Don't you guys take me wrong , I'm a pleasant enough fellow, I just don't take crap from a guy that I am going to be paying. The fact that I am paying him means I am his boss, this plus the fact that if you are a dealer you have some responsibilities -- if you don't want them, stop being a dealer.
The guy you're paying? I thought we were talking about warranty work?
There's a big difference between the two, especially when any measure of diagnostic work is contemplated in the case of the warranty repair. A guy with a busy shop doesn't need the aggrivation of warranty work when there is other work waiting to be handled. The more time I spend hanging out with my saw shop's owner the more sympathy I have for the margins on machines, parts and billable service work (i.e. usually an amount of time less than the actual time required to diagnose and troubleshoot and repair) that they make.
EDIT: I cannot imagine how a saw shop would even be able to stay in business without primarily deriving sales and service from bulk orders from municipalities and tree service companies - 40 MS200t and 20 MS361 at one shot, for example. It takes a lot of MS180 homeowner buyers to equal an order like that. The amount of overhead that a good saw shop has for its facilities, parts, product, and whatnot, it is a daunting undertaking! I can't blame someone for not wanting to put a tech on a warranty project that may end up taking an hour but only pay $35+parts (to say nothing for waiting for reimbursement).
As for paid work, now that's another matter. You should not be given BS or the runaround on paid work, ever. You know, I'd love to see a graduated pricing scale for paid work, with prompt next-day service being billed at a higher rate than next-week service. I know that there have been instances where I've needed/wanted something worked on, whether OPE or a car or whatever, and would gladly pay a higher rate for faster service. I'm already doing it anyway, like slipping the service department guy a fifty to see that my car gets finished faster, so why not capitalize on this sentiment and turn it into profits for the business?