by Kit-ching To. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-67). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Overview --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Geometric Process Model --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Some Properties of Geometric Process --- p.7 / Chapter 2.3 --- Geometric Process Model for the Exponential Distribution --- p.13 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Analysis of Warranty Policy by a Geometric Process Model --- p.16 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.16 / Chapter 3.2 --- Consumer's Policy --- p.17 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- N-Repair Warranty Policy --- p.19 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- n-Renewal Warranty Policy --- p.23 / Chapter 3.2.2.1 --- Modified n-Renewal Warranty Policy --- p.25 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- Optimal Policy to Consumer --- p.29 / Chapter 3.3 --- Manufacturer's Policy --- p.33 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Optimal Policy to Manufacturer --- p.36 / Chapter 3.4 --- Numerical Examples --- p.38 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Analysis of a Repairable M/M/l Queueing System by a Geometric Process Model --- p.45 / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.45 / Chapter 4.2 --- Model --- p.46 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Some Reliability Indices --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2.1.1 --- Availability --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2.1.2 --- Rate of Occurrence of Failures (ROCOF) --- p.54 / Chapter 4.3 --- Numerical Method --- p.56 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Results --- p.58 / Bibliography --- p.64

The main purpose of this thesis is concise description of consumer protection law in Czech republic and its comparison with the legislation in United States of America in selected legal question - warranty. In the first part of the thesis there are defined the general issues related to the consumer protection law and briefly described the development of consumer protection law not only in Czech republic, but also abroad and one part of the thesis is also dedicated to the sources of current czech consumer protection law. Next part is dealing with the impacts of new amendments to the law of consumer protection law. In the last, comparative part, we are comparing selected legal issue of warranty in czech and United States of America legal system.